Summary

The principal objective of wastewater treatment is generally to allow human and industrial effluents to be disposed of without danger to human health or unacceptable damage to the natural environment. Typical processes that are investigated and applied to wastewater treatment can be the following: biological, adsorption, flocculation, oxidation, membranes, filtration, etc. This entry collection features information about many processes of wastewater treatment and many other related issues such as reuse, cost, fluid aspects, plants, etc.

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Topic Review
Contaminants of Emerging Concern
Worldwide, the pollution of water bodies by contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) such as pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting compounds, flame retardants including brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and perfluorochemicals (PFCs), microplastics, nanomaterials, and algal toxins, to name just a few, is creating a new set of challenges to the conventional wastewater treatment facilities, which demonstrate inefficiency in removing/degrading many CECs. As a consequence, environmentalists started to detect the presence of some of those contaminants at alarming levels in certain countries, with possible negative effects on aquatic species and often increased potential for human health risks through exposure to the contaminated waters, or the reuse of treated wastewater in agriculture and household use. Such issues are more accentuated in the African continent due to various socio-economic problems giving rise to poor sanitation systems and serious shortages in wastewater treatment plants in many regions, making it difficult to tackle the problem of conventional pollutants, let alone to deal with the more challenging CECs. Thus, in order to effectively deal with this emerging environmental threat, African researchers are working to develop and optimize sound sampling and analytical procedures, risk assessment models, and efficient remediation technologies.
  • 852
  • 06 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Adsorbent Technologies for Wastewater Treatment
Wastewater generation and treatment is an ever-increasing concern in the current century due to increased urbanization and industrialization. To tackle the situation of increasing environmental hazards, numerous wastewater treatment approaches are used—i.e., physical, chemical, and biological (primary to tertiary treatment) methods. Various treatment techniques being used have the risks of producing secondary pollutants. The most promising technique is the use of different materials as adsorbents that have a higher efficacy in treating wastewater, with a minimal production of secondary pollutants. Biosorption is a key process that is highly efficient and cost-effective. This method majorly uses the adsorption process/mechanism for toxicant removal from wastewater. 
  • 7.1K
  • 04 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Biowastes on Soil Remediation
Biowastes refer to the biodegradable food residues from private household and food industry, garden industry, municipal wastes, and sewage sludge.
  • 1.1K
  • 29 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Forward Osmosis
Forward osmosis (FO), the most common osmotically driven membrane process, stands out as the most promising alternative for RO processes due to its inherently low fouling tendency, easier fouling removal, and energy efficiency when compared to pressure-driven–type membrane processes.
  • 1.5K
  • 21 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Biocoagulant/bioflocculant application for drinking water
The utilization of metal-based conventional coagulants/flocculants to remove suspended solids from drinking water and wastewater is currently leading to new concerns. Alarming issues related to the prolonged effects on human health and further pollution to aquatic environments from the generated nonbiodegradable sludge are becoming trending topics. The utilization of biocoagulants/bioflocculants does not produce chemical residue in the effluent and creates nonharmful, biodegradable sludge.
  • 3.9K
  • 25 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Microplastics
Plastics are broken down to microplastics (MPs), which are <5 mm in size. There are two types of MPs—primary MPs that are intentionally manufactured (detergent) and secondary MPs that are generated via mechanical collision, biodegradation, and photo-oxidative degradation of primary MPs. Both types of MPs carry toxic organic pollutants and heavy metals, since they have large surface areas and strong hydrophobicity. Microplastic (MP)-based contaminants in the environment are pervasive, but standard technologies used for MP identification have not yet been reported. Human beings take up MPs from the environmental ecosystem through the food chain without any particular purification. MPs can penetrate into capillaries from the bloodstream, resulting in endocrine system disorders or toxicity.In this review, we introduced several technologies, such as filtration using membranes, biological degradation, electrocoagulation, and removal using nanoparticles, used for the purification of MPs or related contaminants. Current studies of identification methods of MPs and evaluation tests of MPs exposure-based harmfulness in vitro and in vivo were summarized.
  • 1.6K
  • 21 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Alkylimidazoles
Alkylimidazoles have good complexing properties, also they are  cheap so can be successfully used in the separation of metal ions from aqueous solutions.
  • 1.8K
  • 16 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Treatments for Minimizing Sewage Sludge
Similar to other types of waste, sewage sludge (SS) must be minimized, not only to respect the European Directive 2018/851 on waste, but also because the cost of sludge management is approximately 50% of the total running costs of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Usually, minimization technologies can involve sewage sludge production with three different strategies: (i) adopting a process in the water line that reduces the production of sludge; (ii) reducing the water content (dewatering processes) or (iii) reducing the fraction of volatile solids (stabilization).
  • 894
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Antibiotics in Poultry Production
The utilization of antibiotics in feed has been reevaluated since bacterial pathogens have established and shared a variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms that can easily be spread within microbial communities. Multiple countries have introduced bans or severe restrictions on the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics. Since the use of antibiotics may have a positive influence on poultry performance, excessive use as growth promoters harms human health. This has therefore warranted the urgent need for alternatives.
  • 1.1K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Nanostructured Materials for Uranium Removal
Groundwater is commonly used as a drinking water resource all over the world. Therefore, groundwater contamination by toxic metals is an important issue of utmost concern for public health, and several technologies are applied for their effective removal, such as coagulation, ion exchange, adsorption, and membrane applications like reverse osmosis. Adsorption is acknowledged as a simple, effective and economic technology, which has received increased interest recently, despite certain limitations regarding operational applications. The respective scientific efforts have been specifically focused on the development and implementation of novel nano-structured adsorbent materials, which may offer extensive specific surface areas, much higher than the conventional adsorbents, and hence, are expected to present higher removal efficiencies of pollutants. In this paper, the recent developments of nanomaterial applications for uranium removal from groundwaters are critically reviewed. Particularly, the use of novel composite materials, based mainly on hybrid metallic oxide nanoparticles and on composites based on graphene oxide (GO) (i.e., graphene-based hybrids), showed promising evidences to achieve efficient removal of toxic metals from water sources, even in full scale applications.
  • 1.0K
  • 12 May 2020
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