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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Water Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 23130

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Dr. Tan Chen

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Guest Editor

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: municipal sewage sludge treatment and disposal; heavy metal pollution control; environmental functional material
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Zhengyu Jin

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Guest Editor

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: wastewater treatment; carbon pre-concentration; resource recovery; magnetic field
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Dr. Ting Yang

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Guest Editor

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: soil remediation; amendment; heavy metal; humic acid; biochar; advanced oxidation process; metal–organic frameworks
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Dr. Bing Zhang

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Guest Editor

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: antibiotic resistance; pathogens; virus; microbial community assembly; function and stability of wastewater treatment plants
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Dr. Xue Xia

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Guest Editor

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: wastewater treatment; resource recovery; bioelectrochemical systems; membrane filtration
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to greet you from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). We are inviting manuscripts for the journal's Special Issue in the form of original research, reviews, case reports, short reports, etc.

Wastewater contains many pollutants and is discharged by various sources in large amounts. The control technology and health effect of wastewater and water environment is a continuous research focus, and meanwhile, a lot of novel methods, materials, and understandings are investigated and analyzed. The aim of the Special Issue is to report the research and engineering practice progress in wastewater pollution, risk, and treatment. We are pleased to invite you to submit your manuscript on the topics of WASTEWATER and WATER ENVIRONMENT.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following: wastewater pollution and ecological risk, wastewater health effect, new pollutants in wastewater, novel treatment technologies of wastewater, and wastewater management strategy.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Water.

Dr. Tan Chen
Dr. Zhengyu Jin
Dr. Ting Yang
Dr. Bing Zhang
Dr. Xue Xia
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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2500 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
sewage sludge treatment and disposal
wastewater pollution
industrial wastewater treatment
reclamation and utilization of sewage
denitrification, phosphorus removal, and desalination
microbiology of water treatment
water advanced treatment
water environment and surface sediments.

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Related Special Issue

Wastewater Pollution and Control in Water (1 article)

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3701 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fast Capture and Efficient Removal of Bloom Algae Based on Improved Dielectrophoresis Process

by Jinxin Liu, Qinghao Jin, Junfeng Geng, Jianxin Xia, Yanhong Wu and Huiying Chen

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 832; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010832 - 1 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2427

Abstract

A dielectrophoresis (DEP) method for direct capture and fast removal of Anabaena was established in this work. The factors affecting the removal efficiency of Anabaena were investigated systematically, leading to optimized experimental conditions and improved DEP process equipment. The experimental results showed that our improved DEP method could directly capture Anabaena in eutrophic water with much enhanced removal efficiency of Anabaena from high-concentration algal bloom-eutrophication-simulated solution. The removal rate could increase by more than 20% after applying DEP at 15 V compared with a pure filtration process. Moreover, the removal rate could increase from 38.76% to 80.18% in optimized experimental conditions (the initial concentration of 615 μg/L, a flow rate of 0.168 L/h, an AC voltage of 15 V, and frequency of 100 kHz). Optical microscopic images showed that the structure of the captured algae cells was intact, indicating that the DEP method could avoid the secondary pollution caused by the addition of reagents and the release of phycotoxins, providing a new practical method for emergent treatment of water bloom outbreaks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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16 pages, 2411 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solvent-Free Synthesis of Magnetic Sewage Sludge-Derived Biochar for Heavy Metal Removal from Wastewater

by Jiayi Tian, Kexin Guo, Yucan Sun, Ruoxi Lin, Tan Chen, Bing Zhang, Yifei Liu and Ting Yang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 155; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010155 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2526

