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
Hydrothermal Carbonization of Food Waste for Char Production
Managing the increasing volume of food waste worldwide has become a major challenge. In addition, the energy crisis in developing nations of the world is increasing at an alarming rate and the need to proffer solutions is not only expedient but must be of high priority. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) refers to a conversion of biomass into an energy-densified or carbon-rich char product. It involves hydrolysis, dehydration, polymerization, and carbonization reactions taking place within moderate temperature (between 180 and 260 °C) and pressure (between 35 and 55 bar) ranges.
  • 662
  • 30 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Biological Remediation of Polyfluorinated Compounds
Polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are a class of anthropogenic emerging persistent organic pollutants that consist of a fully fluorinated hydrophobic alkyl chain attached to a hydrophilic chain end group. The PFCs’ carbon–fluorine (C-F) bond, characterized by strong polarity and strength, make them possess peculiar physicochemical properties such as hydrophobicity and resistance to degradation by heat and acid. Their environmental occurrence particularly in drinking water samples and water receiving bodies, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) being the most detected PFCs is evident that they cannot be completely eradicated by conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, despite the PFCs' stable C-F bond, recent literature suggests that PFCs are susceptible to bioremediation by certain bacterial strain and plant species. A lot of work still needs to be done in the context of understanding the biodegradation pathway of PFOA and PFOS by both bacterial strain and plant species. 
  • 475
  • 16 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Wastewater Fecal Pollution Management
Global water scarcity has led to significant dependence on reclaimed or recycled water for potable uses. Effluents arising from human and animal gut microbiomes highly influence water quality. Wastewater pollution is, therefore, frequently monitored using bacterial indicators (BI).
  • 577
  • 16 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Nanomaterials as a Sustainable Choice for Treating Wastewater
The removal of dyes from textile effluents utilizing advanced wastewater treatment methods with high efficiency and low cost has received substantial attention due to the rise in pollutants in water. For the purpose of treating sewage, the special properties of nanoparticles are being carefully researched. The ability of nanomaterials to remove organic matter, fungus, and viruses from wastewater is another benefit. Nanomaterials are employed in advanced oxidation techniques to clean wastewater. Additionally, because of their small dimensions, nanoparticles have a wide effective area of contact. Due to this, nanoparticles’ adsorption and reactivity are powerful. The improvement of nanomaterial technology will be beneficial for the treatment of wastewater. 
  • 471
  • 14 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Treatment of Textile Wastewater
Clothing, one of the basic needs, demands the growth of textile industries worldwide, resulting in higher consumption and pollution of water. Consequently, it requires extensive treatment of textile effluent for environmental protection as well as reuse purposes. Primary treatment, secondary treatment, and tertiary treatment are the three major phases of textile wastewater treatment. Secondary treatment under aerobic and anaerobic circumstances is carried out to decrease BOD, COD, phenol, residual oil, and color, whereas primary treatment is utilized to remove suspended particles, oil, grease, and gritty materials. However, biological treatment is not fully capable of treating water according to discharge/reuse standards. Hence, tertiary treatment is used to remove final contaminants from the wastewater. 
  • 490
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Semiconductors Application in Wastewater Treatment
Photocatalysis has been vastly applied for the removal of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) and other micropollutants, with the aim of future water reclamation. As a process based upon photon irradiation, materials that may be activated through natural light sources are highly pursued, to facilitate their application and reduce costs. TiO2 is a reference material, and it has been greatly optimized. However, in its typical configuration, it is known to be mainly active under ultraviolet radiation. Thus, multiple alternative visible light driven (VLD) materials have been intensively studied recently. WO3 and g-C3N4 are currently attractive VLD catalysts, with WO3 possessing similarities with TiO2 as a metal oxide, allowing correlations between the knowledge regarding the reference catalyst, and g-C3N4 having an interesting and distinct non-metallic polymeric structure with the benefit of easy production.
  • 399
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Application of Natural Coagulants in Water Treatment
The most popular and conventional method for water treatment (WT)  is the use of chemical-based coagulants including ferric chloride (FeCl3), alum (AlCl3), synthetic polymers (polyacrylamide), and poly aluminum. However, the use of this approach is not sustainable as it leads to the production of a large volume of non-biodegradable sludge. Natural coagulants, on the other hand, serve as an alternative sustainable strategy for the removal of turbidity and WT, as they are cheap, safe, and biodegradable. Natural coagulants are derived from three major sources, which include plants, animals, and microorganisms.
  • 2.2K
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Constructed Wetlands as a Sustainable Sanitation Solution
The application of nature-based solutions (NBSs) in treating wastewater are treatment wetlands or constructed wetlands (CW). CWs are natural treatment technologies that efficiently treat many different types of wastewater (domestic wastewater, agricultural wastewater, coal drainage wastewater, petroleum refinery wastewater, compost and landfill leachates, fish-pond discharges, industrial wastewater from pulp and paper mills, textile mills, seafood processing). CWs can effectively treat raw wastewater to different levels of treatments and can be used as a primary, secondary, or tertiary treatment. CWs are engineered systems designed to optimize and copy processes found in natural environments thus they are considered as sustainable, environmentally friendly options for wastewater treatment. CWs have low operational and maintenance requirements and have a stable performance with less vulnerability to inflow variation. CWs have proved their ability to treat several types of wastewaters. Several benefits and facts, such as the low construction and operational costs of CWs, low-energy, and less operational requirements, have raised the interests in CWs as a treatment technology. The sustainability of CWs as a sanitation solution (technical, financial, environmental sustainability) is described with a focus on integrating climate change resilience and a circular economic approach to the technical and financial sustainability.
  • 807
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Low-Temperature Pretreatment of Biomass for Enhancing Biogas Production
Low-temperature pretreatment (LTPT, Temp. < 100 °C or 140 °C) has the advantages of low input, simplicity, and energy saving, which makes engineering easy to use for improving biogas production. However, compared with high-temperature pretreatment (>150 °C) that can destroy recalcitrant polymerized matter in biomass, the action mechanism of heat treatment of biomass is unclear. Improving LTPT on biogas yield is often influenced by feedstock type, treatment temperature, exposure time, and fermentation conditions. Such as, even when belonging to the same algal biomass, the response to LTPT varies between species. Therefore, forming a unified method for LTPT to be applied in practice is difficult.
  • 468
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Bulk and Microfluidic-Based pH Sensors
The determination of pH is of paramount importance in environmental, pharmaceutical, and medicinal sciences, etc., for accurate controlling, monitoring, and adjusting whole processes on microscale and macroscale. Therefore, the pH measurements have drawn continuous efforts from a great deal of research. The bulk pH determination can tackle part of the demands from laboratories and industrial applications.
  • 453
  • 01 Dec 2022
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