Without pure water, it is impossible to survive for any living beings. The ratio of freshwater on our planet is very poor and the demand is increasing with time for the growing population. Furthermore, water is being contaminated by industrial and agricultural activities, pharmaceuticals, technocratic civilization, pesticides, garments, global changes etc. In addition to this, environmental pollution and global warming are swelling due to the greenhouse and harmful gases generated from the dumping and burning of fossil fuel. Addressing these problems, it is necessary to find out the cost-effective and environmental friendly processes to purify the contaminated water and air. Activated carbons (ACs) are one of the best solutions for removing the pollutants from aqueous and atmosphere as it is the carbonaceous materials with a high degree of porosity, well-developed surface area, and distinguished functional groups which are required for elimination of contaminants. The preparations of activated carbon are easy and safe processes, mainly from the pyrolysis or gasification of biomass with heat and/or chemicals. The recycling and regeneration of activated carbon after use are also essential for resource maintenance and environmental safety. Thus, AC can protect the ecosystem in a double direction by purifying the water and air from the pollutants.

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Pennisetum purpureum is one of the most invasive perennial grasses of the Poaceae family, which are abundant in southeast Asia including Brunei Darussalam. The pyrolysis process at a slow heating rate proved to be highly promising for biochar production. The production and characterization of different Pennisetum purpureum biochars have been investigated at the pyrolysis temperatures of 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C with a heating and nitrogen flow rate of 5 °C/min and 0.5 L/min, respectively. The observed higher heating values were 22.18 MJ/kg, 23.02 MJ/kg, 23.75 MJ/kg, and the alkaline pH were 9.10, 9.86, 10.17 for the biochar at 400 °C, 500 °C, 600 °C temperatures, respectively. The water holding capacity was one hundred percent for all biochars and continued to increase for higher pyrolysis temperature. SEM images show that the porosity of the biochars has been enhanced with increased temperatures due to the rearrangement of crystallinity and aromaticity. On the other hand, the yields of biochar have been decreased from 35.13% to 23.02% for the increase of pyrolysis temperature from 400 °C to 600 °C. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis shows that the O/C atomic ratios were 0.15, 0.08 and 0.06 for the biochar of 400, 500 and 600 °C which validates the improvement in heating values. FT-IR analysis revealed that the available functional groups in the biochars were CO , C=C, and C-H. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under pyrolysis condition showed residue of 46.56%, 51.13% and 55.67% from the biochar at 400, 500, and 600 °C, respectively. The derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) graph indicates that the degradation rate is higher for 400 °C biochar than the 600 °C biochar.

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To support the global restart of elective surgery, data from an international prospective cohort study of 8492 patients (69 countries) was analysed using artificial intelligence (machine learning techniques) to develop a predictive score for mortality in surgical patients with SARS-CoV-2. We found that patient rather than operation factors were the best predictors and used these to create the COVIDsurg Mortality Score (https://covidsurgrisk.app). Our data demonstrates that it is safe to restart a wide range of surgical services for selected patients.

Hydrogen is a free, limitless, and environmentally friendly resource. To enhance the production performance of hydrogen by photocatalytic water splitting, its preparation and application was investigated using carbon-based materials (graphene, graphite, carbon nanotubes, activated carbon). Photocatalytic hydrogen processing is among the most promising strategies for ensuring long-term energy stability and preventing further environmental degradation. The selection of co-catalysts and sacrificial agents to support the main catalyst is crucial for increasing hydrogen production. Several analyses were conducted to examine the characteristics as well as the use of various parameters to determine how carbonaceous materials would improve hydrogen production.

The new coronavirus (COVID-19) has started spreading all over the world. Every infected is fighting to recover a little and every health worker is fighting to save a single life in this pandemic. There is no place for patients to stay in the hospital, health workers are given all possible services to save their lives. In this situation, uninterrupted power system is needed, which can be supplied by solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Therefore, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are becoming attractive day by day with competing environmentally friendly energy sources due to high energy efficiency, low emission rate and comparatively low operating cost. The purpose of this work is to investigate how copper-doped perovskite electrode materials impact the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to overcome such crucial times successfully. Different synthesis process of Cu-based electrodes and analyzing electrochemical properties were investigated in this work. The evaluation was performed in terms of synthesis process, sintering temperature, lattice type and parameters, electrical conductivity, thermal expansion coefficients (TEC), polarization resistance, activation energy, and power density. In order to provide additional energy during this pandemic COVID-19, low-cost, highly performed, and durable materials are needed to make SOFC.