Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are recognized as emerging pollutants in water resources. Various treatment options have been investigated for the removal of pharmaceuticals that include both conventional (e.g., biodegradation, adsorption, activated sludge) and advanced (e.g., membrane, microfiltration, ozonation) processes. This article reviews literature for adsorptive removal of pharmaceuticals from water sources. Adsorbents from various origins were reviewed for their capacity to remove pharmaceuticals from water. These adsorbents include carbonaceous materials, clay minerals, siliceous adsorbents, and polymeric materials. The adsorption capacity of adsorbents to adsorb pharmaceuticals from water is discussed in this study. The review discusses the mechanism for adsorption of pharmaceuticals onto adsorbents as well. Finally, effectiveness of processing parameters during adsorption processes is presented.

Torrefaction is a thermochemical pre-treatment process for upgrading the properties of biomass to resemble those of fossil fuels such as coal. Biomass properties of particular interest are chemical composition, physical property and combustion characteristics. In this work, torrefaction of beech wood and miscanthus (sinensis) was carried out to study the influence of torrefaction temperature (240–300 °C) and residence time (15–150 min) on the aforementioned properties of the biomass. Results of the study revealed that torrefaction temperature has a significant influence on mass and energy yields, whereas the influence of the residence time becomes more apparent for the higher torrefaction temperatures (>280 °C). Torrefied miscanthus resulted in higher energy densification compared to beech wood for a residence time of 30 min. A significant improvement in grindability of the torrefied beech wood was obtained even for lightly torrefied beech wood (at 280 °C and 15 min of residence time). Observation from the combustion study showed that the ignition temperature is slightly affected by the torrefaction temperature. As a whole, the torrefaction temperature determines the characteristics of the torrefied fuel compared to other process parameters like residence time. Furthermore, with optimal process conditions, torrefaction produces a solid fuel with combustion reactivity and porosity comparable to raw biomass, whereas grindability and heating value are comparable to low quality coal.

Share of renewable energy targets and global pollutant emissions are driving the increased utilization of CO₂ neutral biomass. Effect of operating conditions like solid circulation rate, Ca/S molar ratio, and fluidizing velocity on emissions of NOx, SO₂, and CO for burning different blends of wheat straw and Salt Range coal under fast fluidized bed conditions in a pilot scale test facility are reported in this study. Effect of bed temperature, excess air ratio, and secondary to primary air ratio on the emissions has already been published in the journal Combustion Science and Technology. In this study emissions of NOx, SO₂, and CO were found to decrease with the increased wheat straw ratio and solid circulation rate. SO₂ and NOx emissions were observed to decrease with the decrease in fluidizing gas velocity while tradeoff relationship was found between the NOx and CO emissions with the increase in Ca/S molar ratio.

A high pressure oxydesulphurisation technique was investigated to reduce sulphur content, especially at ambient temperature. Prince of Wales coal was chosen for this study. The focus of the study was on the reduction of both pyritic and organic sulphur. The effects of pressure, coal slurry concentration, pH and KOH concentration in a fixed time interval on sulphur removal were studied with a series of experimental runs at ambient temperature. Heating value recovery was found to be increased with decreased pressure and with increased coal slurry concentration. It was found that sulphur removal was enhanced with an increase in pressure, with a more significant effect on the organic sulphur. With increase in the coal slurry concentration reduction, sulphur was found to be decreased.

This study shows the potential of modified Rhizopus arrhizus (MRA) for the removal of Zn(II) in water and to investigate the effect of various parameters such as temperature, initial pH, initial concentration, and co-ions. Additionally, kinetic studies and adsorption isotherms have been studied in order to investigate the mechanism of the biosorption process. The results revealed that biosorption on MRA could substantially remove the Zn(II) in water. The biosorption have been found to be pH dependent. The uptake of Zn(II) on MRA increased with the increase in pH. The effect of initial concentration was studied by varying it from concentration 2 to 100 mg/l. The results indicated that the uptake of Zn(II) increases with the increase in initial concentration. The temperature variation (5–40°C) showed Zn(II) uptake on MRA follows an increasing trend. The process was found to be independent of the presence of co-ions. The kinetics studies showed that the uptake of Zn(II) on MRA follows pseudo-second-order kinetics. Results further revealed that the adsorption of Zn(II) on MRA fitted best on the Freundlich isotherm model (R² = 0.998). Therefore, it is concluded that MRA is an affective biosorbent for the removal of Zn(II) in water.