Abstract

The commonly used two-step and one-pot synthesis methods for producing biochar require the use of iron salt solutions, resulting in the undesirable consequences of energy consumption for dewatering and potential pollution risks. To address this drawback, a magnetic sewage sludge-derived biochar (MSBC-2) was synthesized by a solvent-free method in this study. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir model provided the best fit to the experimental data, implying a monolayered chemisorption process of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺and Cu²⁺ onto MSBC-2. As the reaction temperature increased from 25 °C to 45 °C, the maximum adsorption capacities increased from 113.64 mg·g⁻¹ to 151.52 mg·g⁻¹ for Pb²⁺, from 101.01 mg·g⁻¹ to 109.89 mg·g⁻¹ for Cd²⁺ and from 57.80 mg·g⁻¹ to 74.07 mg·g⁻¹ for Cu²⁺, respectively. Thermodynamic parameters (ΔG⁰ < 0, ΔS⁰ > 0, ΔH⁰ > 0) revealed that the adsorption processes of all three metals by MSBC-2 were favourable, spontaneous and endothermic. Surface complexation, cation-π interaction, ion exchange and electrostatic attraction mechanisms were involved in the adsorption of Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Cu²⁺ onto MSBC-2. Overall, this study will provide a new perspective for the synthesis of magnetic biochar and MSBC-2 shows great potential as an adsorbent for heavy metal removal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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15 pages, 1649 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Emission Accounting and the Carbon Neutralization Model for a Typical Wastewater Treatment Plant in China

by Chenxi Pang, Xi Luo, Bing Rong, Xuebiao Nie, Zhengyu Jin and Xue Xia

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 140; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010140 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2654

Abstract

To reduce carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality in China, it is pivotal to explore low-carbon wastewater treatment processes and carbon-neutral wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study investigated the Beijing Gaobeidian WWTP to explore the current energy consumption and carbon emission status of representative WWTPs in China. Furthermore, it explored a possible low-carbon operating model. Results show that the current total energy consumption of Gaobeidian WWTP is 280,717 MWh/y, while its energy recovery is 268,788 MWh/y. As a result, the energy neutralization ratio is 95.8%, and the plant is close to reaching energy neutrality. The carbon emission of this plant is 446,468 t/y. However, it reduced its carbon emissions by 252,994 t/y and reached only 56.7% of carbon neutrality. Although the plant almost reached energy neutrality, it has a long way to go before reaching carbon neutrality. It was found that a subsequent increase in the recovery of residual heat from secondary effluent can increase the energy and carbon neutralization ratio to 523.1% and 219.0%, respectively, meaning that the WWTP can become a power production unit and a carbon sink. This study can provide a reference for exploring efficient energy use and reaching carbon neutrality for domestic WWTPs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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17 pages, 3190 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Diphasic Sheeting Device with Cyanex-301 for Dislodging Feature of Divalent Cadmium from Industrial Effluent

by Liang Pei and Chunhui Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13281; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013281 - 14 Oct 2022

Viewed by 1214

Abstract

A novel diphasic sheeting device (DSD) including complemental feeding stage and complemental disintegrating stage for dislodging features of Cd(II), was investigated. The complemental feeding stage included feeding liquor and Bis(2,4,4 trimethylamyl) dithiophosphonic acid (Cyanex-301) as the carrier in petroleum, and the complemental disintegrating stage included Cyanex-301 as the carrier in petroleum and hydrochloric acid as the disintegrating reagent. The impacts of volumetric ratio of sheeting liquor and feeding liquor(S/F), initial molarity of Cd(II) and ion intensity of the feeding liquor, pH, volumetric ratio of sheeting liquor and disintegrating reagent (S/D), molarity of hydrochloric acid liquor, Cyanex-301 molarity in the complemental disintegrating stage on dislodging of Cd(II), the virtues of DSD compared to the traditional sheeting device, the constancy of system, the reuse of sheeting liquor, and the retention of the sheeting stage were also investigated. Experimental results illustrated that the optimum dislodging conditions of Cd(II) were achieved as hydrochloric acid molarity was 4.00 mol/L, Cyanex-301 molarity was 0.150 mol/L, and S/D was 1:1 in the complemental disintegrating stage, S/F was 1:10, and pH was 5.00 in the complemental feeding stage. The ion intensity of the complemental feeding stage had no distinct impact on the dislodging feature of Cd(II). When initial Cd(II) molarity was 3.20 × 10⁻⁴ mol/L, the Cd(II) dislodging percentage was up to 92.9% in 210 min. The dynamic formula was inferred on the basis of the theorem of mass transferring and the interfacial chemistry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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19 pages, 4784 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biological Activated Sludge from Wastewater Treatment Plant before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

