Muhammad Waqas

Kohat University of Science and Technology | kust · Environmental Sciences

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are becoming an innovative agent in biological and environmental applications due to its unique characteristics, biocompatibility, low cost and toxicity. In this study, the composite ZnO NPs using Rhododendron arboreum (R. arboreum) stem bark were synthesized and characterized for UV–visible spectroscopy (UV-vis),...

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management poses a significant environmental challenge in municipalities across developing nations worldwide. Our studies were focused on characterizing the waste and analyzing the chemical properties of mixed waste fractions to assess their potential for waste-to-energy conversion. The objective of our study was to scru...

The current study analyzed the high heating values (HHVs) of various waste biomass materials intending to the effective management and more sustainable consumption of waste as clean energy source. Various biomass waste samples including date leaves, date branches, coconut leaves, grass, cooked macaroni, salad, fruit and vegetable peels, vegetable s...

The single high-dose application of biochar to increase rice yield has been well reported. However, limited information is available about the long-term effects of increasing rice yield and soil fertility. This study was designed to perform a 6-year field experiment to unveil the rice yield with time due to various biochar application strategies. M...

The current study aims to examine the economically viable biomass feedstocks for bioenergy generation and their export potential. The Product Space Model (PSM) is the primary tool used to achieve the aim by accomplishing certain objectives. The study’s findings show that Pakistan has abundant biomass resources for energy production. Canola oil, lea...

Amendment of biochar into mineral soils has been reported a promising strategy for carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation due to its high stability. Currently, most studies on the stability of biochar are mainly focused on the assessment methods and influencing factors. The assessment methods include qualitative evaluation of physical a...

Forest harvesting activities on peatlands have long been associated with nutrient leaching and deterioration of downstream water quality. This study aims to assess the effect of grass seeding practice on harvested blanket peatlands to immobilize N and reduce its export to water courses. First, a plot-scale field experiment was conducted by seeding...

Biochar has been reported to mitigate short-term methane (CH4) emissions from paddy soil. Currently, CH4 mitigation by biochar has primarily focused on the abundance and variations of methanogens and methanotrophs, and changes in their activities during methane production and consumption. However, long-term effects of biochar on methane mitigation...

An increasing interest in biochar application has opened many multidisciplinary research areas in science. Biochar can be produced by thermochemical conversion of organic biomass in an oxygen-deficient condition. Extensive research has been conducted on the potential of biochar for agronomic applications, such as soil fertility improvement and carb...

This study reports synthesis of Garcinia mangostana fruit pericarp (unwanted waste material) and α-mangostin mediated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). These AgNPs were efficiently produced using 1:10 (extract and salt) ratio under stirring and heating, which was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band in UV-Visible spectroscopic analysis, an...

The present study was designed to isolate petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacterial strains from crude oil contaminated sites near the ARAMCO (Jazan, Saudi Arabia). The main aim was to identify a novel microbial comminutes that possess high degradation potential under variant environmental conditions. Total 43 crude oil degrading bacterial consorti...

The increasing anthropogenic activities as a result of significant growth in population, urbanization, and industrialization has resulted in a tremendous amount of municipal solid waste (MSW). The municipal authorities are under extreme pressure from the epidemiological evidence towards human and environment as a result of injudicious waste disposa...

The critical stages during the growth of crops are the uniform seed germination, early seedling growth, and uniform plant stand. Low crop yield is attributed to uneven seed germination and seedling growth. Therefore, the quality of seed can be improved through priming in addition to the field management techniques for better seed germination. Primi...

The critical stages during the growth of crops are the uniform seed germination, early seedling growth, and uniform plant stand. Low crop yield is attributed to uneven seed germination and seedling growth. Therefore, the quality of seed can be improved through priming in addition to the field management techniques for better seed germination. Primi...

Temperature plays a crucial role in plants development whereas a sudden rise may cause severe consequences. Heat stress impairs plant growth, photosynthesis, pollen development and reproduction. The plant photosynthetic efficiency is mainly reduced by the over production of reactive oxygen species, denaturation of heat shock proteins and alteration...

The landfill disposal of the massive amount of food waste without treatment and resource recovery is resulting in several public and environmental health concerns. Several technologies have emerged for the conversion of food waste to lactic acid, ethanol, biogas, biohydrogen and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as value-added products. Food waste is a r...

