Dr Abdul J Chaudhary
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Chemistry
Brunel University
Uxbridge
UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
About Abdul
Qualifications
- 2002 – 2004 PGCert Brunel University, West London, UK
- 1987 – 1990 PhD City University, London, UK
- 1984 – 1986 MSc University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
- 1981 – 1983 BSc University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Career
- 2002 - Present Lecturer, Institute for the Environment, Brunel University, West London, UK
- 1998 – 2002 Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brunel University, West London, UK
- 1996 – 1997 Environmental Consultant, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Nuclear Institute for Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Pakistan
- 1991 – 1995 Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Brunel University
- 1986 – 1987 Research Officer, Ministry of Education, Islamabad, Pakistan
Research
Research Interests
Research Activity
Research Projects
Development of Clean and Clean-up Technologies
I have been intensively involved in environmental science research and consultancy work. The main aim of my research work is to develop and optimise both clean and clean-up technologies for environmental pollution control.
Clean Technologies
The development of clean process technologies involves the optimisation and improved control of chemical reactions in existing processes and development of new processes to achieve environmentally clean reactions. This research work has led to the development of at least three commercially viable clean technology processes by controlling the emissions of toxic pollutants into the environment. Some of these clean process technologies are now being used on industrial scales in the UK and abroad. Key areas include:
- Development of 'state of the art' clean process technology for selective metal removal and recovery
- Development of membrane systems appropriate for selective metal recovery and recycle
- Development of methods for the recovery of added-value chemicals from waste to eliminate or minimise the hazardous component
- Use of physical and chemical methods to concentrate harmful or valueless components from secondary metal waste arisings
- Development and use of ionic liquids in metal recovery and recycle
Clean-up Technologies
The introduction of new stringent environmental regulations means that industries are now being forced to comply with the strict discharge consent levels for both solid wastes and industrial effluent streams. The research carried out under this heading involves the development and optimisation of novel environmental clean-up technologies to remove toxic organic and inorganic pollutants from solid wastes and effluent streams to meet new consent levels. This research work involves the physical and chemical treatment of industrial effluent streams originating from textile, leather, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and chemical industries for the protection of the environment. This research work has led to the development of two patents for the control of environmental pollution. Key areas include:
- Development of clean-up technologies for metal removal and recovery
- Waste minimisation through recycling of materials from industrial and end-of-life wastes
- Development of clean-up technologies to remove dyes from textile effluent streams
- Photo-assisted electrochemical destruction of organic pollutants
- Separation and characterisation of intermediates formed during destruction of organic pollutants
- Determination of kinetics and mechanisms of degradation processes
Grants Awarded
Higher Education Commission (HEC) and British Council (BC), Pakistan in collaboration with Mr Suhail Soomro, Mehran University, Pakistan
Waste Treatment and Management. £35,000
December 2007 – December 2009
EPSRC RAIS (GR/R54958/01 in collaboration with Professor Grimes (PI) and Professor John Donaldson
Chemical reclamation of material from Aluminium furnace residue. £29,605
April 2001 – March 2003
EPSRC/DTI Link (GR/L96189) in collaboration with Professor Grimes (PI) and Professor John Donaldson
Chemical reclamation of material from Aluminium furnace residue. £129,140
September 1998 – March 2001
Awards
My research work on the development and optimisation of clean and clean-up technologies has led to the sponsoring companies (BEWT (Water Engineers) Limited and JBM International Ltd.) achieving the Queen’s Award for Environmental Achievement.
Research Supervision
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Mushtaq Ali Jakharani (June 2009 – February 2010)
Funded by the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan
Dr Jakharani is currently working as an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan. Dr Jakharani’s research project is concerned with the development of clean-up technologies to remove metals and organic pollutants from aqueous effluent streams.
Dr. Venkatesa Prabhu (June 2007 – August 2007)
Funded by the World Bank through a scheme called Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQUIP).
Dr Prabhu is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Deemed University, India. During his stay at Brunel University, Dr Prabhu worked on the development and optimisation of recycling technologies to recover metals from industrial effluent streams by complexing them with organic ligands and isolating them as solid metal complexes. These recycling technologies have the ability to combat some of the environmental pollution problems associated with various chemical industries in India.
Postgraduate Researchers
First Supervisor
Saboor Javaid, Pakistan High Commission
Development and optimisation of treatment technologies for environmental pollution control (awarded PhD in 2007)
Karima Massaud Abouamer, Libyan Government
Application of natural dyes in textile industry and the treatment of dye solutions using electrolytic techniques (awarded PhD in 2008)
Hallo Mustafa Askari, EPSRC
Studies of leaching, recovery and recycling of heavy metals (awarded PhD in 2008)
Neelam Zia, Self funded
Extraction and application of natural dyes in textile industry and their electrolytic decolourization (awarded MPhil in 2009)
Romain Faivre, Institute for the Environment, Brunel University
The use of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) for materials recovery from solid wastes
Teaching
I have been programme leader on the Legislation and Management course since 2004. I am also module leader for a 30-credit specialist module, Environmental Monitoring, which is a part of our modular postgraduate programme, Environmental Science: Pollution and Monitoring. In addition, I deliver lectures to cover some selective topics for 4 modules:
- Research and Critical Skills (IE5511)
- Integrated Pollution (IE5508)
- Environmental Management (IE5509)
- Principles of Sustainable Development (ME5518)
External Duties
I regularly serve as external examiners for MPhil and PhD awards. I also review manuscripts for various scientific journals, for example, Environmental Science and Technology, Separation Science, Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Separation Science and Technology, Applied Electrochemistry, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research and Environmental Chemistry Letters.
