energies-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 11582

Special Issue Editors

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico Di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano MI, Italy
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; photocatalysis; membrane treatment; characterization of nanoparticles; environmental monitoring; water quality assessment; nanomaterials synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater treatment involves several processes. Among those processes, some techniques consume a significant amount of energy, which obviously increases the operational cost of the industry. Since the 1960s, following as an increase of public concern on environmental quality, internationally strict regulations of wastewater disposal practices have come into effect which require higher levels of treatment. In general, municipal, or industrial wastes requires pre-treatment alone or sequential processes such as coagulation and then biological processes before membrane purification. This level of treatment often becomes a necessity. In fact, wastewater treatment technology has advanced to the point where it has become possible to remove virtually all pollutants from sewage. This is so expensive, however, that such high levels of treatment are not usually justified.

Wastewater treatment plants have become large, complex facilities that require considerable amounts of energy for their operation. Advanced pollution control methods might not only help to conserve energy but also serve to recycle nutrients and replenish groundwater supplies. Thus, a focus on increasing energy efficiency and decreasing energy consumption is necessary, and as such, recent strategies have been dedicated to reducing wastewater treatment costs to obtain low cost treatment methods. This aspect is receiving a large amount of attention as governments around the world encourage the development of eco-friendly wastewater treatment methods.

Based on this scenario, this Special Issue will have an interdisciplinary focus, including wastewater treatment techniques, the revalorization of agro-food industries, materials, biological treatment, chemical engineering and the energy and environmental engineering areas, with the aim to publish high-quality research papers as well as review articles addressing recent advances in energy efficiency considerations in wastewater treatment processes.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Increasing energy efficiency of techniques in wastewater treatment methods;
  • Recovery and re-use of wastes;
  • Materials: novel nanoparticles and advanced materials;
  • Electro-coagulation, assessment of beneficial effects of energy involved treatment methods such as photocatalysis;
  • Anaerobic digestion; photocatalytic membrane treatment.

Dr. Javier Miguel Ochando-Pulido
Dr. Srikanth Vuppala
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wastewater treatment techniques
  • energy
  • innovative materials
  • energy and environment
  • economical assessment
  • recovery and re-use
  • pre-treatments
  • advanced oxidation processes
  • heterogeneous photocatalysis
  • membrane treatment

