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The main aim of this study is to experimentally investigate the yield of extraction and the presence of wax in the extracted yield from Musaacuminata (banana) biomass based on various functional groups that are present in natural wax. Extraction of natural wax from Musaacuminata (banana) biomass has been done by using the Soxhlet apparatus method in the presence of both polar (ethyl acetate and ethanol) and non-polar (toluene and hexane) solvents. The extracted yield has been found as 3.58% from hexane, 5.16% from toluene, 7.03% from ethyl acetate, and 10.26% from ethanol. The wax was also found in the extracted yield only in the case of nonpolar solvents (toluene and hexane). The novelty of this work is that Musaacuminata (banana) waste biomass has been utilized to recover the natural wax using nonpolar solvents and also compared with that of polar solvents to check the scope of wax extraction using polar solvents. Also, statistical analysis has been performed of the extracted yield using both solvents. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) methods have been used to determine the various hydrocarbon chains present in the extracted yield which is similar to that of natural wax., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. This paper contains no studies with human or animal subjects., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The present study investigated the removal of malachite green dye from aquifers by means of microalgae-derived mesoporous diatom biosilica. The various process variables (dye concentration, pH, and adsorbent dose) influencing the removal of the dye were optimized and their interactive effects on the removal efficiency were explored by response surface methodology. The pH of the solution (pH = 5.26) was found to be the most dominating among other tested variables. The Langmuir isotherm (R 2  = 0.995) best fitted the equilibrium adsorption data with an adsorption capacity of 40.7 mg/g at 323 K and pseudo-second-order model (R 2  = 0.983) best elucidated the rate of dye removal (10.6 mg/g). The underlying mechanism of adsorption was investigated by Weber-Morris and Boyd models and results revealed that the film diffusion governed the overall adsorption process. The theoretical investigations on the dye structure using DFT-based chemical reactivity descriptors indicated that malachite green cations are electrophilic, reactive and possess the ability to accept electrons, and are strongly adsorbed on the surface of diatom biosilica. Also, the Fukui function analysis proposed the favorable adsorption sites available on the adsorbent surface., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Recent developments in biogas upgradation have opened new horizons for its utilisation because upgradation technologies are fully developed and commercially available. However, the implementation of biogas upgrading technologies is not at the scale required to harness the full potential of biogas. Therefore, it is requisite to adopt a multicriteria decision-making methodology (MCDM) to select the most appropriate biogas up-gradation technology as each technology has its own set of benefits and downside. In this multifaceted scenario, the analytical hierarchy Process (AHP), one of the most preferred MCDM methods in rational decision-making, is applied in this study to select the most appropriate biogas upgrading technology. The broader recognition of AHP is its provision for converting multifaceted problems into a simple hierarchy. The research results reveal that biogas up-gradation technologies based on water scrubbing and membrane separation rank first and second among the alternatives. This research will show a direction to researchers and the MCDM community involved in biogas upgradation technologies on a broader scale., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Biomass is present in ample amounts in rural areas, mainly in agriculture residue and animal wastes. Biogas can be produced from rural solid waste, providing affordable clean energy for rural households and a prominent solution to solid waste management. Despite having several benefits of using biogas, the contribution of biogas in rural areas is not as much as expected. Several technical and non-technical barriers are accountable for the slow rate of biogas technology adoption in rural households. Nineteen barriers to household biogas plant adoption in four dimensions of technical, economic, market, and awareness are identified and ranked with the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in the perspective of rural India. The outcome of the barrier dimension reveals that the economic dimension gets the highest weight of (0.350), followed by the market with a weight of (0.322). At the same time, high installation cost with a weight of (0.141) dominates in the category of barriers, followed by competition from freely available fuel with a weight of 0.105). The gap in capital cost and capital subsidy, lack of paying capacity, and lack of easy credit have positioned respectively third, fourth, and fifth in the overall ranking of barriers with weights of (0.094), (0.084), and (0.08). This paper may contribute significantly to creating greater awareness, evaluating numerous barriers, and adopting biogas technology in India more effectively and efficiently., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are an emerging technology for converting organic waste into electricity, thus providing potential solution to energy crises along with eco-friendly wastewater treatment. The electrode properties and biocatalysts are the major factors affecting electricity production in MFC. The electrons generated during microbial metabolism are captured by the anode and transferred towards the cathode via an external circuit, causing the flow of electricity. This flow of electrons is greatly influenced by the electrode properties and thus, much effort has been made towards electrode modification to improve the MFC performance. Different semiconductors, nanostructured metal oxides and their composite materials have been used to modify the anode as they possess high specific surface area, good biocompatibility, chemical stability and conductive properties. The cathode materials have also been modified using metals like platinum and nano-composites for increasing the redox potential, electrical conductivity and surface area. Therefore, this paper reviews the recent developments in the modification of electrodes towards improving the power generation capacity of MFCs., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The discharge of effluents from the textile industry is a multidimensional problem that affects the ecosystem in many ways. Though many new technologies are being developed, it remains to be seen which of those can be practiced in a real scenario. The current investigation attempts to absorb the Malachite Green, an effluent from textile dye using Chinese Fan Palm Seed Biochar. Accordingly, biochar was prepared using fruits of Chinese Fan Palm (Livistona chinensis) tree. The fruit also yielded a significant amount of biochar and bio-oil. 1.346 kg of fresh and cleaned fruit was fast pyrolyzed at 500 °C in a laboratory-scale Pyrolyzer resulting in 0.487 kg of biochar and 0.803 L of bio-oil. The remaining fruit matter was converted to gaseous products. The kinetics of dye removal were studied and the parameters were determined. The study advocates that the Langmuir isotherm model simulates the adsorption experiment, to a good extent. From the plot, the maximum (monolayer) adsorption capacity, Q m was determined to be 21.4 mg/g. The suitability of the Langmuir isotherm model onto biochar was established by the high correlation coefficient, R 2 that was higher than 0.97., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Application of agrochemicals in farming sector to control insects and pests; and use of synthetic organic dyes to color the products are increasing continuously due to the rapid growth of industries. During the application process many industries releases toxic agrochemicals and dyes in to the aquatic environment and on land without the proper treatment. Due to their toxicity the disposal of such chemicals is of utmost importance. Biochar offers the ability to remediate these substances from environmental matrices because of their high sorption ability of pollutants from water and soil. This review highlights the development and advancement of biochar-based treatment for abatement of agrochemicals and synthetic organic dyes, involving its technical aspects and the variables connected with removing these kinds of pollutants. Several optimization parameters like temperature, pH, chemical concentration, biochar properties, time, and co-existing ions have been elaborated. Literature survey shows that most of the researches on biochar application have been conducted in the batch mode. Hence there is an urgent need to apply this beneficial technique for the remediation of pollutants at the larger scale in the real water and soil samples. A comprehensive summary on sorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms with regards to pollutant removal is also presented. This review also covers the cost analysis of various techniques where biochar has been used as an adsorbent. Thus this review makes an easy roadmap for the further development in biochar and biochar based composites and expansion of these demanding areas of research in biochar and their applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)