Shaheer Ahmed
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century. Because of improper management, the environment has been contaminated. Other than land, seas and oceans are also a victim of plastic pollution. The aquatic life is suffering due to it. Economic loss is also part of this mismanagement. Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi, Director at National Science & Technology Park, has the honor of receiving a grant of 12000 GDP to tackle the Plastic Waste Problem In the UK And Pakistan. We are truly proud of him.
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Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi
Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi is an Associate Professor NUST School of Chemical & Materials Engineering. He is also the Director of the National Science & Technology Park. His project, “The application of machine learning in the chemical recycling of plastic waste” in collaboration with Dr. Jiawei Wang (Senior lecturer, Department of Chemical engineering and Applied Chemistry, Aston University) has won 12,000 GBP (2.8 Million PKR). The duration of the project is 2 years and is based in UK and Pakistan.
Last year in April 2021, his article “Gasification of Industrial Sewage Sludge using Bubbling Fluidised Bed Gasifier for Syngas Production” along with Abdullah Ahmed, won the first prize in the Paper Writing Contest arranged by the Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP).
UK and Pakistani Team
UK team: Dr. Jiawei Wang, Dr. Xi Yu, (Lecturer), and Dr. Huan Xiang, (Postdoc Research Fellow) from Aston University.
Pakistan team: Dr. Salman Raza Naqvi (Associate Professor SCME), Dr. Asif Hussain Khoja (Assistant Professor, U.S. Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy), Dr. M Nouman Aslam Khan (Assistant Professor, SCME), and Jawad Gul (Ph.D. candidate) from NUST.
International Exchanges Scheme
The Royal Society, UK offers International Exchanges Scheme. It is a flexible platform for UK scientists who want to collaborate with leading international scientists. The project intends to produce value-added chemicals from plastic waste. The tools used to help catalyst screening and process optimization are Machine learning technologies, such as random forest and support vector machines. If the project is successful, it will help to manage the plastic waste in UK and Pakistan.
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By 2025, under the Plastics Pact by the Waste and Resources Action Programme, the UK intends to recycle plastics packaging wastes by 70%. In South Asia, Pakistan has the highest percentage of mismanaged waste. 70% of the plastic waste is dumped in landfills and unmanaged places.
Chemical Recycling Processes
Several chemical recycling processes have been proposed to tackle the plastic waste issue. Pyrolysis is favored, as it has the highest rates of conversion into liquid products. The gas produced can be used as fuel. Although it won’t lessen the plastics life, recycling is a better option.
As a citizen, it is our responsibility to keep the environment clean and properly dispose off the waste.