Published Papers (6 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

23 pages, 331 KiB  
Article
Financial, Economic, and Environmental Analyses of Upgrading Reverse Osmosis Plant Fed with Treated Wastewater
by Foroogh Nazari Chamaki, Glenn P. Jenkins and Majid Hashemipour
Energies 2023, 16(7), 3292; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16073292 - 06 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1163
Abstract
One of the most effective strategies to mitigate water shortages worldwide is to reuse treated wastewater for freshwater production employing reverse osmosis (RO) technology. This strategy is appropriate in urban areas of arid or semi-arid regions as it can provide a sustainable and [...] Read more.
One of the most effective strategies to mitigate water shortages worldwide is to reuse treated wastewater for freshwater production employing reverse osmosis (RO) technology. This strategy is appropriate in urban areas of arid or semi-arid regions as it can provide a sustainable and reliable water source close to the consumers. One of the drawbacks of RO is the high variability of production costs due to the electricity intensity. In addition, depending on the electricity source, it can also result in substantial environmental costs. This study showed that upgrading pumping and RO membrane systems of a wastewater reuse plant in Cyprus can significantly alleviate these drawbacks in terms cost, water recovery rate, and air pollution. The water-recovery rate of the upgraded RO plant increased from 43.2 to 75 percent, which resulted in a substantial net financial benefit due to the reduction in the quantity of wastewater purchased and the increase in potable water produced. The upgraded system also reduced the electricity requirement from 3.63 kWh/m3 to 1.92 kWh/m3. Pollution emissions decreased substantially because of the reduction in electricity requirements. The beneficiaries of these lower emission costs are the residents of Cyprus and global society. Overall, the benefit of upgrading the plant is highly attractive with more than 65 percent annual real internal rates of return in financial and economic terms. Positive net present values are realized for all the scenarios considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
15 pages, 2802 KiB  
Article
Determination of the Self-Ignition Behavior of the Accumulation of Sludge Dust and Sludge Pellets from the Sewage Sludge Thermal Drying Station
by Adriana Dowbysz, Bożena Kukfisz, Mariola Samsonowicz and Jan Stefan Bihałowicz
Energies 2023, 16(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010046 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1079
Abstract
Sewage sludge may pose a fire risk. The safe storage of biomass waste is a challenge due to self-heating processes. This study aims to assess the propensity to spontaneously combust of sewage sludge in order to determine safe storage and transport conditions. The [...] Read more.
Sewage sludge may pose a fire risk. The safe storage of biomass waste is a challenge due to self-heating processes. This study aims to assess the propensity to spontaneously combust of sewage sludge in order to determine safe storage and transport conditions. The evaluation of spontaneous ignition hazard was assessed according to EN 15188, by the determination of the self-ignition temperature. Certain parameters assumed to affect the inclination of sewage sludge to self-ignite, including the moisture content, bulk density, elemental composition, and particle size, were discussed. The results showed the risk of self-ignition during the storage and transport of sludge dust and pellets. The usage of the smallest basket volume resulted in the highest self-ignition temperatures, which were 186 °C and 160 °C for sludge pellets and dust, respectively. The comparison of the two forms of thermally dry sludge showed, that despite sludge pellets being easier to store and handle issues, the more favorable conditions for the management in terms of fire risk is sludge dust. Its temperatures for safe storage are slightly higher. The results highlighted that future research should focus on the hazards of silo fires and explosions in terms of silo fire prevention and management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 3994 KiB  
Article
Experimental Oxygen Mass Transfer Study of Micro-Perforated Diffusers
by Robert Herrmann-Heber, Florian Ristau, Ehsan Mohseni, Sebastian Felix Reinecke and Uwe Hampel
Energies 2021, 14(21), 7268; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217268 - 03 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2240
Abstract
We studied new micro-perforated diffuser concepts for the aeration process in wastewater treatment plants and evaluated their aeration efficiency. These are micro-perforated plate diffusers with orifice diameters of 30 µm, 50 µm and 70 µm and a micro-perforated tube diffuser with an orifice [...] Read more.
We studied new micro-perforated diffuser concepts for the aeration process in wastewater treatment plants and evaluated their aeration efficiency. These are micro-perforated plate diffusers with orifice diameters of 30 µm, 50 µm and 70 µm and a micro-perforated tube diffuser with an orifice diameter of 50 µm. The oxygen transfer of the diffuser concepts is tested in clean water, and it is compared with commercial aerators from the literature. The micro-perforated tube diffuser and micro-perforated plate diffusers outperform the commercial membrane diffusers by up to 44% and 20%, respectively, with regard to the oxygen transfer efficiency. The most relevant reason for the improved oxygen transfer is the fine bubble aeration with bubble sizes as small as 1.8 mm. Furthermore, the more homogenous cross-sectional bubble distribution of the micro-perforated tube diffuser has a beneficial effect on the gas mass transfer due to less bubble coalescence. However, the pressure drop of micro-perforated diffusers seems to be the limiting factor for their standard aeration efficiencies due to the size and the number of orifices. Nevertheless, this study shows the potential for better aeration efficiency through the studied conceptual micro-perforated diffusers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1249 KiB  
Article
The Energetic Aspect of Organic Wastes Addition on Sewage Sludge Anaerobic Digestion: A Laboratory Investigation
by Aleksandra Szaja, Agnieszka Montusiewicz and Magdalena Lebiocka
Energies 2021, 14(19), 6113; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196113 - 25 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1382
Abstract
One of the possibilities to achieve energy neutrality of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is the implementation of the anaerobic co-digestion strategy. However, a key factor in its successful implementation on the technical scale is the application of components with complementary composition to sewage [...] Read more.
One of the possibilities to achieve energy neutrality of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is the implementation of the anaerobic co-digestion strategy. However, a key factor in its successful implementation on the technical scale is the application of components with complementary composition to sewage sludge (SS). In the 7resent study, the influence of adding various co-substrates on the energy balance of anaerobic digestion was evaluated. The following organic wastes were used as additional components to SS: organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and distillery spent wash (DW) applied in two- and three-component systems. The experiments were performed in semi-flow anaerobic reactors with the volume of 40 L under mesophilic conditions (35 °C) at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 20, 18, and 16 d. The application of substrates to SS resulted in enhancements of methane yields as compared to SS mono-digestion. The statistically significant differences were observed in tertiary mixtures at both HRT of 18 and 16 d. Therein, average values were 0.20 and 0.23 m3 kg−1VSadd at HRT of 18 and 16 d, respectively. Among all co-digestion series, the most beneficial effect on energy balance was found in 20% v/v DW presence in both two- and three-component systems at HRT of 16 d. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

