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Advances in Wastewater Reuse
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Advances in Wastewater Reuse

A special issue of Resources (ISSN 2079-9276).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 17 February 2025 | Viewed by 11113

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Seong-Nam Nam

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Interests: water treatment and reuse; advanced oxidation processes; adsorption; membrane filtration; machine-learning-based modeling of water treatment processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to fast-increasing populations and climate emergencies, securing available water is becoming an increasingly urgent issue worldwide. Saving water or exploiting clean water sources is not sustainable for water scarcity. Wastewater is considered a potential resource because wastewater itself contains diverse materials consisting of pollutants and precious substances. After treatment, wastewater can be used for a variety of applications, from irrigation to even potable purposes.

Over the past few decades, rapid development and improvement in techniques and materials for water treatment as well as analysis of substances at nano- or sub-nano levels have made substantial contributions to understanding the complexities of wastewater and in augmenting its reuse. Applications of artificial intelligence-based techniques such as machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) in water treatment and process engineering have improved accuracy in the simulation and prediction of complicated treatment processes and provided new insights into material design and interpretation.

This Special Issue will accept original research and review papers on topics related to the following: 

  • Treatment of emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, ARBs or ARGs, microplastics, nanoparticles, etc.) using advanced or multi-barrier combinations of treatment methods (adsorption, catalytic oxidation, separation processes, etc.);
  • Application and practices of low-cost and highly efficient materials for wastewater treatment;
  • Development of new materials or novel applications of existing materials for water treatment;
  • Modeling/computational analysis using artificial-intelligence-based (e.g., ML/DL techniques, molecular dynamics, density functional theory) approaches for molecular-level interactions and/or process-level simulations;
  • Recovery of precious materials and nutrients from wastewater;
  • Generation of energy from the wastewater treatment process.

Dr. Seong-Nam Nam
Guest Editor

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. Resources 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 1600 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

  • advanced water treatment
  • artificial intelligence
  • contaminants of emerging concern
  • machine learning
  • pharmaceuticals
  • water reuse
  • wastewater-to-resource

