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Coal Fly ash is an industrial waste produced from coal-based thermal power plants. Of the total amount of fly ash generated, a small fraction is used as a supplement to Portland cement and rest of the fly ash is used as landfill. One of the novel ways of utilizing coal fly ash is through zeolitization, zeolites being hydrated aluminosilicates, and coal fly ash a rich source of alumina and silica. Coal fly ash obtained from the thermal power plant of NTPC Kaniha is subjected to alkaline hydrothermal treatment and the resulted zeolite is characterized for chemical analysis, crystal structure, thermal stability, FTIR studies, ion exchange capacities, etc. After zeolitization surface area of the product increases due to the formation of more pores and channels and also there is an increase in its crystallinity. When subjected to temperature its crystallinity first increases and then decreases and after a particular temperature the crystalline character almost vanishes. The resulted zeolite is found to be NaP1 zeolite with a high ion exchange capacity. High cation exchange (CEC) values ensure the adsorption of heavy metals by zeolites which can be used for the treatment of wastewater and industrial waste material. Thus zeolites can be hydrothermally synthesized from an industrial waste like coal fly ash at a much cheaper cost of production. The synthesized zeolite can be used for cation exchange, adsorption catalysis, and a host of other industrial applications.

The immense research interest in clay sciences is driven by the easy availability in nature, extraordinary properties, wide range of applicability, cheaper and less toxicity. Clay minerals have a huge potential to explore and/or manipulate application specific physical properties in the lab. Nano-structured clay broadly can be classified as aggregated nano-clay, isolated nano-clay particles (tactoid), intercalated clay and exfoliated clay. Clay shows the properties related to nano-structuring to its fullest when exfoliated and many interesting physical, morphological characteristic and improved properties are observed. Clay based nano-composites materials provide significant properties improvements even at low nanoparticles content. Effort is made to strengthen the understanding on effect of size, shape and the chemical compositions to properties relations. The optimization of adsorption properties, swelling behavior, rheological properties optimization, nano-sized clay development and design of polymer–clay composites development opens the new prospect of research and application of clay minerals. To obtain a uniform distribution with strong linking between polymer to particles remains a critical challenge in order to obtain properties like flame retardant, mechanical, barrier and thermal properties, etc. This chapter focuses more in-depth on the synthesis and properties of clay-polymer composite. Processing of Clay-polymer nano-composites such as conventional solution blending, melt blending, in situ polymerization and the use of ultrasounds in enhancement of nanoparticles dispersion has been discussed. To reach the optimal properties that is required for specific applications, selection of composition, clay microstructure and processing is the key and has been elaborated in this section.

The chapter deals with the advances in technologies for industries related to the production of probiotics, prebiotics and nutraceuticals. The novel innovations in important produces such as milk-based products, fruit- and vegetable-based products, root- and tuber-based products, dried probiotics and beverages are elucidated. Further, the latest technological interventions in nanotechnology, microencapsulation and immobilization techniques with respect to the functional food industries are presented. The chapter also describes the food ethics, safety, regulations and the functional food market.

The two major sources which are contributing to marine pollution are natural processes as well as anthropogenic activities. The natural process includes precipitation, erosion, weathering of crystal material whereas anthropogenic activities are urbanization, industrialization, mining and agricultural activities, etc. Mahanadi is the biggest river source of Odisha which joins the Bay of Bengal at Paradip. Paradip Township is an urbanized well-developed industrial township where various anthropogenic activities are contributing pollution to the water sources. In the present study, an attempt has been made to estimate and monitor the seasonal and spatial variation of physiochemical properties of the Mahanadi estuary, the East Coast coastal belt of India. The result revealed that there is a remarkable variation in the physiochemical parameters such as pH, salinity, TSS, DO, BOD, NO2N, NO3N, NH4N, TN, TP, SIO4 and Chl-a which are attributed to the runoff water getting discharged to the coastal water sources. It is being recommended to treat waste water and materials before discharging them to the marine water medium.

In this report, the glassy behavior of 60(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-40SrTiO3 (NBT-40ST) lead-free perovskite relaxor was studied. The single phase ceramic sample was prepared with cubic symmetry by solid state reaction method. The temperature and frequency dependent dielectric data were analyzed in view point of relaxor and glassy behavior by employing various empirical models such as modified Curie-Weiss law, V-F law, Power law and Cheng’s exponential relation. The diffuseness coefficient (γ~1.97) and the frequency dispersion of Tm (temperature corresponding to maximum dielectric constant) manifested strong relaxor behavior of NBT-40ST. The frequency dependent Tm analysis revealed greater interactions between the polar nano islands. Further, the study of dielectric behavior at much higher and lower temperature than Tm provided an idea about the production rate and concentration of these polar islands and distribution of freezing temperatures respectively.

This paper reports the dielectric and glassy behavior of 70(Na0.5Bi0.5) TiO3-30SrTiO3 (NBT-30ST) lead-free perovskite relaxor. The temperature dependent dielectric data indicates that the material undergoes a diffuse phase transition at Tm (temperature corresponding to maximum dielectric constant) with diffuseness coefficient γ∼2. The material also shows frequency dispersion around Tm with a high ΔTm (Tm,1MHz – Tm, 0.1kHz) value of ∼42. The above parameters manifest strong relaxor behavior of NBT-30ST. Moreover, the results are analyzed by employing empirical models such as V-F law, Power law to explore the glassy behavior associated with the system. The frequency dependent Tm analysis revealed greater interactions between the polar nano regions (PNRs). For further information on PNRs, the dielectric behavior at much higher and lower temperature than Tm has also been analyzed.