European solid waste incinerator plants still primarily use grate furnace technology, although circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology is steadily expanding. Therefore, few investigations have reported on the environmental assessment of fly ash from fluidized incinerators. This research project aims to integrate information on fly ash derived from the combustion of municipal solid waste (FA1) and biomass (FA2) in fluidized bed incinerator facilities. Fly ash samples were comparatively analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to study the mineralogy, morphology, total heavy metal content, and leaching behavior, respectively. The analysis revealed that the two types of fly ash differ in their characteristics and leaching behavior. The concentration of most of the heavy metals in both is low compared to the literature values, but higher than the regulatory limits for use as a soil conditioner, whereas the high contents of Fe, Cu, and Al suggest good potential for metal recovery. The leaching ability of most elements is within the inert waste category, except for Hg, which is slightly above the non-hazardous waste limit.

The mechanism of ethylene with vinyl ether (VE, CH₂=CHOEt) copolymerization catalyzed by phosphine-sulfonate palladium complex (A) was investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. On achieving an agreement between theory and experiment, it is found that the favorable 1,2-selective insertion of VE into the complex A originates from stronger hydrogen interaction between the oxygen atom of VE and the ancillary ligand of catalyst A. Additionally, VE insertion is easier into the ethylene pre-inserted intermediate than that into the catalyst to form the resultant copolymers with the major units of OEt in chain and minor units of OEt at the chain end. The effect of β-OEt and β-H elimination was explored to elucidate chain termination and the molecular weight of copolymers. Furthermore, a family of cationic catalysts has been demonstrated to copolymerize ethylene with VE along with our modified cationic complex B with higher incorporation of VE and reactivity in comparison with complex A, which was modelled computationally by increasing the strong interactions between the catalyst and monomer moiety. Other than VE, the activity of cationic complex B for copolymerization of vinyl chloride and methacrylate is also computed successfully.

A class of intractable bio accumulative halogenated compounds polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) was studied. Specifically, PBDEs and dechloran plus (DP) contamination in wheat and the assaulted environment—agricultural soil and dust—from metropolitan cities of Pakistan was the focus. The exposure of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) to humans, their probable toxicological impact on health, source apportionment, and the spatial tendency of BFRs were studied. Chromatographic analysis was performed, and concentrations (ng g⁻¹) of ΣPBDE and ΣDP in soil, dust, and cereal crops were estimated in a range from 0.63 to 31.70 n.d. to 6.32 and n.d. to 3.47, respectively, and 0.11 to 7.05, n.d. to 4.56 and 0.05 to 4.95, respectively. Data analysis of source apportionment reflected that the existence of solid and e-waste sites, long-range transport, urban and industrial fraction can be the potential source of PBDE and DP pollution. Moreover, potential hazardous risks to human health across the study area via the dietary intake of cereal foods were deemed trifling, and were gauged on the basis of existing toxicological data.

In this study, a low-cost, efficient, and environmentally friendly anaerobic sludge process for the treatment of industrial beverage wastewater was investigated to analyze the effect of bacteria growth on the degradation of organic matter (chemical oxygen demand). Additionally, the mechanism, interactions between the microbe’s growth, and operating conditions of an anaerobic batch reactor along with the wastewater treatment efficiency were evaluated via microbial kinetics. The kinetic coefficients based on chemical oxygen demand (COD) by conventional techniques such as kinetic coefficients growth yield (0.46 mg VSS/mg COD), saturation coefficient (3500 mg/L COD), the maximum rate of substrate utilization per unit mass of biomass (0.0066 mg/L COD), growth rate by Monod equation, M (0.03833 L/h), and maximum growth rate, μm (0.03672 L/h) were calculated. The results show a higher rate of substrate degradation (0.54 day⁻¹) due to the high COD removal efficiency (CRE) of 99.31% during 13 days that was achieved, which can be attributed to the active involvement of anaerobic microbes in the process of degradation. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the current study can be used as an effective way to analyze the industrial beverage wastewater at commercial levels.