The Environmental Science and Engineering Department (ESED) was established in 1985 as a centre, and recently in February 2019 got the department status. The department has a core group of 18 faculty members with multi-disciplinary background and diversifying research interests. Apart from this, the professionals from consultancies and government organisations come for delivering the lectures time to time. The department is expanding teaching and research activities and has started a dual degree M.Sc. - PhD programme since July 2010, in addition to already existing M.Tech and PhD programmes. In addition to these three programmes, the department is running a minor in Environmental Science and Engineering for undergraduates studying in other departments at IIT Bombay. A dual degree B. Tech.-M. Tech. programme had started in autumn 2018. BTech programme will be introduced from autumn 2023. In addition to the above listed programmes, ESED offers an Institute core course "Environmental Studies: Science and Engineering" to all undergraduates and M. Sc.- Ph. D. students. Besides, the department runs several elective courses for sensitising students across all disciplines towards the urgent need for protection and restoration of the environment by adapting environment friendly life styles.
The on-going research activities of the department are focused towards addressing the priority areas (local and global) set by major national agencies like MHRD, CPCB, SPCB, MNRE, DBT, MoEF, CSIR, DST. In addition, the department has already established strong links and collaborations with leading industries, academic institutions and national/international agencies by conducting sponsored research and offering consultancy and technical services. The research activities of ESED are supported by excellent experimental and computational facilities, competent and dedicated technical staff and high quality students. The department is also actively engaged in organising workshops and CEP courses for benefiting the professional from other academic institutions, industries and governmental sectors.
Major ongoing research deal with contemporary topics like:
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Clean technologies and industrial pollution prevention.
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Integrated treatment and disposal of hazardous waste.
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Biomedical waste management.
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Biodegradation of complex industrial wastewater (fertilizer, food, paper, coke oven, diary, distillery, petrochemicals) and wastewater containing halogenated aromatics, nitro-aromatics and other mixed substrates.
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Biodegradation of complex non-aqueous liquid pollutants (NAPLs e.g., oil and tar).
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Desalination and wastewater treatment by membrane technology
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Development and application of toxicity/mutagenicity tests for emission and effluents.
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Development of novel bioreactors (RBC, UASB).
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Air pollution monitoring, modelling and health risk analysis.
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Aerosol and PAH emission factors, aerosol inventory, transport modelling and source apportionment.
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Environmental impact assessment of developmental projects.
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In-situ and ex-situ remediation of contaminated groundwater and aquatic environments.
The Department offers wide professional expertise and actively pursues sponsored research, consultancy and technical services. ESED is also very active in manpower development and regularly organises tailor-made workshops and training programmes. Thus, the Department has established strong links with leading industries, institutions and national/international agencies.