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

36 pages, 10759 KiB  
Article
Chemical Leasing (Ch.L.) and the Sherwood Plot
by Georgios Karakatsanis and Christos Makropoulos
Resources 2024, 13(5), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources13050065 - 8 May 2024
Viewed by 1797
Abstract
Although the Circular Economy (CE) has made remarkable technological progress by offering a wide range of alternative engineering solutions, an obstacle for its large-scale commercialization is nested in the adoption of those business and financial models that accurately depict the value generated from [...] Read more.
Although the Circular Economy (CE) has made remarkable technological progress by offering a wide range of alternative engineering solutions, an obstacle for its large-scale commercialization is nested in the adoption of those business and financial models that accurately depict the value generated from resource recovery. Recovering a resource from a waste matrix conserves natural reserves in situ by reducing demand for virgin resources, as well as conserving environmental carrying capacities by reducing waste discharges. The standard business model for resource recovery is Industrial Symbiosis (IS), where industries organize in clusters and allocate the process of waste matrices to achieve the recovery of a valuable resource at an optimal cost. Our work develops a coherent microeconomic architecture of Chemical Leasing (Ch.L.) contracts within the analytical framework of the Sherwood Plot (SP) for recovering a Value-Added Compound (VAC) from a wastewater matrix. The SP depicts the relationship between the VAC’s dilution in the wastewater matrix and its cost of recovery. ChL is engineered on the SP as a financial contract, motivating industrial synergies for delivering the VAC at the target dilution level at the market’s minimum cost and with mutual profits. In this context, we develop a ChL market typology where information completeness on which industry is most cost-efficient in recovering a VAC at every dilution level determines market dominance via a Kullback–Leibler Divergence (DKL) metric. In turn, we model how payoffs are allocated between industries via three ChL contract pricing systems, their profitability limits, and their fitting potential by market type. Finally, we discuss the emerging applications of ChL financial engineering in relation to three vital pillars of resource recovery and natural capital conservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Reuse)
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11 pages, 4824 KiB  
Article
Separation of Cellulose from Wastewater and Valorisation via Pyrolysis: A Case Study in the Czech Republic
by Denisa Djordjevićová, Marco Carnevale Miino, Jakub Raček, Tomáš Chorazy, Petr Hlavínek and Zuzana Vranayova
Resources 2024, 13(4), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources13040051 - 5 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1428
Abstract
Currently, the recovery of resources from urban wastewater (WW) represents a priority. On this topic, the potential recovery of cellulose for its subsequent reuse in different sectors is gaining interest. In this work, a large-size conventional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was selected as [...] Read more.
Currently, the recovery of resources from urban wastewater (WW) represents a priority. On this topic, the potential recovery of cellulose for its subsequent reuse in different sectors is gaining interest. In this work, a large-size conventional wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was selected as a case study. A preliminary mechanical treatment was used, with the aim of separating, quantifying, and characterizing cellulose in WW. The results suggest that the per-capita production of dry primary cellulosic sludge (D-PCS) is equal to 1.46 ± 0.13 kgD-PCS PE−1 y−1, with an average calorific value of 21.04 MJ kg−1DM. Cellulosic fibres have an average length of >100 µm and a thickness of 2–5 µm. The D-PCS was subsequently treated via medium-temperature pyrolysis; a total of 29.5% of the initial D-PCS was converted into pyrolyzed primary cellulosic sludge (P-PCS) and only 26% into pyrolytic gas. More than 44.5% of the dried cellulose can be converted into pyrolytic oil. Moreover, three different scenarios of recovery have been considered, and the impact of cellulose separation in terms of COD fluxes entering the WWTP and potential energy recovery has been studied. The results suggested that, in this case study, the potential separation of the primary cellulosic sludge from the influent water flux would have no significant impact on COD load entering the biological treatments and biogas production in the anaerobic digestion of the secondary sludge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Reuse)
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21 pages, 4652 KiB  
Article
The Environmental Oxidation of Acetaminophen in Aqueous Media as an Emerging Pharmaceutical Pollutant Using a Chitosan Waste-Based Magnetite Nanocomposite
by Manasik M. Nour and Maha A. Tony
Resources 2024, 13(3), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources13030047 - 19 Mar 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1847
Abstract
Clean water is a precious and limited resource that plays a crucial role in supporting life on our planet. However, the industrial sector, especially the pharmaceutical industry, significantly contributes to water consumption, and this can lead to water body pollution. Fenton’s reagent was [...] Read more.
Clean water is a precious and limited resource that plays a crucial role in supporting life on our planet. However, the industrial sector, especially the pharmaceutical industry, significantly contributes to water consumption, and this can lead to water body pollution. Fenton’s reagent was introduced in the current investigation to oxidize acetaminophen as an emerging pollutant in such effluents. Therefore, we employed a straightforward co-precipitation method to fabricate chitosan-coated magnetic iron oxide, which is referred to in this study as Chit@Fe3O4. X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (TEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were utilized to characterize the sample. It is crucial to treat such effluents due to the rapid increase in emerging pollutants. In this study, a photo-Fenton system was introduced as a combination of a Chit@Fe3O4 catalyst augmented with hydrogen peroxide under ultraviolet (UV) illumination conditions. The results reveal that only 1 h of irradiance time is efficient in oxidizing acetaminophen molecules. Doses of 20 and 200 mg/L of Chit@Fe3O4 and H2O2, respectively, and a pH of 2.0 were recorded as the optimal operational conditions that correspondingly oxidize 20 mg/L of acetaminophen to a 95% removal rate. An increase in the reaction temperature results in a decline in the reaction rate, and this, in turn, confirms that the reaction system is exothermic in nature. The sustainability of the catalyst was verified and deemed adequate in treating and oxidizing acetaminophen, even up to the fourth cycle, achieving a 69% removal rate. A kinetic modeling approach is applied to the experimental results, and the kinetic data reveal that the oxidation system conforms to second-order kinetics, with rate constants ranging from 0.0157 to 0.0036 L/mg·min. Furthermore, an analysis of the thermodynamic parameters reveals that the reaction is exothermic and non-spontaneous, predicting an activation energy of 36.35 kJ/mol. Therefore, the proposed system can address the limitations associated with the homogeneous Fenton system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Reuse)
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11 pages, 5967 KiB  
Communication
Removal of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid from Aqueous Solutions Using Al2O3/Graphene Oxide Granules Prepared by Spray-Drying Method
by Alexandra Yu. Kurmysheva, Ekaterina Kuznetsova, Marina D. Vedenyapina, Pavel Podrabinnik, Nestor Washington Solís Pinargote, Anton Smirnov and Sergey N. Grigoriev
Resources 2024, 13(3), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources13030040 - 11 Mar 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1726
Abstract
Within this study, aluminum oxide granules with 0.25%vol. of graphene oxide were prepared by a spray-drying method to make an adsorbent for the 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) herbicide removal from aqueous solutions. The obtained adsorbent was studied using infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and [...] Read more.
Within this study, aluminum oxide granules with 0.25%vol. of graphene oxide were prepared by a spray-drying method to make an adsorbent for the 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) herbicide removal from aqueous solutions. The obtained adsorbent was studied using infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The presence of graphene in the spray-dried powder was confirmed. The adsorption removal of 2,4-D using the obtained material was performed at an ambient temperature by varying the process parameters such as pH and adsorption time. The adsorption of 2,4-D was a monolayer chemisorption according to the Langmuir isotherm pattern and a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacity of the monolayer was 35.181 mg/g. The results show that the Al2O3-0.25%vol. GO powder obtained by spray drying is suitable for the production of adsorbents for toxic herbicides. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Reuse)
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14 pages, 9448 KiB  
Article
Success Factors and Challenges: Implications of Real Options Valuation of Constructed Wetlands as Nature-Based Solutions for Wastewater Treatment
by Casper Boongaling Agaton and Patricia Marie Caparas Guila
Resources 2024, 13(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources13010011 - 14 Jan 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3559
Abstract
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are engineered water treatment systems that mimic the features and functions of natural wetlands. As a nature-based solution (NBS) for wastewater treatment, CWs are sustainable and cost-effective while providing various ecosystem services. However, their widespread application faces several uncertainties, particularly [...] Read more.
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are engineered water treatment systems that mimic the features and functions of natural wetlands. As a nature-based solution (NBS) for wastewater treatment, CWs are sustainable and cost-effective while providing various ecosystem services. However, their widespread application faces several uncertainties, particularly in developing countries. This study aims to analyze the success factors and challenges in implementing CW projects. Using the case of successful CWs in Bayawan City in the Philippines, this study surveyed 270 household heads from the community benefiting from the CWs and interviewed various CW stakeholders, including the project planner, management, community leader, social workers, and CW workers. The results showed that 89% of the respondents were aware of the existence of CWs in the community and 73% believed in their long-term sustainability. Among the identified factors for the successful implementation of the CW project were government support (43%), good governance (32%), and public support (14%). On the other hand, the implementation was challenged by improper maintenance (63%), overcrowding in the community (11%), foul smells (4%), funding (4%), and climate-related uncertainties, including natural calamities (4%), flooding (7%), earthquakes (4%), and sea level rise (11%). The implications of these success factors and challenges were discussed in the application of real options valuation to CW projects by incorporating the identified uncertainties into flexible decision making in the scaling up and widespread implementation of a more sustainable NBS to water resources management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Reuse)
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