Three-year field studies were undertaken at Agricultural Research Institute, Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan from 2010-11 to 2012-2013 with the aim of assessing the efficacy of different management techniques on weed growth and yield of chickpea under rain-fed conditions on residual moisture of a previous rice crop. Treatmen...

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Gulf region, a very small amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) is treated for compost production. The produced compost through traditional methods of compost piles and trenches do not coincide with the international standards of compost quality. Therefore, in this study, a continuous thermophilic composting...

This paper aims to (1) examine the challenges in the compost facilities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), (2) optimize the composting techniques using indigenous natural zeolite and locally produced biochar from agricultural residues and (3) evaluate the environmental and economic benefits of optimized food waste composting. In KSA food waste i...

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), millions of worshippers come from across the globe to perform religious rituals of Pilgrimage (Hajj) and Umrah. Madinah-tul-Munawara is one of the holiest city, where pilgrims come after performing rituals in Makkah. In this city, most of the collected municipal solid waste (MSW) is disposed of in the landfills...

The present study was designed to isolate petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacterial strains from crude oil contaminated sites near the ARAMCO (Jazan, Saudi Arabia). The main aim was to identify a novel microbial comminutes that possess high degradation potential under variant environmental conditions. Total 43 crude oil degrading bacterial consorti...

Medicinal plants are widely used in the present-day economy, and therefore, their study is of considerable interest both to botanists and to pharmacologists. Till date, few studies have been carried out on the economic valuation of medicinal plants growing under drought-stressed and unstressed natural in-situ conditions. In the present study, T. te...

Biochar presents great promise as a technology that makes a substantial contribution in various fields of environmental research. However, existing knowledge is still uneven and limited in terms of its effective utilization and field application. In this review, a comprehensive discussionof biochar technology is presentedwith respect to three main...

A field experiment was carried out on farm at Peshawar, Pakistan, during spring 2012 for evaluating the efficacy of weed management strategies to control weeds associated to three chickpea cultivars and their cost benefit ratios. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block with split plot arrangement. Different chickpea cultivars (Ka...

In the present era of scarcity of water resources, effective treatment of wastewater is a major prerequisite for growing economy. It is critical to develop and implement advanced wastewater treatment technologies with high efficiency and low capital requirement. Among various treatments, recent advanced processes in nano-material sciences have been...

A research was conducted to determine the effect of different intercrops in maize at New Developmental Farm, The University of Agriculture Peshawar in summer during 2011. The experiment consisted of completely randomize design having three replications. There were five treatments in each replication and each treatment comprised of four rows, 0.75m...

To study the potential of pre-emergence herbicides (pendimethalin, s-metolachlor) and Parthenium extract against three winter weed species including (Rumex crispus, Vicia ludoviciana and Anagallis arvensis), a pot based study was undertaken during October-November 2011 in the department of Weed Science, the University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakis...

Chemical analysis of maize grains practiced with mulches materials were carried out in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Agriculture Peshawar, Pakistan during 2012. Maize variety “Azam” was grown at New Developmental Farm, University of Agriculture, Peshawar under different mulching materials viz. farmyard manure, chicken manu...

2 and Iftikhar ud Din 3 ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted at New Developmental Farm, the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, during summer, 2012 to check the impact of different tillage and mulching practices on weed suppression and maize yield. Maize variety "Azam" was sown in the trial. The design of the experiment was randomized complet...

A field experiment was conducted at New Developmental Farm, the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, during summer, 2012 to check the impact of different tillage and mulching practices on weed suppression and maize yield. Maize variety "Azam" was sown in the trial. The design of the experiment was randomized complete block design having two factors...

Pak. J. Weed Sci. Res., 18(4): 561-569, 2012 BIOHERBICIDAL ACTIVITY OF SOME WINTER WEEDS AGAINST SOME CROPS Khan R, Khan M.A, Waqas M, Haroon M, Hussain Z, Khan N, Ullah I, Ramzan M and Bashir S ABSTRACT The study aims at investigating the allelopathic effects of twelve weed species including Anagallis arvensis, Plantago lanceolata, Medicago pol...

A laboratory based trial using water extract was conducted to investigate the allelopathic potential of Silybum marianum L. on kidneybean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), mungbean (Vigna radiata L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) during April 2011, in the Weed Science Research Laboratory, Department of Weed Science, Khyber Pakh...