by Marius-Daniel Roman, Cornel Sava, Dana-Adriana Iluțiu-Varvara, Roxana Mare, Lavinia-Lorena Pruteanu, Elena Maria Pică and Lorentz Jäntschi

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(18), 11323; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811323 - 8 Sep 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2801

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the related measures brought a change in daily life that affected the characteristics of the municipal wastewater and further, of the biological activated sludge. The activated sludge process is the most widely used biological wastewater treatment process in developed areas. In this paper, we aim to show the situation of specific investigations concerning the variation of the physicochemical parameters and biological composition of the activated sludge from one conventional wastewater treatment plant from a metropolitan area. The investigations were carried out for three years: 2019, 2020 and 2021. The results showed the most representative taxa of microorganisms: Microtrix, Aspidisca cicada, Vorticella convallaria, Ciliata free of the unknown and Epistylis and Rotifers. Even if other microorganisms were found in the sludge flocs, their small presence did not influence in any way the quality of the activated sludge and of the wastewater treatment process. That is why we conclude that protozoa (especially Flagellates and Ciliates) and rotifers were the most important. Together with the values and variation of the physicochemical parameters, they indicated a good, healthy, and stable activated sludge, along with an efficient purifying treatment process, no matter the loading conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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26 pages, 1194 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Formation Mechanism of a Coastal Zone Environment Collaborative Governance Relationship: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Based on fsQCA

by Wanjuan Wang and Hongbo Gong

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(17), 11081; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191711081 - 4 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2249

Abstract

The coastal zone is an area where terrestrial and marine ecosystems intersect. This region may be subject to outstanding environmental issues, as influenced by many stakeholders. Based on the framework of collaborative governance, the starting conditions for forming a coastal zone environment collaborative governance relationship are proposed as follows: coastal zone environment, balanced level of power and resources, superior-level government participation, and previous cooperation experience. The coastal environmental governance practices of 14 cities along the continental coastal zone of the East China Sea are selected as cases, in order to test the interactions between and influence mechanisms of the starting conditions. As qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), based on set theory and Boolean algebra, is a popular tool to explain complex collaboration situations in small-N cases; and as fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) allows for fine classification of the membership degree (where the condition can be allocated any number between 0 and 1), we use fsQCA to analyze the collaborative governance relationships. The results of the analysis demonstrate that three combination configurations promote the formation of medium–high intensity collaborative governance relationships: high balance level of power and resources × high previous cooperation experience, high pollution of coastal zone environment × high balance level of power and resources × low superior-level government participation, and high pollution of coastal zone environment × high superior-level government participation × high previous cooperation experience. Based on this conclusion, we determine three types of relationship formation modes: wheel-, echo state network-, and umbrella-shaped modes. Notably, under certain conditions, superior-level government participation is not necessary for the formation of a medium–high intensity collaborative governance relationship. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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18 pages, 3499 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Individuals’ Perception of Wastewater Pollution Decrease Their Self-Rated Health? Evidence from China

by Shu Wang, Jipeng Pei, Kuo Zhang, Dawei Gong, Karlis Rokpelnis, Weicheng Yang and Xiao Yu

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7291; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127291 - 14 Jun 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2030