19 pages, 12982 KiB  
Article
Formation and Optimization of Electrical Discharge Coatings Using Conventional Electrodes
by JagadeeswaraRao Maddu, Buschaiah Karrolla, Srikanth Vuppala and Riyaaz Uddien Shaik
Energies 2021, 14(18), 5691; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185691 - 10 Sep 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2261
Abstract
An emerging topic is electrical discharge (ED) coating with its application on complex shapes and cavities to repair components or act as functional coatings. Because it is a variant process of an electric discharge machine (EDM) with the ability to coat on electrically [...] Read more.
An emerging topic is electrical discharge (ED) coating with its application on complex shapes and cavities to repair components or act as functional coatings. Because it is a variant process of an electric discharge machine (EDM) with the ability to coat on electrically conductive substrates, there is a possibility that next-generation electrical discharge machining components may exploit the attachment phenomenon to enhance recast layer properties. Previously, researchers have obtained ED coating by mixing the powder in a dielectric medium and/or by using powder metallurgy electrodes. In this work, primarily, an insight in the formation of ED coating on-die sinks electrical discharge machine, using conventional electrode materials viz., bronze on titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) is made. The bronze electrode on the titanium substrate obtained a crack-free copper coating of ~20 microns thickness. In order to perform the experiments, three combinations were made using five parameters: current (Amps), ton (µs), Toff (µs), duty cycle (%), and flushing pressure as constant (bar). After obtaining the coating, a combination of input parameters was selected by optimizing the output performance parameters, viz., the electrical discharge deposition rate, coating thickness, micro-cracks, and elemental coating composition. Secondarily, different optimization techniques viz., grey relational analysis, the technique for order of preferences by similarity to ideal solution, −nD angle method and information divergence method were implemented to find out the suitable combination of parameters where the latter two methods were introduced for the first time in this area of EDM optimization. A study was conducted to check whether the latter two methods are optimization techniques or multi-criteria decision-making techniques. The optimization of existing reactor types and the development of new reactors in wastewater treatment through EDC, by which energy could be saved by replacing the conventional techniques. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Review

Jump to: Research

20 pages, 1052 KiB  
Review
A Review on Synchronous Microalgal Lipid Enhancement and Wastewater Treatment
by Visva Bharati Barua and Mariya Munir
Energies 2021, 14(22), 7687; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227687 - 17 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2113
Abstract
Microalgae are unicellular photosynthetic eukaryotes that can treat wastewater and provide us with biofuel. Microalgae cultivation utilizing wastewater is a promising approach for synchronous wastewater treatment and biofuel production. However, previous studies suggest that high microalgae biomass production reduces lipid production and vice [...] Read more.
Microalgae are unicellular photosynthetic eukaryotes that can treat wastewater and provide us with biofuel. Microalgae cultivation utilizing wastewater is a promising approach for synchronous wastewater treatment and biofuel production. However, previous studies suggest that high microalgae biomass production reduces lipid production and vice versa. For cost-effective biofuel production from microalgae, synchronous lipid and biomass enhancement utilizing wastewater is necessary. Therefore, this study brings forth a comprehensive review of synchronous microalgal lipid and biomass enhancement strategies for biofuel production and wastewater treatment. The review emphasizes the appropriate synergy of the microalgae species, culture media, and synchronous lipid and biomass enhancement conditions as a sustainable, efficient solution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water and Wastewater Treatment- Energy Efficiency)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop