FINAL YEAR PROJECT

FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA PULAU PINANG

A GUIDE TO IDENTIFY A RESEARCH GAP (CO4:PO12) (EXAMPLE)

This will provide step-by-step method to develop a research gap through comprehensive review of literature search.
Student needs to choose only ONE sub-study of research area to complete this task. Please jot down your finding
in the given flowchart. Writing a proper citation and references are also exercised in this task. Please discuss with
your supervisor to complete this task.

LEVEL 1:
IDENTIFY •TREATMENT OF CONTAMINATED SOIL DUE TO POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON
RESEARC
H AREA
• Currently, the presences of PAHs in the environment are a serious concern. As this pollutant can be found
accumulated in food chain, therefore, an environmentally sound and rapid rate of in-situ soil remediation
LEVEL 2: is of great interest. Remediation strategies for PAHs contaminated soil can be grouped into three (3)
RECOGNI categories that are physical, chemical and biological. (SUB-STUDY - REFER EXAMPLE 1)
ZE

•(produce a table of comparision. Arrange data from same the idea of study by different researcher)
LEVEL 3: •Table 2.1 summarises studies on each category focusing on its efficiency and drawbacks. (REFER
EXAMPLE 2)
APPLY
COGNITIVE DOMAIN

LEVEL 4: •(you need to analyze you finding. i.e. strengths & weaknesses) (REFER EXAMPLE 2)
ANALYZE

•Need to explain any similarities and and contrast between the researcher's finding.) (BASED ON EXAMPLE
2). Just highlight the major finding in this column. Further elaboration is needed in additional page.
•Biological treatment shows potential as an environmental friendly technology to clean up sites
contaminated with PAHs as compared to physical and chemical treatment approaches. However, this
treatment is more sensitive toward abiotic changes in soil. (should elaborate more) Besides, this
treatment is less efficient in removing HMW-PAH such as benzo(a)pyrene.
LEVEL 5: •Hence, these drawback can be enhanced through the use of chemical and physical treatment
approaches.... (explain how these treatment work)..... However, eventhough these treatment can
SYNTHESI enhance the removal efficiency and speed-up the removal rate, but, there are several drawback from the
ZE use of chemical treatment agents at high concentration. .. (explain more, i.e. rapid reaction, explosion,
super sensitive with the environmental changes, increase soil infertility. The increase in solubility of PAH
pollutants in soil when physical treatment agent was introduced will pose risk to the environment since
the PAH can easily percolate through soil media and further contaminate the water source. Hence,
additional treatment is needed to rem Therefore, the physical treatment is not suitable to be used as in-
situ soil remediation strategy.

• After criticizing and argue the finding, propose your research in order to fill in the research gap. Further
LEVEL 6: elaboration is needed in additional page.
•Therefore, to address limitation of individual treatment approach, this can be done by integrating
EVALUAT
treatment methods of chemical and biological treatment. Integrated treatment is expected can reduce the
E
dosage of chemical treatment agent hence can prevent the risk to the remediation workers especially
when high concentration of oxidant is used. Besides, the integrated bio-chemical treatment approach can
enhance degradation rate of PAH pollutant. It is also anticipated that the propose treatment can increase
the performance of HMW-PAH degradation.

FYP_SA_MAC2017
 FINAL YEAR PROJECT
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA PULAU PINANG

EXAMPLE 1

IDENTIFY AND RECOGNIZE DIFFERENT TREATMENT APPROACHES UNDER THE SAME RESEARCH AREA

FYP_SA_MAC2017
 FINAL YEAR PROJECT
FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA PULAU PINANG

EXAMPLE 2

DEVELOP TABLE OF COMPARISON (COMPARE DIFFERENT TREATMENT APPROACHES)

ANALYZE STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSES EACH OF THE TREATMENT.

Table 2.1:

Categories/ PAHs Pollutant Advantages Disadvantages References

Treatment

Biological PHE (3-ring PAH) i. Low cost i. Inefficient for the removal Lors et al., 2012
Bacteria BaP (5-ring PAH) ii. Less impact to the of high molecular weight
environment. PAH especially up to 5-
iii. Removal efficiency ring PAHs.
20 - 80 % ii. Slow rate of removal.
iii. Highly influenced by
abiotic factors such as
temperature, pH, moisture,
oxygen and nutrient
availability.
Chemical BaP (5-ring PAH) i. Fast removal i. Highly influence by oxidant Laurent et al.,
Classical Fenton ii. Removal efficiency dosage and oxidant to 2012; Silva et
Reaction 22 % - 97% catalyst ratio. al., 2009;
(Hydrogen peroxide ii. Explosion might occur due Ferrarese et al.,
decomposition to exothermic reaction. 2008
catalysed by iron) iii. High dosage of oxidant
can reduce fertility of soil.
iv. Incomplete removal of
PAHs.
Physical BaP (5-ring PAH) i. Efficient to remove i. Increase soil toxicity due Elgh-Dalgren et
Soil Washing HMW-PAH to increasing PAH al., 2009; Gong
(surfactant, sunflower ii. Fast removal availability. et al., 2005;
oil, peanut oil) iii. Removal efficiency ii. Further treatment is Pannu et al.,
67 % - 100 % needed to remove the 2004
PAHs in the washing
solution.
iii. Inefficient to remove
any high concentration of
PAHs
iv. High cost

FYP_SA_MAC2017