Water quality demonstrates physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. The quality of surface and groundwater is currently an important concern with population growth and industrialization. Over exploitation of water resources due to demand is causing the deterioration of surface water and ground water. Periodic water quality testing must be carried out to protect our water resources. The present research analyses the spatial variation of surface water and groundwater in and around the lakes of Hyderabad. Twenty-Seven lakes and their neighboring bore water samples are obtained for water quality monitoring. Samples are evaluated for specific physico-chemical parameters such as pH, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Cl, SO₄, Na, K, Ca, Mg, and Total Hardness (TH). The spatial variation of water quality parameters for the 27 lakes and groundwater were analysed. Correlation and multiple regression analysis were carried out to determine comparative study of lake and ground water. The study found that most of the lakes were polluted and this had an impact on surrounding ground water.

The removal of two dyes, namely Methylene Blue (MB) and Reactive Brillant Red (RR) from aqueous solution was investigated using magnetite iron coated pumice (MIP) composite in the Fenton-like oxidation process. A weight ratio of 2.5 g (with the molar ratio of Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ to be 2) (5%) of iron to the total pumice (50 g) was enabled during synthesis of catalyst. Surface composition and characteristics of the catalyst were assessed by SEM-EDX, FT-IR, Raman spectral analysis. The effect of the amount of pumice solely used or MIP, H₂O₂ concentration, pH and initial concentration of MB or RR dyes on Fenton-like process efficiency was investigated. EDAX spectrums of pumice and MIP showed that oxygen and silisium are the major elements. The Fe content of MIP increased to 2.24%. SEM, FT-IR and Raman spectrums confirmed the impregnation of Fe on pumice surface. The experimental results revealed that high removal rates of dyes could be obtained using MIP that demonstrated a higher stability for removal of MB dye. pH affected the removal efficiency of both dyes and the degradation of both dyes was sharply dropped when pH was increased above 4. The removal of dyes did not significantly change with increasing H₂O₂ concentration. Degradation rates of both MB and RR dyes increased 3.3 and 2.8 times with the use of MIP compared to pumice alone, respectively. Furthermore, MIP enabled a good removal efficiency at higher dye concentrations. It can be emphasized that MIP composite can be used in the heterogeneous Fenton-like systems considering the economic and easily separation aspects.

Municipal solid waste disposal is considered as one of the most important risks for environmental contamination which necessitates the development of strategies to reduce destructive consequences on the ecosystem as related especially to heavy metal accumulation. This study investigates heavy metal (i.e., As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) accumulation in the Tonekabon region, NW of Iran that is related to city waste disposal and evaluates the environmental impact in the Caspian Sea coastal region. For this purpose, after performing field studies and collecting 50 soil specimens from 5 sites of the study area, geochemical tests (i.e., inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, atomic absorption spectroscopy and x-ray fluorescence) were conducted on the soil specimens collected from the 5 sites (named as Sites A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5) and the results were used to estimate the pollution indices (i.e., geo-accumulation index, normalized enrichment factor, contamination factor, and pollution load index). The obtained indices were utilized to assess the eco-toxicological risk level in the landfill site which indicated that the city has been severely contaminated by Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. These levels have been developed along the stream towards the nearshore areas indicating uptake of soil degradation. The heavy metal contamination was classified to range from unpolluted to highly polluted, which indicated serious heavy metal pollution in the study area as related to municipal solid waste disposal in Tonekabon.

The rise in population and industrialization accounts for the generation of a huge amount of wastewaters. The treatment of this wastewater is obligatory to safeguard the environment and various life forms. Conventional methods for high strength wastewater treatment coming out to be ineffective. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for such wastewater treatment proved to be very effective particularly for the removal of various refractory compounds present in the wastewater. Ozone based AOPs with its high oxidizing power and excellent disinfectant properties is considered to be an attractive choice for the elimination of a large spectrum of refractory compounds. Furthermore, it enhances the biodegradability of wastewaters after treatment which favors subsequent biological treatments. In this review, a detailed overview of the AOPs (like the Fenton process, photocatalysis, Electrochemical oxidation, wet air oxidation, and Supercritical water oxidation process) has been discussed explicitly focusing on ozone-based AOPs (like O₃, O₃/H₂O₂, O₃/UV, Ozone/Activated carbon process, Ozone/Ultrasound process, O₃/UV/H₂O₂ process). This review also comprises the involved mechanisms and applications of various ozone-based AOPs for effective municipal/industrial wastewaters and landfill leachate treatment. Process limitations and rough economical analysis were also introduced. The conclusive remarks with future research directions also underlined. It was found that ozonation in combination with other effective AOPs and biological methods enhances treatment efficacies. This review will serve as a reference document for the researchers working in the AOPs field particularly focusing on ozone-based AOPs for wastewater treatment and management systems.

Crude oils are essential source of energy. It is majorly found in geographical locations beneath the earth's surface and crude oil is the main factor for the economic developments in the world. Natural crude oil contains unrefined petroleum composed of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and it contains other organic materials like aromatic compounds, sulphur compounds, and many other organic compounds. These hydrocarbons are rapidly getting degraded by biosurfactant producing microorganisms. The present study deals with the isolation, purification, and characterization of biosurfactant producing microorganism from oil-contaminated soil. The ability of the microorganism producing biosurfactant was investigated by well diffusion method, drop collapse test, emulsification test, oil displacement activity, and blue agar plate method. The isolate obtained from the oil contaminated soil was identified as Bacillus subtilis. The identification was done by microscopic examinations and further characterization was done by Biochemical tests and 16SrRNA gene sequencing. Purification of the biosurfactant was performed by simple liquid-liquid extraction, and characterization of extracted biosurfactants was done using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The degradation of crude oil upon treatment with the partially purified biosurfactant was analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy and Gas-chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).