The Nainital Lake, situated in the central Himalayas of India, is an important water body and a major tourist spot. This study aims to identify factors or processes that determine the water quality of the lake. For this purpose, water samples from two different points were collected&#x2014;highly polluted (Mallital) and least polluted (Tallital)&#x2014;to represent the actual level of pollution in the lake in four different seasons (January, April, July, and October). The collected samples were analyzed for different physical and chemical parameters. In order to assess the state of the lake&#x2019;s water quality, the samples were compared with the standard water quality values. Turbidity, electrical conductivity, total alkalinity, and heavy metal (lead, iron, and copper) concentration were found to be above the desirable limit of the prescribed national and international standards in all four seasons at both Mallital and Tallital. Reasons affecting the water quality were found to be natural (thermal stratification and lead-bearing rocks) and anthropogenic (domestic sewage, runoff, and illegal construction activities in the vicinity of lake). Various lake restoration alternatives/interventions have been suggested that can lead to an improvement in the lake&#x2019;s water quality, such as afforestation, phytoremediation, and sediment basin.

Madhuben Sharma

Water Quality Assessment of the Central Himalayan Lake, Nainital

Soft computing techniques are very much needed to design the environmental related systems these days. Soft computing (SC) is a set of computational methods that attempt to determine satisfactory approximate solutions to find a model for real-world problems. Techniques such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, and genetic algorithms can be used in solving complex environmental problems. Self-organizing feature map (SOFM) model is proposed in monitoring and collecting of the data that are real time and static datasets acquired through pollution monitoring sensors and stations in the distilleries. In the environmental monitoring systems the ultimate requirement is to establish controls for the sensor based data acquisition systems and needs interactive and dynamic reporting services. SOFM techniques are used for data analysis and processing. The processed data is used for control system which even feeds to the treatment systems. Cocos nucifera activated carbon commonly known as coconut shell activated carbon (CSC) was utilized for the treatment of distillery spent wash. Batch and column studies were done to investigate the kinetics and effect of operating parameter on the rate of adsorption. Since the quantum of spent water generated from the sugar industry allied distillery units is huge, this low cost adsorbent is found to be an attractive economic option. Equilibrium adsorption date was generated to plot Langmuir and Tempkin adsorption isotherm. The investigation reveals that though with lower adsorption capacities CSC seems to be technically feasible solution for treating sugar distillery spent. Efforts are made in this paper to build informatics for derived activated carbon for solving the problem of treatment of distillery spent wash. Capsule. Coconut shell derived activated carbon was synthesized, characterized, and successfully employed as a low cost adsorbent for treatment of distillery spent wash.

N. B. Raut

Dinesh Kumar Saini

G. B. Shinde

Environmental Informatics and Soft Computing Paradigm: Processing  of Cocos Nucifera Shell Derived Activated Carbon for Treatment of Distillery Spent Wash&#x2014;A Solution to Environmental Issue

Central nervous system (CNS) of gastropods is extensively studied for its pathology and immunocytology; there is scanty information on histochemical alterations in neuronal cells due to heavy metal. This study was designed to investigate histochemical alterations in cerebral neurons of freshwater snail Bellamya bengalensis after intoxication with mercuric chloride (HgCl2) and zinc chloride (ZnCl2). As per chemical components cerebral ganglia of Bellamya bengalensis showed three different zones, namely, periganglionic connective tissue sheath, interperikaryonal space, and neuropil. After intoxication, increased acidic content in extracellular matrix (ECM) of neuronal cells was found. These alterations were directly proportional to time of exposure period. From results, HgCl2 proved its highly toxic nature over chemical composition of cerebral neuronal cells of freshwater snail Bellamya bengalensis compared to ZnCl2 intoxication.

Sunil Londhe

Nitin Kamble

Mucin Reactivity after Acute Exposure to Mercury and Zinc Chloride in Neurocytes of Freshwater Snail Bellamya bengalensis: A Histochemical Study

Dechlorination of lindane was carried out in a two-phase reaction. In first phase Devarda&#x2019;s alloy and sodium borohydride were used in aqueous/ethanol reaction media. The reaction duration and temperature were optimized. In first phase higher dechlorination (78&#x25;) was achieved at 80&#xb0;C with 40-minute reaction time and the products were chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene, and chlorocyclohexane. In second phase, Ca(OH)2 and sulfur were added in reaction media. The reactions conditions like temperature and reaction time were optimized. After 30 minutes, dechlorination was enhanced from 78&#x25; to 94&#x25; and the final products were benzene, phenol, catechol, benzenethiol, cyclohexane, cyclohexanol, and cyclohexanethiol. The results suggested that dechlorination of lindane in first and second phase was carried out through hydrodechlorination and substitution reactions, respectively. The developed method was applied for lindane containing real wastewater and higher dechlorination (91&#x25;) was achieved under optimized reaction conditions.

