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Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater Effluent

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 17001

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Thomas Thiebault

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Guest Editor

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, UMR METIS 7619 SorbonneUniversité/CNRS/EPHE 4 place Jussieu, 75252 PARIS Cedex 05, France
Interests: emerging pollutants; clays; adsorption
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) are chemicals generally generated by anthropogenic activities that are not currently regulated even if they can cause significant environmental impacts. In view of their potential impact on the water bodies without an efficient treatment, the design of novel technologies aiming at removing those contaminants during wastewater treatment may be of great concern regarding the chemical quality of water bodies worldwide. In this Special Issue, we invite papers presenting research findings in the development of innovative technologies for the removal of CEC (such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and illicit drugs, among others) from wastewater effluent. Beyond the scientific novelty of the suggested technologies (e.g., adsorption, biodegradation, advanced oxidation processes), the authors should emphasize the potential to implement their technology in full-scale facilities operating under realistic conditions of liquid effluent treatment. Both laboratory and pilot-scale experimental works may be considered, but the inclusion of operational parameters (matrix, flow) is mandatory, at least as perspectives.

Dr. Thomas Thiebault
Guest Editor

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Keywords

wastewater treatment
sludge
adsorption
oxidation
ozonation
emerging contaminants

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1941 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Eucheuma cottonii Seaweed-Based Biochar for Adsorption of Methylene Blue Dye

by Anwar Ameen Hezam Saeed, Noorfidza Yub Harun, Suriati Sufian, Ahmer Ali Siyal, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Muhammad Roil Bilad, Arvind Vagananthan, Amin Al-Fakih, Aiban Abdulhakim Saeed Ghaleb and Najib Almahbashi

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10318; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su122410318 - 10 Dec 2020

Cited by 49 | Viewed by 4727

Abstract

Pollution from dye containing wastewater leads to a variety of environmental problems, which can destroy plant life and eco-systems. This study reports development of a seaweed-based biochar as an adsorbent material for efficient adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye from synthetic wastewater. The Eucheuma cottonii seaweed biochar was developed through pyrolysis using a tube furnace with N₂ gas, and the properties were later improved by sulfuric acid treatment. The adsorption studies were conducted in a batch experimental setup under initial methylene blue concentrations of 50 to 200 mg/L, solution pH of 2 to 10, and temperature of 25 to 75 °C. The characterization results show that the developed biochar had a mesoporous pore morphology. The adsorbent possessed the surface area, pore size, and pore volume of 640 m²/g, 2.32 nm, and 0.54 cm³/g, respectively. An adsorption test for 200 mg/L of initial methylene blue at pH 4 showed the best performance. The adsorption data of the seaweed-based biochar followed the Langmuir isotherm adsorption model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, with the corresponding R² of 0.994 and 0.995. The maximum adsorption capacity of methylene blue using the developed seaweed‑based biochar was 133.33 mg/g. The adsorption followed the chemisorption mechanism, which occurred via the formation of a monolayer of methylene blue dye on the seaweed-based biochar surface. The adsorption performance of the produced seaweed biochar is comparable to that of other commercial adsorbents, suggesting its potential for large-scale applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater Effluent)

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14 pages, 3986 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Clustering the Adsorbents of Horizontal Series Filtration in Greywater Treatment

by Mehdi Bahrami, Mohammad Javad Amiri and Mohammad Reza Mahmoudi

Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3194; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12083194 - 15 Apr 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1983

Abstract

One of the important alternative water resources for non-potable purposes is greywater (GW), which must be cleaned of contaminants. In this regard, the clustering analysis of materials consisting of sand (S), zeolite (Z), peat (P) and granular activated carbon (GAC) within a horizontal series filter (HSF) was used for removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), and turbidity in GW taken from the Fasa University Student Hostel, Iran. The hierarchical clustering technique was applied to classify the adsorbents. The findings indicated that there were significant differences (more than 95%) between these materials. According to the similarity of level 95%, for COD, BOD, TDS, and turbidity removal, these adsorbents could be separately clustered in three, three, two, and three clusters, respectively. In addition, by considering the simultaneous changes of COD, BOD, TDS, and turbidity together, these adsorbents could be clustered in three different clusters. This paper proposed an efficient method to select the best combination of adsorbents for eliminating of COD, BOD, TDS, and turbidity from GW. Generally, based on the quality of treated greywater and literature, reusing greywater can be implemented for agriculture, artificial recharge of aquifers, desertification, and preventing the dust creation in arid areas such as southern Iran. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater Effluent)

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19 pages, 2016 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Contaminants of Emerging Concern Removal in an Effluent of Wastewater Treatment Plant under Biological and Continuous Mode Ultrafiltration Treatment

by Cristian Ferreiro, Iker Gómez-Motos, José Ignacio Lombraña, Ana de Luis, Natalia Villota, Oihana Ros and Nestor Etxebarria

Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 725; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12020725 - 19 Jan 2020

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 5866

Abstract

This work presents a case study of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), located in Biscay (Spain), in which the removal of high-occurrence contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) was studied. The existing biological treatment in the WWTP was complemented with a continuous ultrafiltration (c-UF) pilot plant, as a tertiary treatment. Thus, the effect on CEC removal of both treatments could be analyzed globally and after each operation. A total of 39 CEC were monitored, including pharmaceutical products, industrial additives, food additives, herbicides and personal care products. For evaluation of the efficiencies, the removal rates of the biological and of the c-UF treatments, including their variability over a day and a week in relation to the ammonium content, were examined in the influent of the WWTP. In the biological treatment, a wide range of different removal rates was obtained due to the different CEC’s biodegradability and concentration. In UF, lower, but more constant removal rates, were achieved. In addition, the reduction of the general toxicity by the UF treatment in terms of the Microtox^® toxicity assay was also evaluated. After UF, all of the samples yielded values of TU₅₀ lower than 1, confirming this result the UF effectiveness for toxicity removal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater Effluent)

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Review

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12 pages, 762 KiB

Open AccessReview

Contaminants of Emerging Concern in African Wastewater Effluents: Occurrence, Impact and Removal Technologies

by Mohamed Chaker Necibi, Driss Dhiba and Souad El Hajjaji

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1125; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13031125 - 22 Jan 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3737

Abstract

Worldwide, the pollution of water bodies by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting compounds, flame retardants including brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and perfluorochemicals (PFCs), micro plastics, nanomaterials, and algal toxins, to name just a few, is creating a new set of challenges to the conventional wastewater treatment facilities, which demonstrate inefficiency in removing/degrading many CECs. As a consequence, environmentalists started to detect the presence of some of those contaminants at alarming levels in certain countries, with possible negative effects on aquatic species and often increased potential for human health risks through the exposure to the contaminated waters, or the reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture and household use. Such issues are more accentuated in the African continent due to various socio-economic problems giving rise to poor sanitation systems and serious shortages in wastewater treatment plants in many regions, making it difficult to tackle the problem of conventional pollutants, let alone to deal with the more challenging CECs. Thus, in order to effectively deal with this emerging environmental threat, African researchers are working to develop and optimize sound sampling and analytical procedures, risk assessment models, and efficient remediation technologies. In this review, related recent research efforts conducted in African universities and research institutions will be presented and discussed with respect to the occurrence and assessment of CECs in African wastewater effluents, the potential risks to aquatic ecosystems and humans, the tailored remediation techniques, along with some knowledge gaps and new research directions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Removal of Emerging Pollutants from Wastewater Effluent)

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