Environmental Pollutant: Analysis, Monitoring and Emerging Processes for Abatement

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 May 2024 | Viewed by 1258

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería Textil y Papelera, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Plaza Ferrándiz y Carbonell s/n, 03801 Alcoy, Spain
Interests: advanced oxidation processes; chemometrics; electrochemistry; fluorescence; (nano)materials synthesis and characterization; photocatalysis; photo-Fenton process; water treatment; zerovalent iron

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Guest Editor
Grupo de Procesos de Oxidación Avanzada, Departamento de Ingeniería Textil y Papelera, Universitat Politècnica de València, Campus de Alcoy, Alcoy, Spain
Interests: catalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging contaminants (PFAS, pharmaceuticals, flame retardants, etc.) are widely distributed in the environment due to being directly discharged from anthropogenic sources and/or their slow degradation in wastewater treatment plants. This Special Issue welcomes scientific articles focused on the use of physical and chemical processes able to remove pollutants from water, soil and air, as well as their analysis using innovative analytical methodologies and their continuous monitoring.

Dr. Iván Sciscenko
Prof. Dr. Ana María Amat
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • advanced oxidation processes
  • catalysis
  • contaminant of emerging concern
  • chemometrics
  • environmental remediation
  • monitoring

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 35533 KiB  
Article
Dissolved Organic Matter Behaviour by Conventional Treatments of a Drinking Water Plant: Controlling Its Changes with EEM-PARAFAC
by Iván Sciscenko, Rita Binetti, Carlos Escudero-Oñate, Isabel Oller and Antonio Arques
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(6), 2462; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14062462 - 14 Mar 2024
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Abstract
In the last 20 years, several articles related to the use of fluorescence excitation–emission matrices—parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) to monitor dissolved organic matter (DOM) in drinking- and wastewater treatment plants were published. Noteworthy, its use in respective quality control laboratories remains scarce. To [...] Read more.
In the last 20 years, several articles related to the use of fluorescence excitation–emission matrices—parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC) to monitor dissolved organic matter (DOM) in drinking- and wastewater treatment plants were published. Noteworthy, its use in respective quality control laboratories remains scarce. To extend its popularisation, in this work, EEM-PARAFAC was employed to analyse the DOM composition changes along the different stages of the drinking water treatment plant administrated by Società Metropolitana Acque Torino. The best PARAFAC model was the one of three components, indicating that the Po River is constituted, mainly, by humic acid-like (HA-L) and tryptophan-like (Try-L) substances, the tyrosine-like ones being negligible (Tyr-L). Results indicated that physical treatments (sedimentation) did not produce a reduction in the PARAFAC scores; however, a 50% decay in 254 nm absorbance was observed. Fluorescent DOM was only removed with chemical treatments, obtaining ca. 70% HA-L scores decay with ozonation and 40% with chlorination. Furthermore, although ozonation degraded HA-L substances, the Try-L scores increased by 25%, indicating the transformation of HA-L into smaller molecules. On the contrary, total organic carbon measurements only exhibited a significant change when comparing the treatment plant’s inlet and outlet (approximately a 45% decrease), but not within intermediate processes. Full article
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14 pages, 1154 KiB  
Article
Antibiotic Resistance in Seawater Samples from East Coast of Spain
by Diego Dasí, María Luisa Camaró-Sala, Ana González, Miguel García-Ferrús, Ana Isabel Jiménez-Belenguer and María Ángeles Castillo
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 1965; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14051965 - 28 Feb 2024
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Abstract
Seawater has been proposed as a reservoir for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes, thus representing a risk to public health. In this study, we evaluated the presence of antibiotic resistance determinants (bacteria and genes) in 77 seawater samples collected at different points [...] Read more.
Seawater has been proposed as a reservoir for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes, thus representing a risk to public health. In this study, we evaluated the presence of antibiotic resistance determinants (bacteria and genes) in 77 seawater samples collected at different points along the coast of the Gulf of Valencia (Spain). Specifically, indicators of fecal contamination bacteria, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus sp., were isolated, and their antibiotic resistance profiles were analyzed through the use of the Sensititre® system, followed by the detection of the main antibiotic resistance genes (blaTEM, qnrS, tetW, sulI, and ermB). The highest frequencies of resistance in the E. coli isolates were detected for ampicillin (35.1%) and ciprofloxacin (17.5%), followed by sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim (15.7%), while 23% of enterococci isolates showed resistance to a single antibiotic, 20% against tetracycline and 3% against daptomycin. Through PCR analysis, 93% of the E. coli strains showed the blaTEM and sulI resistance genes. Among the enterococci, the presence of the blaTEM gene was detected in 40% of the isolates, while the rest of the genes were present at very low rates. Among the water samples, 57% were positive for at least one of the tested genes, italic format with blaTEM being the most commonly found gene (47%), followed by the qnrS (33%) and sulI (23%) genes. These results show that seawater, in addition to being subjected to a high rate of fecal contamination, can contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance. Full article
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