Abdul Ghaffar

Masaaki Tabata

Azhar Mashiatullah

Two-Phase Dechlorination/Detoxification of Lindane (Hexachlorocyclohexane)

Establishing a treatment process for practical and economic disposal of car wash wastewater has become an urgent environmental concern. Photo-Fenton&#x2019;s process as one of the advanced oxidation processes is a potentially useful oxidation process in treating such wastewater. Lab-scale experiments with UV source, coupled with Fenton&#x2019;s reagent, showed that hydrocarbon oil is degradable through such a process. The feasibility of photo-Fenton&#x2019;s process to treat wastewater from a car wash is investigated in the present study. A factorial design based on the response surface methodology was applied to optimize the photo-Fenton oxidation process conditions using chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction as the target parameter to optimize. The reagent (Fe2+ and H2O2 concentration) and pH are used as the controlling factors to be optimized. Maximal COD reduction (91.7&#x25;) was achieved when wastewater samples were treated at pH 3.5 in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and iron in amounts of 403.9 and 48.4&#x2009;mg/L, respectively.

Maha A. Tony

Zeinab Bedri

Experimental Design of Photo-Fenton Reactions for the Treatment of Car Wash Wastewater Effluents by Response Surface Methodological Analysis

The fluoride sorption ability of a locally available bone char is quantified. Both a synthetic solution and natural groundwater samples from several sites are studied and compared to Indian bone char, which is widely accepted and used successfully in India and elsewhere. The Freundlich and Langmuir sorption isotherms were used to quantify sorption properties. Results show that the Thai bone char is as effective as the Indian bone char for removing fluoride from contaminated water, despite the more rigid physical and social constraints found in rural Thailand. Sorption studies with fluoride-contaminated natural groundwater samples also show that chlorides, nitrates, and sulfates had little effect on the removal of fluoride by the homemade bone char.

Yothin Mutchimadilok

Sunisa Smittakorn

Surat Mongkolnchai-arunya

Deanna Durnford

Defluoridation with Locally Produced Thai Bone Char

The present study is an attempt to investigate oil and grease pollution that may pollute fresh water and influence aquatic environment. Then removal of oil and grease from manufacturing wastewater befall essential but common techniques not enough. Enzyme and adsorption units representing major developed new laboratory were selected to assess the water quality and humiliation prospective of oil and grease from wastewater. Several components and environmental variables that were dissolved oxygen, bacteriology measure, flow rate and adsorption material amount studied to assess the removal performance of oil and grease. The results elucidated significant variations among different tests which influenced microbial necessary role of oxidation declining develop biological treatment process reached to 72&#x25;. The study stressed out natural material (zeolite) that enhanced organic reduction under optimal conditions. These conditions were closer spacing and high length of adsorbing unit that led to increase oil and grease contact period with adsorbent and added to increase performance removal reached to 99&#x25;.

H. S. Abd El-Gawad

Oil and Grease Removal from Industrial Wastewater Using New Utility Approach

A novel Cd(II) ion imprinted interpenetrating polymer network (Cd(II)IIP) was prepared by free radical polymerization using alginic acid and NNMBA-crosslinked polyacrylamide in presence of initiator potassium persulphate. Cd(II)IIP showed higher capacity and selectivity than the nonimprinted polymer (NIP). The sorption capacities of Cd(II)IIP and NIP for Cd(II) ions were 0.886 and 0.663 <svg xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="vertical-align:-2.72116pt;width:77.224998px;" id="M1" height="19.924999" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 77.224998 19.924999" width="77.224998">
	
		
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</svg>, respectively. Kinetics studies showed that the sorption process closely agreed with a pseudosecond-order model. The thermodynamic data suggest that the sorption is a spontaneous endothermic process. Equilibrium experiments showed very good fit with the Langmuir isotherm equation for the monolayer sorption process. Cd(II)IIP exhibited good reusability, and the sorption capacity of Cd(II)IIP was stable within the first 4 cycles without obvious decrease. Also Cd(II)IIP showed almost 100% removal efficiency for Cd(II) ions in real environmental water samples, indicating that Cd(II)IIP could have wide application prospects in Cd(II) ion removal.

Girija Parameswaran

Beena Mathew

Bioremediation of Waste Water Containing Hazardous Cadmium Ion with Ion Imprinted Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

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Advances in Environmental Chemistry