Research Projects

Rapid industrialization and urbanization have been identified as the primary culprits in the deterioration of water quality over time. The industrial wastewater related to textiles, fertilizers and pesticides, tanneries, metal plating, batteries, paper, and mining sector, etc., contain hazardous heavy metals, which are reported as severe issues for the environment. Heavy metal pollution is defined as any metallic component found in high density and harmful at extremely low concentrations. Although, only less than 1% of water is accessible worldwide. Thus, the accessibility of clean water is one of the critical issues nowadays. However, one of the biggest environmental issues is maintaining a sustainable supply of clean, safe water on a worldwide scale. Environment-friendly treatment technologies are needed to eliminate these kinds of pollutants to improve water quality, which has inspired researchers worldwide to develop innovations for cleaning up wastewater. These contaminations, originating from anthropogenic pollution or widespread overuse of water for various purposes, pose an instantaneous risk to the quality and accessibility of water resources. This necessitates effluent treatment to ensure that it meets the quality criteria for the intended usage. A variety of conventional and innovative wastewater treatment technologies have been developed for this purpose. The wastewater treatment begins with the first separation process. Sometimes, other physical treatments are also used, such as filtrations through size-exclusion filters, which physically separate particles into distinct sorts of pollutants. Similarly, chemical treatments like chemical or photocatalytic oxidation and Fenton reaction, etc., are used to convert or degrade the toxic molecules. As a result, it is critical to develop realistic applications/technologies that solve real-life challenges in wastewater treatment. Many researchers discovered that chitosan nano cellulose-based composites have a high potential for heavy metal removal in wastewater. Both chitosan and cellulose are abundant in biopolymers. These biopolymers are biodegradable, biocompatible, renewable, toxic-free, and so on. Chitosan/nanocellulose-based nanocomposite is gaining a lot of attention in the field of wastewater treatment because of its high surface area, chemical accessibility, and ease of modifying the functions. In this research work, special emphasis is given to the most prominent multi-functional nanocellulose-based biocompatible nanocomposite membrane for heavy metals bioremediation. It could be a practical and eco-friendly approach to the fabrication of nanocellulose-based biocompatible nanocomposite material. Based on the challenges discussed, the project's key objectives are bioprospecting and nanocellulose production optimization; developing a biocomposite material from cellulosic biopolymers to provide an eco-friendly, effective solution for industrial wastewater bioremediation.