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Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 June 2021) | Viewed by 17965

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Juan Carlos Leyva Diaz

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain
Interests: Wastewater treatment, Membrane bioreactor, Moving bed biofilm reactor, Kinetic modeling, Respirometry, Contaminants of Emerging Concern, Circular Economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Environmental pollution by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) has caused increasing interest during recent years. Emerging pollutants can be classified in six categories: pharmaceuticals, personal care products, steroid hormones, surfactants, industrial chemicals and pesticides. Current wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not designed to remove emerging pollutants. Consequently, these compounds can be flowed into the surface water and groundwater through the effluents from WWTPs. This could have adverse effects on human health and aquatic environment.

As a consequence of the incomplete removal of CECs contained in wastewater by conventional processes, it is necessary to implement technologies that solve this problem. In light of this, there are still gaps that warrant further studies regarding the performance of biological treatments for the removal of CECs.

Thus, this Special Issue aims to widen the knowledge about the application of biological treatments for the removal of CECs from wastewater, as well as analyze their influence on the biological processes occurring in the bioreactor of WWTPs.

Prof. Juan Carlos Leyva Diaz
Guest Editor

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Keywords

wastewater treatment
contaminants of emerging concern
membrane bioreactor
activated sludge
adsorption
removal efficiency
degradation rate
kinetic modeling
respirometry
heterotrophic kinetics
autotrophic kinetics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 3607 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Removal of Pharmaceuticals from Wastewater: Analysis of the Past and Present Global Research Activities

by Juan Carlos Leyva-Díaz, Ana Batlles-delaFuente, Valentín Molina-Moreno, Jorge Sánchez Molina and Luis J. Belmonte-Ureña

Water 2021, 13(17), 2353; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13172353 - 27 Aug 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3995

Abstract

Water pollution is a worldwide problem. Water consumption increases at a faster rate than population and this leads to a higher pollution rate. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include proposals aimed at ensuring the availability of clean water and its sustainable management (Goal 6), as well as the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and seas. The current trend consists in trying to reconcile economic growth with sustainability, avoiding the negative externalities for the environment generated by human activity. More specifically, the objective of this article is to present the evolution of the research regarding the removal of polluting pharmaceuticals that are discharged into wastewater. To do that, a bibliometric analysis of 2938 articles comprising the period 1979–2020 has been carried out. This analysis includes productivity indicators in the scientific field: journals, authors, research institutions and countries. In addition, keyword analysis allows the identification of four main axes of the research regarding the removal of pharmaceutical residues found in wastewater. The first group of articles is aimed at identifying the pharmaceuticals present in polluting effluents. The second and third groups of articles focus on presenting the procedures that enable the treatment of emerging contaminants, either from a biological point of view (second group) or a physicochemical point of view (third group). The fourth group refers to water quality and its possibilities to be reused. Finally, there is a growing trend of worldwide scientific publications, which justifies the importance of polluting residues management, especially those of pharmaceutical origin, in order to achieve a more sustainable society. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater)

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13 pages, 2546 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Removal of Carbamazepine onto Modified Zeolitic Tuff in Different Water Matrices: Batch and Continuous Flow Experiments

by Othman A. Al-Mashaqbeh, Diya A. Alsafadi, Layal Z. Alsalhi, Shannon L. Bartelt-Hunt and Daniel D. Snow

Water 2021, 13(8), 1084; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13081084 - 15 Apr 2021

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2477

Abstract

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is the most frequently detected pharmaceutical residues in aquatic environments effluent by wastewater treatment plants. Batch and column experiments were conducted to evaluate the removal of CBZ from ultra-pure water and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent using raw zeolitic tuff (RZT) and surfactant modified zeolite (SMZ). Point zero net charge (pHpzc), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) were investigated for adsorbents to evaluate the physiochemical changes resulted from the modification process using Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA-Br). XRD and FTIR showed that the surfactant modification of RZT has created an amorphous surface with new alkyl groups on the surface. The pHpzc was determined to be approximately 7.9 for RZT and SMZ. The results indicated that the CBZ uptake by SMZ is higher than RZT in all sorption tests (>8 fold). Batch results showed that the sorption capacity of RZT and SMZ in WWTP effluent (0.029 and 0.25 mg/g) is higher than RZT and SMZ (0.018 and 0.14 mg/g) in ultrapure water (1.6–1.8 fold). Batch tests showed that the equilibrium time of CBZ removal in the WWTP matrix (47 h) is much longer than CBZ removal in ultrapure water. The sorption capacity of RZT & SMZ in WWTP effluent (0.03, 0.33 mg/g) is higher than RZT and SMZ (0.02 and 0.17 mg/g) in ultrapure water (1.5–2 fold) using column test. This study has clearly demonstrated that the performance of RZT and SMZ is more efficient for the removal of CBZ from realistic wastewater than ultrapure water. It is evident that the surfactant modification of RZT has enhanced the CBZ removal in both matrices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater)