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2009) Chaudhary, AJ., Hassan, M-U. and Grimes, SM., Simultaneous recovery of metals and degradation of organic species: Copper and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), Journal of Hazardous Materials 165 (1-3) : 825- 831 Download publication
(2009) Lateef, H., Grimes, SM., Chaudhary, AJ. and Goswami, NC., Opportunity to recycle chromium(VI) by in situ electro-oxidation, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 84 (4) : 584- 588
(2008) Chaudhary, AJ. and Grimes, SM., A combined photolytic-electrolytic system for the simultaneous recovery of copper and degradation of phenol or 4-chlorophenol in mixed solutions, Chemosphere 72 (11) : 1636- 1642 Download publication
(2008) Javaid, S., Shah, SGS., Chaudhary, AJ. and Khan, MH., Assessment of trace metal concentration of drinking water in the Pearl Valley, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, CLEAN - Soil Air Water 36 (2) : 216- 221
(2007) Chen, CC., Chaudhary, AJ. and Grimes, SM., The effect of sodium hydroxide in photolytic and photocatalytic degradation of Acid Blue 29 and Ethyl Violet, Dyes and Pigments 73 (1) : 55- 58
(2006) Chaudhary, AJ., Ganguli, B. and Grimes, SM., The regeneration and recycle of chromium etching solutions using concentrator cell membrane technology, Chemosphere 62 (5) : 841- 846 Download publication
(2003) Chaudhary, AJ., Goswami, NC. and Grimes, SM., Electrolytic removal of hexavalent chromium from aqueous solutions, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 78 (8) : 877- 883
(2002) Chaudhary, AJ., Ganguli, B. and Grimes, SM., The use of chromium waste sludge for the adsorption of colour from dye effluent streams, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 77 (7) : 767- 770
(2002) Farooq, R., Wang, Y., Lin, F., Shaukat, SF., Donaldson, J. and Chaudhary, AJ., Effect of ultrasound on the removal of copper from the model solutions for copper electrolysis process, Water Research 36 (12) : 3165- 3169
(2002) Farooq, R., Wang, Y., Shaukat, SF., Donaldson, J. and Chaudhary, AJ., Removal of copper from a copper sulphate solution using an ultrasonic-electrolysis process, Journal of Environmental Sciences 14 (3) : 375- 379
(2001) Chaudhary, AJ., Grimes, SM. and Hassan, M., Simultaneous recovery of copper and degradation of 2, 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid in aqueous systems by a combination of electrolytic and photolytic processes, Chemosphere 44 (5) : 1223- 1230
(2001) Chaudhary, AJ., Dando, SOV. and Grimes, SM., Removal of tin from dilute solutions, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 76 (1) : 47- 52
(2000) Grimes, SM., Donaldson, JD., Chaudhary, AJ. and Hassan, M., Simultaneous recovery of metals and destruction of organic species: Cobalt and phthalic acid, Environmental Science and Technology 34 (19) : 4128- 4132
(2000) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Grimes, SM., Hassan, M. and Spencer, RJ., Simultaneous recovery of heavy metals and degradation of organic species - copper and ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (EDTA), Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 75 (5) : 353- 358
(2000) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Grimes, SM. and Yasri, NG., Separation of nickel from cobalt using electrodialysis in the presence of EDTA, Journal of Applied Electrochemistry 30 (4) : 439- 445
(1995) Zaidi, SZA., Beynon, J., Waters, DN. and Chaudhary, AJ., Effect of composition on optical properties of co-evaporated Mn/SiOx, Cr/SiOx and Cu/SiOx cermet thin films, Journal of Materials Science 30 (23) : 5867- 5871
(1994) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Grimes, SM. and Boddington, SC., Heavy metals in the environment. Part V: The use of high-copper zinc residues in the zinc chloride process and the recovery of copper as anhydrous copper(II) chloride, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 61 (4) : 293- 297
(1994) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Grimes, SM. and Boddington, SC., Heavy metals in the environment. Part IV: An investigation into the solubility of metal chlorides in HCl-saturated solutions and the recycling of high-aluminium zinc residues in the zinc chloride process, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 61 (4) : 287- 292
(1994) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Grimes, SM. and Boddington, SC., Heavy metals in the environment Part III. Anion exchange properties of poly-4-vinyl pyridine from acid chloride solutions, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 60 (4) : 353- 358
(1993) Chaudhary, AJ., Donaldson, JD., Boddington, SC. and Grimes, SM., Heavy metals in the environment. Part II: a hydrochloric acid leaching process for the recovery of nickel value from a spent catalyst, Hydrometallurgy 34 (2) : 137- 150
(1993) Chaudhary, AJ. and Grimes, SM., Heavy metals in the environment. Part I: Removal of cobalt from dilute effluent streams by fluidised bed electrolysis, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 56 (1) : 15- 20
