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Sustainability
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Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment
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Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 15303

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ariana Pintor

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering—Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; adsorption; low-cost materials; removal of heavy metals; nutrient recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Cidália Botelho

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering – Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Chemical Engineering Department, Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
2. ALiCE - Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Interests: water chemistry; water treatment; adsorption
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sílvia Santos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering—Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Interests: adsorption; wastewater treatment; natural adsorbents; toxic metalloids; metal recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The state of the art of scientific and technical knowledge can provide basic wastewater treatment at the municipal and industrial level, avoiding the discharge of large, toxic organic and inorganic pollutant loads that endanger the health of water reservoirs. Although widespread implementation of these technologies is still far from being a reality, the current barriers to its access are mostly political and economic in nature.

Nevertheless, new challenges, to which conventional treatments are not able to provide an adequate response, are emerging in this field. Recent environmental monitoring programs have shown that there are emerging pollutants (PPCPs, musks, pesticides, endocrine disruptors, etc.), which are being proposed for priority control and stringent discharge limits and which are, at best, only partially removed by common treatment methods. An additional threat is surfacing with the rise of new industries and the advent of nanotechnologies, which bring about the ubiquitous detection of micro- and nanoplastics in a variety of aqueous matrices.

At the same time, wastewater treatment technologies are lately being approached from a circular economy perspective, aiming to improve their sustainability further through cost reduction and resource recovery. In this context, there is growing demand for new processes, combinations of technologies, novel materials, and innovative tertiary treatments to minimize environmental and health impacts and improve the cost–benefit analysis of current treatment systems.

This Special Issue invites you to submit innovative contributions that tackle the impending challenges in wastewater treatment (advanced treatment for emerging pollutants, removal of micro- and nanoplastics and pollutants, including reports on the efficacy of current technologies for these contaminants) that analyze treatment technologies in terms of their application in a circular economy (life-cycle analysis, cost–benefit analysis, material flow analysis, carbon footprint, etc.) or that propose improvements on their sustainability (novel methods for resource recovery, improvement of efficiency, energy savings, etc.). Original research papers or review papers are equally welcome.

Dr. Ariana Pintor
Prof. Dr. Cidália Botelho
Dr. Sílvia Santos
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • emerging pollutants
  • micropollutants
  • microplastics
  • nanoplastics
  • resource recovery
  • life-cycle analysis
  • cost–benefit analysis
  • tertiary treatment

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 1728 KiB  
Article
Effect of Newly Synthesized Salts and Three Common Micropollutants on the Biochemical Activity of Nitrifiers
by Dorota Olejnik, Malgorzata Galamon, Ewa Liwarska-Bizukojc, Elisabeth Delbeke, Kevin M. Van Geem and Christian V. Stevens
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7417; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137417 - 02 Jul 2021
Viewed by 1418
Abstract
Often, different types of contaminants in wastewater are suspected of adversely affecting the treatment efficiency of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Therefore, it is essential to study the effects of newly synthesized substances on the activity of activated sludge microorganisms. The aim of [...] Read more.
Often, different types of contaminants in wastewater are suspected of adversely affecting the treatment efficiency of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Therefore, it is essential to study the effects of newly synthesized substances on the activity of activated sludge microorganisms. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of innovative biosurfactants, i.e., sophorolipids quaternary ammonium salts (SQAS), and three common micropollutants (MPs), i.e., diclofenac (DCP), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2), and 4-nonylenol (4-NP), on the biochemical activity of activated sludge microorganisms. The effect of all tested substances was more significant on nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) than on ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), and least on the respiratory activity of heterotrophic organisms (HET). SQAS inhibited nitrification even at the lowest concentration tested (5 mg L−1) and the inhibition degree was in the range of 37% to 78%; at the highest concentration of SQAS studied (160 mg L−1), it was about 45–96%. In most cases, the degree of inhibition increased when the SQAS concentration approached 80–160 mg L−1. MPs influenced the activity of nitrifiers to a lower extent than SQAS. The inhibition degree varied from 25% to 75%, depending on the micropollutant tested and its concentration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment)
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24 pages, 5454 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle and Economic Analyses of the Removal of Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals from Municipal Wastewater by Anodic Oxidation
by Elena Surra, Manuela Correia, Sónia Figueiredo, Jaime Gabriel Silva, Joana Vieira, Sandra Jorge, Marta Pazos, Maria Ángeles Sanromán, Nuno Lapa and Cristina Delerue-Matos
Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3669; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073669 - 25 Mar 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4017
Abstract
Several pesticides and pharmaceuticals (PP) have been detected in the effluent of a full-scale Portuguese Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Their presence contributed to the environmental burdens associated with the existing treatment of the Municipal Wastewater (MWW) in the impact categories of Human Carcinogenicity, [...] Read more.
Several pesticides and pharmaceuticals (PP) have been detected in the effluent of a full-scale Portuguese Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Their presence contributed to the environmental burdens associated with the existing treatment of the Municipal Wastewater (MWW) in the impact categories of Human Carcinogenicity, Non-Carcinogenicity, and Freshwater toxicities on average by 85%, 60%, and 90%, respectively (ReciPe2016 and USEtox methods). The environmental and economic assessment of the installation of an Anodic Oxidation (AO) unit for PPs’ removal was performed through Life Cycle and Economic Analysis, considering two types of anodes, the Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) and the Mixed Metal Oxides (MMO). The operation of the AO unit increased the environmental burdens of the system by 95% on average (USEtox), but these impacts can be partially compensated by the avoided the production of non-renewable energy in the Portuguese electricity mix by biogas cogeneration at the WWTP. If the construction of the AO unit and the manufacturing of the electrodes are considered, the Human and Freshwater Toxicities are often higher than the environmental benefits derived from the PPs’ removal. On the economic side, the MMO configuration is clearly more advantageous, whereas BDD is environmentally more favorable. The issue of the presence of PP in MWW effluents has to be addressed as an integrated solution both improving upstream PP’s management and adopting PP’s removal technologies strongly supported by renewable energies. Further insights are needed for the assessment of fate and of the environmental effects of PP in the sludge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment)
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16 pages, 3426 KiB  
Article
Removal of Metals from Aqueous Solutions Using Sea Buckthorn Waste from Dietary Supplement Technology
by Lidia Kim, Gina-Alina Catrina (Traistaru), Georgiana Cernica, Vasile Staicu, Mariana Popescu and Cristina Ileana Covaliu
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1441; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031441 - 29 Jan 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1625
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to produce additional data for the valorization process of vegetable waste originating from dietary supplement technology. Two types of vegetable waste originating from different technological processes of sea buckthorn oil were used: vegetable waste from organic solvent [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study was to produce additional data for the valorization process of vegetable waste originating from dietary supplement technology. Two types of vegetable waste originating from different technological processes of sea buckthorn oil were used: vegetable waste from organic solvent extraction (P1) and vegetable waste from cold extraction (P2). Batch experiments evaluated the influence of pH, initial metal concentration, contact time, and Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The following pollutants—Cu, Cr, Co, Ni, Pb and Zn—from the wastewater were studied. The removal efficiency of metals from wastewater was evaluated at pH 3, 5 and 7. The highest metals removal efficiency was obtained at pH 5. It was observed that the Langmuir isotherm fits the adsorption process very well. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that vegetable waste resulting from the sea buckthorn oil industry could have potential applications for removing toxic metals from wastewater due to its high removal efficiency (>80%). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment)
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19 pages, 2864 KiB  
Article
Degradation of Oxytetracycline in Aqueous Solutions: Application of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Advanced Oxidative Processes
by José Miguel Giler-Molina, Luis Angel Zambrano-Intriago, Luis Santiago Quiroz-Fernández, Daniella Carla Napoleão, Judite dos Santos Vieira, Nelson Simões Oliveira and Joan Manuel Rodríguez-Díaz
Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8807; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218807 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3102
Abstract
Oxytetracycline is one of the antibiotics most frequently used in the Shrimp Industry during the control of bacterial diseases. These emerging pollutants, which appear in low concentrations, are persistent and alternative treatments and are required for their elimination. The degradation of oxytetracycline was [...] Read more.
Oxytetracycline is one of the antibiotics most frequently used in the Shrimp Industry during the control of bacterial diseases. These emerging pollutants, which appear in low concentrations, are persistent and alternative treatments and are required for their elimination. The degradation of oxytetracycline was evaluated in an aqueous solution by applying homogeneous (UV/H2O2 and photo-Fenton) and heterogeneous (UV/TiO2/H2O2) advanced oxidative processes (AOPs). The studies were carried out using a bench reactor with short-wave ultraviolet lamps (UV-C). We quantified the extent to which the degradation of the drug had been efficient by employing highly efficient liquid chromatography (HPLC) and a PDA detector with a wavelength of 354 nm and a C18 column. The best results were obtained when applying the UV/H2O2 treatment, which attained a degradation of 97% under the initial conditions of a dose of 8 µL of H2O2 and 120 min of radiation. The pseudo-first order kinetic model proposed by Chan and Chu showed that the experimental results had an adequate fit, with values greater than R2 ≥ 0.95. Toxicity tests were applied to verify the effect of AOPs employed, when the drug was present in low concentrations. The test results demonstrated a decrease in the root growth of the species Lactuca sativa and Daucus carota. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment)
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Review

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25 pages, 789 KiB  
Review
Current Trends of Arsenic Adsorption in Continuous Mode: Literature Review and Future Perspectives
by Mariko A. Carneiro, Ariana M. A. Pintor, Rui A. R. Boaventura and Cidália M. S. Botelho
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1186; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031186 - 23 Jan 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4170
Abstract
Arsenic is a toxic element for humans and a major pollutant in drinking water. Natural and anthropogenic sources can release As into water bodies. The countries with the greatest arsenic contamination issues lack the affordable technology to attain the maximum permitted concentrations. Adsorption [...] Read more.
Arsenic is a toxic element for humans and a major pollutant in drinking water. Natural and anthropogenic sources can release As into water bodies. The countries with the greatest arsenic contamination issues lack the affordable technology to attain the maximum permitted concentrations. Adsorption can be a highly efficient and low-cost option for advanced water treatment, and the development of new cheap adsorbents is essential to expand access to water with a safe concentration of arsenic. This paper aims to review the state of the art of arsenic adsorption from water in continuous mode and the latest progress in the regeneration and recovery of arsenic. The disposal of the exhausted bed is also discussed. Fixed-bed column tests conducted with novel adsorbents like binary metal oxides and biosorbents achieved the highest adsorption capacities of 28.95 mg/g and 74.8 mg/g, respectively. Iron-coated materials presented the best results compared to adsorbents under other treatments. High recovery rates of 99% and several cycles of bed regeneration were achieved, which can aggregate economic value for the process. Overall, further pilot-scale research is recommended to evaluate the feasibility of novel adsorbents for industrial purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Innovative Solutions for Wastewater Treatment)
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