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14 pages, 2858 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Nitrogen Removal for Liquid-Ammonia Mercerization Wastewater via Partial Nitritation/Anammox Based on Zeolite Sequencing Batch Reactor

by Lei Zheng, Yongxing Chen, Songwei Zhou, Yuchen Chen, Xingxing Wang, Xiaojun Wang, Lijuan Zhang and Zhenguo Chen

Water 2020, 12(8), 2234; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082234 - 08 Aug 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2859

Abstract

Liquid-ammonia mercerization is commonly used to enhance the quality of cotton fabric in the textile industry, resulting in a large amount of liquid-ammonia mercerization wastewater (LMWW) containing high concentration of ammonia to be disposed of. This study proposes a partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) process based on stable nitritation by a zeolite sequencing batch reactor (ZSBR) for the nitrogen removal of LMWW. The ZSBR could quickly achieve stably full nitritation with a nitrite accumulation ratio higher than 97% and an ammonia removal rate of 0.86 kg N·m⁻³·d⁻¹ for the raw LMWW with an ammonia level of 1490 mg/L. In order to avoid anammox inhibition by free nitrous acid, the ZSBR was successfully changed to PN operation with diluted LMWW for effluent meeting anammox requirements. The next anammox reactor (an up-flow blanket filter (UBF)) realized a total nitrogen removal efficiency of 70.0% with a NLR (nitrogen loading rate) of 0.82 kg N·m⁻³·d⁻¹ for LMWW. High-throughput sequencing analysis results indicated that Nitrosomonas and Candidatus Kuenenia were the dominant bacteria in ZSBR and UBF, respectively. All results revealed that the PN/A process based on ZSBR as the PN pretreatment process was feasible for LMWW, facilitating cost-effective and low-carbon nitrogen removal for LMWW treatment in the textile industry in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater)

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12 pages, 1241 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Cobalt, Cadmium and Manganese on Nitrogen Removal Capacity of Arthrobacter arilaitensis Y-10

by Tengxia He, Deti Xie, Jiupai Ni, Zhu Li and Zhenlun Li

Water 2020, 12(6), 1701; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061701 - 14 Jun 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2510

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of a simultaneous nitrification–denitrification hypothermic bacterium for applying in Cd(II), Co(II), and Mn(II)-contaminated wastewater. The influence of Cd(II), Co(II), and Mn(II) on the inorganic nitrogen removal capacity of the hypothermia bacterium Arthrobacter arilaitensis Y-10 was determined. The experimental results demonstrated that low concentration of Cd(II) (2.5 mg/L) exhibited no significant impact on bioremediation of ammonium. The nitrate and nitrite removal activities of strain Y-10 were enhanced by 0.1 and 0.25 mg/L of Cd(II), but hindered by more than 0.25 and 0.5 mg/L of Cd(II), respectively. However, the cell growth and denitrification activity ceased immediately once Co(II) was supplemented. In terms of Mn(II), no conspicuous inhibitory impact on ammonium bioremediation was observed even if Mn(II) concentration reached as high as 30 mg/L. The bioremediation of nitrates and nitrites was significantly improved by 0.5 mg/L of Mn(II), and then dropped sharply along with the increase of Mn(II). The order of the degree of inhibitory influence of the three heavy metal ions on the nitrogen bioremediation ability of strain Y-10 was Co(II) > Cd(II) > Mn(II). All the results highlighted that the heterotrophic nitrification was less sensitive to the inhibitory effects of Cd(II), Co(II), and Mn(II) relative to aerobic denitrification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater)

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Review

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19 pages, 968 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Effectiveness of Advanced Oxidation Processes in Wastewater Treatment: State of the Art

by Laura Antiñolo Bermúdez, Jaime Martín Pascual, María del Mar Muñio Martínez and Jose Manuel Poyatos Capilla

Water 2021, 13(15), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152094 - 30 Jul 2021

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 5260

Abstract

In recent years, many scientific studies have focused their efforts on quantifying the different types of pollutants that are not removed in wastewater treatment plants. Compounds of emerging concern (CECs) have been detected in different natural environments. The presence of these compounds in wastewater is not new, but they may have consequences in the future. These compounds reach the natural environment through various routes, such as wastewater. This review focuses on the study of tertiary treatment with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the degradation of CECs. The main objective of the different existing AOPs applied to the treatment of wastewater is the degradation of pollutants that are not eliminated by means of traditional wastewater treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Treatments for the Removal of Contaminants of Emerging Concern from Wastewater)

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