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Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse

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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 (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 55248

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Prof. Dr. Mejdi Jeguirim

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Guest Editor

Institut de Science des Matériaux de Mulhouse (IS2M), Université de Haute-Alsace, CNRS, UMR 7361, 68093 Mulhouse, France
Interests: biomass valorization: pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion of different biomasses, including agriculture residues and agro-industrial by-products; thermal degradation mechanisms and kinetics; gas emission analysis; exhaust gas treatment: exhaust gas treatment in fixed and mobile sources; NOx and soot abatement; volatile organic compound elimination
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Dr. Salah Jellali

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Co-Guest Editor

Water research and technologies centre (CERTE), Touristic road of Soliman, BP 273, 8020, Soliman, Tunisia
Interests: water and wasetawter quality; wastewater treatment technologies; treated wastewater valorisation; treated wastewater reuse; water resources mangement; water resources governance; wastes management; agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Water resources management in general and wastewater treatment, valorization, and reuse in particular are currently being considered as important worldwide challenges. In this context, the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) aims to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, and minimizing the release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally. Nowadays, the paradigm of wastewater management is shifting from ‘treatment and disposal’ to ‘reuse, recycle, and resource recovery’. The main benefits of this new concept concern not only human and environmental health, food, and energy security but also climate change mitigation. Hence, in the context of a circular economy, whereby economic development must be balanced with natural resources preservation and environmental sustainability, wastewater can be considered an abundant source of precious and sustainable resources.

The main included themes in this Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

Wastewater treatment technologies;
Innovative technologies for the removal of emerging pollutants;
Decentralized wastewater treatment systems;
Sewage bio-solids management (methanisation, composting, land application, etc.);
Resources (struvite/energy) recovery from wastewater;
Reuse of recovered resources from wastewater;
Reuse of reclaimed wastewater (agriculture, groundwater recharge, industry, and others);
Wastewater reuse policy;
Wastewater reuse and monitoring.

Dr. Mejdi Jeguirim
Dr. Salah Jellali
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. Water 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
bio-solids
struvite
energy
reuse
agriculture
environment
monitoring
circular economy.

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

4 pages, 184 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Wastewater Treatment, Valorization, and Reuse

by Mejdi Jeguirim and Salah Jellali

Water 2021, 13(4), 548; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13040548 - 21 Feb 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1856

Abstract

This Special Issue includes investigations related to wastewater treatment, recovery, and reuse [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

19 pages, 7829 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Use of Lignite as a Low-Cost Material for Cadmium and Copper Removal from Aqueous Solutions: Assessment of Adsorption Characteristics and Exploration of Involved Mechanisms

by Salah Jellali, Ahmed Amine Azzaz, Mejdi Jeguirim, Helmi Hamdi and Ammar Mlayah

Water 2021, 13(2), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020164 - 12 Jan 2021

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 3230

Abstract

Lignite, as an available and low-cost material, was tested for cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) removal from aqueous solutions under various static experimental conditions. Experimental results showed that the removal efficiency of both metals was improved by increasing their initial concentrations, adsorbent dosage and aqueous pH values. The adsorption kinetic was very rapid for Cd since about 78% of the totally adsorbed amounts were removed after a contact time of only 1 min. For Cd and Cu, the kinetic and isothermal data were well fitted with pseudo-second order and Freundlich models, respectively, which suggests that Cd/Cu removal by lignite occurs heterogeneously on multilayers surfaces. The maximum Langmuir’s adsorption capacities of Cd and Cu were assessed to 38.0 and 21.4 mg g⁻¹ and are relatively important compared to some other lignites and raw natural materials. Results of proximate, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the removal of these metals occurs most likely through a combination of cation exchange and complexation with specific functional groups. The relatively high adsorption capacity of the used lignite promotes its future use as a low cost material for Cd and Cu removal from effluents, and possibly for other heavy metals or groups of pollutants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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18 pages, 2669 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wastewater Reclamation in Major Jordanian Industries: A Viable Component of a Circular Economy

by Motasem N. Saidan, Mohammad Al-Addous, Radwan A. Al-Weshah, Ibrahim Obada, Malek Alkasrawi and Nesrine Barbana

Water 2020, 12(5), 1276; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051276 - 30 Apr 2020

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 5870

Abstract

Water scarcity remains the major looming challenge that is facing Jordan. Wastewater reclamation is considered as an alternative source of fresh water in semi-arid areas with water shortage or increased consumption. In the present study, the current status of wastewater reclamation and reuse in Jordan was analyzed considering 30 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The assessment was based on the WWWTPs’ treatment processes in Jordan, the flowrates scale, and the effluents’ average total dissolved solid (TDS) contents. Accordingly, 60% of the WWTPs in Jordan used activated sludge as a treatment technology; 30 WWTPs were small scale (<1 × 10⁴ m³/day); and a total of 17.932 million m³ treated wastewater had low TDS (<1000 ppm) that generally can be used in industries with relatively minimal cost of treatment. Moreover, the analysis classified the 26 million m³ groundwater abstraction by major industries in Jordanian governorates. The results showed that the reclaimed wastewater can fully offset the industrial demand of fresh water in Amman, Zarqa, and Aqaba governorates. Hence, the environmental assessment showed positive impacts of reclaimed wastewater reuse scenario in terms of water depletion (saving of 72.55 million m³ groundwater per year) and climate change (17.683 million kg CO_2Eq reduction). The energy recovery assessment in the small- and medium-scale WWTPs (<10 × 10⁴ m³/day) revealed that generation of electricity by anaerobic sludge digestion equates potentially to an offset of 0.11–0.53 kWh/m³. Finally, several barriers and prospects were put forth to help the stakeholders when considering entering into an agreement to supply and/or reuse reclaimed water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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12 pages, 1100 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimization of Green Extraction and Purification of PHA Produced by Mixed Microbial Cultures from Sludge

by Guilherme A. de Souza Reis, Michiel H. A. Michels, Gabriela L. Fajardo, Ischa Lamot and Jappe H. de Best

Water 2020, 12(4), 1185; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12041185 - 21 Apr 2020

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 9346

Abstract

Sludge from municipal wastewater treatment systems can be used as a source of mixed microbial cultures for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Stored intracellularly, the PHA is accumulated by some species of bacteria as energy stockpile and can be extracted from the cells by reflux extraction. Dimethyl carbonate was tested as a solvent for the PHA extraction at different extraction times and biomass to solvent ratios, and 1-butanol was tested for purifying the obtained PHA at different purification times and PHA to solvent ratios. Overall, only a very small difference was observed in the different extraction scenarios. An average extraction amount of 30.7 ± 1.6 g of PHA per 100 g of biomass was achieved. After purification with 1-butanol, a visual difference was observed in the PHA between the tested scenarios, although the actual purity of the resulting samples did not present a significant difference. The overall purity increased from 91.2 ± 0.1% to 98.0 ± 0.1%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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12 pages, 2684 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Electrocoagulation: A Promising Method to Treat and Reuse Mineral Processing Wastewater with High COD

by Gaogui Jing, Shuai Ren, Yuesheng Gao, Wei Sun and Zhiyong Gao

Water 2020, 12(2), 595; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020595 - 21 Feb 2020

Cited by 46 | Viewed by 5153

Abstract

Mineral processing wastewater contains large amounts of reagents which can lead to severe environmental problems, such as high chemical oxygen demand (COD). Inspired by the wastewater treatment in such industries as those of textiles, food, and petrochemistry, in the present work, electrocoagulation (EC) is applied for the first time to explore its feasibility in the treatment of wastewater with an initial COD of 424.29 mg/L from a Pb/Zn sulfide mineral flotation plant and its effect on water reuse. Typical parameters, such as anode materials, current density, initial pH, and additives, were characterized to evaluate the performance of the EC method. The results showed that, under optimal conditions, i.e., iron anode, pH 7.1, electrolysis time 70 min, 19.23 mA/cm² current density, and 4.1 g/L activated carbon, the initial COD can be reduced to 72.9 mg/L, corresponding to a removal rate of 82.8%. In addition, compared with the untreated wastewater, EC-treated wastewater was found to benefit the recovery of galena and sphalerite, with galena recovery increasing from 25.01% to 36.06% and sphalerite recovery increasing from 59.99% to 65.33%. This study confirmed that EC is a promising method for the treatment and reuse of high-COD-containing wastewater in the mining industry, and it possesses great potential for wide industrial applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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13 pages, 481 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantitative PCR Detection of Enteric Viruses in Wastewater and Environmental Water Sources by the Lisbon Municipality: A Case Study

by Pedro Teixeira, Sílvia Costa, Bárbara Brown, Susana Silva, Raquel Rodrigues and Elisabete Valério

Water 2020, 12(2), 544; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020544 - 15 Feb 2020

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5835

Abstract

Current regulations and legislation require critical revision to determine safety for alternative water sources and water reuse as part of the solution to global water crisis. In order to fulfill those demands, Lisbon municipality decided to start water reuse as part of a sustainable hydric resources management, and there was a need to confirm safety and safeguard for public health for its use in this context. For this purpose, a study was designed that included a total of 88 samples collected from drinking, superficial, underground water, and wastewater at three different treatment stages. Quantitative Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) detection (qPCR) of enteric viruses Norovirus (NoV) genogroups I (GI) and II (GII) and Hepatitis A (HepA) was performed, and also FIB (E. coli, enterococci and fecal coliforms) concentrations were assessed. HepA virus was only detected in one untreated influent sample, whereas NoV GI/ NoV GI were detected in untreated wastewater (100/100%), secondary treated effluent (47/73%), and tertiary treated effluent (33/20%). Our study proposes that NoV GI and GII should be further studied to provide the support that they may be suitable indicators for water quality monitoring targeting wastewater treatment efficiency, regardless of the level of treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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16 pages, 2815 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Advanced Treatment of Real Grey Water by SBR Followed by Ultrafiltration—Performance and Fouling Behavior

by Gabriela Kamińska and Anna Marszałek

Water 2020, 12(1), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12010154 - 04 Jan 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4330

Abstract

Grey water has been identified as a potential source of water in a number of applications e.g., toilet flushing, laundering in first rinsing, floor cleaning, and irrigation. The major obstacle to the reuse of grey water relates to pathogens, nutrients, and organic matter found in grey water. Therefore, much effort has been put to treat grey water, in order to yield high-quality water deprived of bacteria and with an appropriate value in a wide range of quality parameters (Total Organic Carbon (TOC), nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, pH, and absorbance), similar to the values for tap water. The aim of this study was to treat the real grey water, and turn it into high-quality, safe water. For this purpose, the real grey water was treated by means of a sequential biological reactor (SBR) followed by ultrafiltration. Initially, grey water was treated in a laboratory SBR reactor with a capacity of 3 L, operated in a 24 h cycle. Then, SBR effluent was purified in a cross-flow ultrafiltration setup. Treatment efficiency in SBR and ultrafiltration was assessed using extended physicochemical and microbiological analyses (pH, conductivity, color, absorbance, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD₅), nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, total nitrogen, phenol index, nonionic and anionic surfactants, TOC, Escherichia coli, and enterococci). Additionally, ultrafiltration was evaluated in terms of fouling behavior for three polymer membranes with different MWCO (molecular weight cut-off). The values of quality parameters (pH, conductivity, COD, BOD₅, TOC, N-NH₄⁺, N-NO₃⁻, N_tot, and P-PO₄³⁻) measured in SBR effluent did not exceed permissible values for wastewater discharged to soil and water. Ultrafiltration provided the high-quality water with very low values of COD (5.8–18.1 mg/L), TOC (0.47–2.19 mg/L), absorbance_UV254 (0.015–0.048 1/cm), color (10–29 mgPt/L) and concentration of nitrate (0.18–0.56 mg/L), phosphate (0.9–2.1 mg/L), ammonium (0.03–0.11 mg/L), and total nitrogen (3.3–4.7 mg/L) as well as lack of E. coli and enterococci. Membrane structural and surface properties did not affect the treatment efficiency, but did influence the fouling behavior. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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18 pages, 2088 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pyrolysis Process as a Sustainable Management Option of Poultry Manure: Characterization of the Derived Biochars and Assessment of their Nutrient Release Capacities

by Samar Hadroug, Salah Jellali, James J. Leahy, Marzena Kwapinska, Mejdi Jeguirim, Helmi Hamdi and Witold Kwapinski

Water 2019, 11(11), 2271; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11112271 - 30 Oct 2019

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 4240

Abstract

Raw poultry manure (RPM) and its derived biochars at temperatures of 400 (B400) and 600 °C (B600) were physico-chemically characterized, and their ability to release nutrients was assessed under static conditions. The experimental results showed that RPM pyrolysis operation significantly affects its morphology, surface charges, and area, as well as its functional groups contents, which in turn influences its nutrient release ability. The batch experiments indicated that nutrient release from the RPM as well as biochars attains a pseudo-equilibrium state after a contact time of about 48 h. RPM pyrolysis increased phosphorus stability in residual biochars and, in contrast, transformed potassium to a more leachable form. For instance, at this contact time, P- and K-released amounts passed from 5.1 and 25.6 mg g⁻¹ for RPM to only 3.8 and more than 43.3 mg g⁻¹ for B400, respectively. On the other hand, six successive leaching batch experiments with a duration of 48 h each showed that P and K release from the produced biochars was a very slow process since negligible amounts continued to be released even after a total duration of 12 days. All these results suggest that RPM-derived biochars have specific physico-chemical characteristics allowing them to be used in agriculture as low-cost and slow-release fertilizers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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13 pages, 1682 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Filtration of Uncharged Solutes: An Assessment of Steric Effect by Transport and Adsorption Modelling

by Simona M. Miron, Patrick Dutournié and Arnaud Ponche

Water 2019, 11(10), 2173; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102173 - 19 Oct 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2782

Abstract

The major aim of this work was to understand and estimate the evolution of the membrane selectivity of neutral solutes after the filtration of protein or amino acid solutions. Classical methodologies led to the estimation of the mean pore radius, different for each filtrated neutral solute. The use of pore size distribution from nitrogen adsorption/desorption experiments enabled a good description of hydraulic and selectivity performances. The modification of the membrane hydraulic properties after the successive filtration of protein solutions revealed that the decrease is quasi linear, the same for all the studied membranes and independent of prior tests. According to the experimental observations, an adsorption model was developed, considering a layer by layer adsorption in the larger pores of the membrane. The predictive obtained results are in good agreement with the experimental rejection rates, validating the assumptions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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19 pages, 2888 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Textile Wastewater Purification Using an Elaborated Biosorbent Hybrid Material (Luffa–Cylindrica–Zinc Oxide) Assisted by Alternating Current

by Amina Othmani, Aida Kesraoui, Roberto Boada, Mongi Seffen and Manuel Valiente

Water 2019, 11(7), 1326; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071326 - 27 Jun 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3320

Abstract

This paper aims to synthesize hybrid materials with high pollutant-uptake capacity and low costbased based on Luffa cylindrica (L.C) and different percentage of Zn²⁺ in the presence and absence of alternating current (AC). Physico-chemical, morphological and structural characterizations of the hybrid materials were performed by Boehm method, point zero charge (pH_pzc), infrared characterizations (IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy–dispersive spectroscopyand and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The efficiency of the designed hybrid materials was optimized based on their performance in water depollution. Methylene blue (MB) and industrial textile wastewater were the investigated pollutants models. IR characterizations confirmed the fixation of Zn²⁺ onto the L.C by the creation of Zn-OH, Zn-O and Zn-O-C bonds. Boehm titration showed that the fixation of Zn²⁺ onto L.C is accompanied by an increase of the basic functions of its surface and subsequently an increase in the pH_pzc. SEM results confirmed the fixation of Zn²⁺ onto the L.C coupling AC with biosorption showed an increase in the adsorbed amount of MB and speed when adding the 4% of Zn²⁺ compared to the pure L.C the Q_m shifted from 3.22 to 9.84 and 8.81 mg/g, respectively, for hybrid materials synthesized under AC, in absence of AC and pure L.C. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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13 pages, 3288 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Olive Mill Wastewater: From a Pollutant to Green Fuels, Agricultural Water Source, and Bio-Fertilizer. Part 2: Water Recovery

by Patrick Dutournié, Mejdi Jeguirim, Besma Khiari, Mary-Lorène Goddard and Salah Jellali

Water 2019, 11(4), 768; https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040768 - 13 Apr 2019

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 7173

Abstract

Water shortage is a very concerning issue in the Mediterranean region, menacing the viability of the agriculture sector and in some countries, population wellbeing. At the same time, liquid effluent volumes generated from agro-food industries in general and olive oil industry in particular, are quite huge. Thus, the main aim of this work is to suggest a sustainable solution for the management of olive mill wastewaters (OMWW) with possible reuse in irrigation. This work is a part of a series of papers valorizing all the outputs of a three-phase system of oil mills. It deals with recovery, by condensation, of water from both OMWW and OMWW-impregnated biomasses (sawdust and wood chips), during a convective drying operation (air velocity: 1 m/s and air temperature: 50 °C). The experimental results showed that the water yield recovery reaches about 95%. The condensate waters have low electrical conductivity and salinities but also acidic pH values and slightly high chemical oxygen demand (COD) values. However, they could be returned suitable for reuse in agriculture after additional low-cost treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Treatment, Valorization and Reuse)

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