1.    PhD dissertation: Treatment of wastewater using natural systems

Scope & Objectives: Delineation of both the areas of concern for management of wastewaters in India including management of sewage and sullage as well as pollution caused by disposal of industrial wastewaters into watercourses.  The specific activities involved in the research were

·      Assessment of sewage treatment plants based on natural systems in India

o Visits to the representative STPs based on natural systems including waste stabilization ponds, duckweed ponds, constructed wetlands, and sewage-fed-aquaculture. 

o Primary and secondary data collection about their respective performance. 

·      Development of a rational procedure for design of waste stabilization ponds; and

o Estimation of oxygen mass transfer coefficient in simulated pond, and

o Development of a stepwise procedure for design of waste stabilization ponds. 

·      Development of natural treatment systems for remediation of heavy metal pollution

o Selection of candidate plant and metal for blastofiltration (Sunflower, and Sr (II), respectively)

o Equilibrium and kinetic studies on blastofiltration of heavy metals

2.     Course Work: Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Systems Modeling; Environmental Microbiology and Ecology; Municipal Engineering; Physico-Chemical Processes; Biological Processes; Air Pollution Fundamentals; Industrial Wastewater Management and Reuse; and Environmental Change and Sustainable Development.

3.    Academic Projects:

1.     “Production of Gray Water Using Modular Sewage Treatment System”: In this “Mini-Project”, an attempt was made to propose a modular system for reclamation of sewage that is a hybrid of the conventional activated sludge and submerged aerobic attached growth systems. The specific objective of this laboratory study were:

§  bench scale reclamation of IITB-sewage in a laboratory batch reactor;

§  design of modular system suitable for one household; and

§  development of about 200L batch reactor for treatment of sewage. 

2.     “Redesign of an Existing Refinery Wastewater Treatment Plant” : A large-scale industry has planned for capacity expansion from the present production capacity leading to a cumulative added wastewater flow of 75m³/hrs. The industry has a full scale ETP treating the combined wastewater generated from the different sections of the process plant. Therefore, redesign exercise was carried out for the assimilation of the added flow and the opportunities for reuse and recycle of treated wastewater were suggested with due emphasis to reuse as cooling tower makeup.

4.    Course Seminars:

§  Science and technology of constructed wetlands, 

§  Technologies for treatment of Absorbable Organic Halogens (AOXs) in wastewater
 

1.    Masters thesis: Fly ash utilization in agriculture

This project was executed at the Grasline power plant, Grasim Industries Limited, Harihar, Karnataka, India.  The objective of the research was to investigate potential of fly ash application in agriculture as well as in agro-forestry.  The candidate plants selected for the research were Eucalyptus (an agro-forestry plant and the raw material of the host industry) and tomato (an agricultural produce near fly ash dump sites in the near-by villages). 

2.    Academic Projects & Other Assignments:

§  “Dewas as environmental hot spot for water – assessment and management scenario" :
This project was undertaken as a part of the course works in the M. Sc. (Tech.) programme at Institute of Environment Management and Plant Sciences, Vikram University, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India. 

§  Field work : Current status of Dewas Industrial Area (M.P).

§  Survey:  "Tourism and its impact on society of Kushinagar " Gorakhpur (U.P.)

§  Academic visit cum library Assignment: [a] Industrial Toxicology Research Centre and [b] National Botanical Research Institute (both in Lucknow, U.P.) entitled "Role of new biological system technology in improvement of existing wastewater treatment plants.”

§  Course Seminars:

§  Environmental Auditing,

§  Dose-response relationship and assessment,

§  Phytoremediation, 

§  ISO 14001 for small and medium scale enterprises; and

§  Global change and terrestrial ecosystem