Abstract

Background: This study used original survey data to quantitatively investigate the associations between individuals’ perception of locally present wastewater pollution and their self-rated health. Methods: This research used the data from large-scale surveys covering all the 31 provinces and equivalent administrative units in mainland China and interviewed 6112 participants. The ordered logit method was employed to estimate the models. Results: The results indicated that individuals’ perceptions of local industrial and domestic wastewater pollution significantly decrease their self-rated health. If industrial wastewater pollution was reported, the possibility of the observers indicating lower levels of self-rated current health, comparing to the past year, and comparing with peers, all increased by 26% (p < 0.001), 23% (p = 0.005), and 18% (p = 0.006), respectively. Likewise, perceived domestic wastewater pollution led to the increase by 21% (p = 0.012), 17% (p = 0.034), and 33% (p = 0.000), respectively. Meanwhile, reported industrial wastewater pollution also has an obvious negative effect on individuals’ health performance, such as being more fatigued and upset. Conclusions: The survey clearly shows that Chinese individuals who are aware of water pollution in their living environment tend to experience more negative health outcomes, which adds additional urgency to improving wastewater treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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16 pages, 1809 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Partial Nitrification and Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in a Sequencing Batch Reactor Treating High-Strength Wastewater

by Xiaojun Feng, Yishi Qian, Peng Xi, Rui Cao, Lu Qin, Shengwei Zhang, Guodong Chai, Mengbo Huang, Kailong Li, Yi Xiao, Lin Xie, Yuxin Song and Dongqi Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5653; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095653 - 6 May 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2127

Abstract

Complex and high levels of various pollutants in high-strength wastewaters hinder efficient and stable biological nutrient removal. In this study, the changes in pollutant removal performance and microbial community structure in a laboratory-scale anaerobic/aerobic sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treating simulated pre-fermented high-strength wastewater were investigated under different influent loading conditions. The results showed that when the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and orthophosphate (PO₄³⁻-P) concentrations in the SBR increased to 983, 56, and 20 mg/L, respectively, the COD removal efficiency was maintained above 85%, the TN removal efficiency was 64.5%, and the PO₄³⁻-P removal efficiency increased from 78.3% to 97.5%. Partial nitrification with simultaneous accumulation of ammonia (NH₄⁺-N) and nitrite (NO₂⁻-N) was observed, which may be related to the effect of high influent load on ammonia- and nitrite-oxidising bacteria. The biological phosphorus removal activity was higher when propionate was used as the carbon source instead of acetate. The relative abundance of glycogen accumulating organisms (GAOs) increased significantly with the increase in organic load, while Tetrasphaera was the consistently dominant polyphosphate accumulating organism (PAO) in the reactor. Under high organic loading conditions, there was no significant PAO–GAO competition in the reactor, thus the phosphorus removal performance was not affected. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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11 pages, 1985 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Highly Efficient Removal of Nitrate and Phosphate to Control Eutrophication by the Dielectrophoresis-Assisted Adsorption Method

by Jiaxi Li, Qinghao Jin, Yuran Liang, Junfeng Geng, Jianxin Xia, Huiying Chen and Miaoying Yun

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1890; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031890 - 8 Feb 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3938

Abstract

The removal of excessive amounts of nitrate and phosphate from water sources, especially agricultural wastewater, has been of high significance to control eutrophication in aquatic systems. Here, a new method is reported for the removal of nitrate and phosphate simultaneously from wastewater based on the combination of the solution-phased adsorption (ADS) and dielectrophoresis (DEP) techniques. The plant ash was first selected as the adsorbent by screening tests, followed by a systematic investigation of using the adsorbent to remove nitrate and phosphate from wastewater under various experimental conditions, including the testing of adsorbent dosage, pretreatment time, water flow rate, and electrode voltage. The analysis of the adsorbent particles was also performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, the energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) test, and the measurement of Zeta potentials. Compared with the ADS method alone, the introduction of DEP into the purification process has greatly increased the removal rate by 66.06% for nitrate and 43.04% for phosphate, respectively. In the meantime, it is observed that the processing time has been greatly reduced by 92% with the assistance of DEP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater Pollution and Control)

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