Hafiz Muhammad Shahzad Munir

In the current study, iron-loaded dead leaf ash (Fe-DLA) was used as a novel catalyst in the heterogeneous catalytic ozonation process (HCOP) for textile wastewater containing Reactive Black 5 (RB-5). The research demonstrates a significant boost in removal efficiency, reaching 98.76% with 1.0 g/min O₃ and 0.5 g/L catalyst dose, by investigating key variables such as pH, ozone and catalyst doses, initial concentration, and the presence of scavengers in 1 L wastewater. The addition of tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) reduced RB-5 elimination, indicating the involvement of OH radicals. Catalyst reusability decreased slightly (2.05% in the second run; 4.35% in the third), which was attributed to iron leaching. A comparison of single ozonation (Fe-DLA) adsorption and catalytic ozonation processes (Fe-DLA/O₃) revealed that the combined process improved dye degradation by 25%, with removal rates ranking as Fe-DLA adsorption O₃ Fe-DLA/O₃, with an impressive 76.44% COD removal. These results strongly support RB-5 removal using Fe-DLA and HCOP at a basic pH, highlighting the catalyst’s utility in practical wastewater treatment.

The current research involves the optimum energy densification of two indigenous residual biomass (corncob and rice husk) in Pakistan through torrefaction. Effect of temperature along with time was studied to determine optimum torrefaction conditions for quality densification. The energy yield gain through torrefaction at optimum conditions (250°C, 30 m`in) was 115.32% in corncob that is 19.62% more than rice husk attributed to its more hemicellulose and cellulose content. Therefore, torrefaction favored corncob composition more and energy density was improved from 1.20 to 1.48. Higher quality densification was achieved through torrefaction due to its favorable composition, hence can be utilized as an efficient energy source.