Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Treatment Processes for Sustainable Water Reuse: Classic and Emerging Pollutants

Dear Colleagues,

Water scarcity and pollution are serious problems for many countries all around the world, especially in regions with limited water resources. In response to these problems, there has been increasing interest in developing and improving wastewater treatment technologies in order to meet the safety discharge limits for reuse. As a result, water reuse now makes an important contribution to water supply, and a range of technologies are used in different parts of the world.

Adequate wastewater treatment systems are essential, and the use of unconventional water resources appears to be a necessary option to alleviate freshwater scarcity. Reuse of treated wastewater has been increasingly used for a number of applications, including agricultural, industrial, urban, and direct drinking water purposes.

Modern society depends on a wide range of chemicals, and these may ultimately enter urban wastewater. Over the last few decades, micropollutants have been used extensively and a wide range of them have been detected in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluents, surface, and groundwater, with concentrations ranging from a few ng/L to several g/L. Due to the characteristics of these compounds, their removal by conventional wastewater treatment technologies, including wastewater reclamation technologies, is often incomplete. It is accepted that conventional WWTPs are not designed to quantitatively remove micropollutants and their effluents constitute an important pathway for micropollutants entering water bodies. The pollutants can be a classical persistent organic pollutant, long considered as a risk to human health and the environment due to their persistence, potential bioaccumulation, and toxicity; alternatively, they might be an emerging pollutant. These are chemicals that are not commonly monitored but have the potential to enter the environment and cause adverse ecological and human health effects. Over the last years, the occurrence of emerging pollutants in treated wastewater has been identified as a significant environmental and health concern.

Even though municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and reuse technologies are a well-established field, there are still many challenges that need to be faced before we reach a stage of a real sustainable wastewater treatment that would protect both the environment and humans’ health.

This issue aims to share quality research on safe and sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse, considering classic pollutants and emerging pollutants, as well as the great challenges that the sector faces if it wants to be environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Important topics for the field of wastewater treatment and reuse that could contribute to the scope of the current Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following: (a) new developments in wastewater treatment and reuse; (b) appropriate technologies for different emerging pollutants removal; (c) behavior, removal, and fate of emerging pollutants during water treatment processes; (d) integrated approaches to reduce different pollutants; (e) water reuse for agricultural irrigation and emerging pollutants (cases of study, soil, and bioaccumulation, etc.); (f) safe wastewater reclamation and reuse; (g) wastewater treatment and emerging pollutants in developing countries; (h) new developments in respective policy and regulations.

The Special Issue welcomes original research and review papers focused on the latest knowledge and innovations in the field of “Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Treatment Processes for Sustainable Water Reuse”, with a special focus on emerging pollutants. The papers must show originality and address knowledge gaps related to the scope of this Special Issue.

Recommend Literature

1. González-Pérez, D.M.; Pérez, J.; Gómez, M. Behaviour of the main nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in a membrane bioreactor treating urban wastewater at high hydraulic- and sludge-retention time. J. Hazard. Mater. 2017, 336, 128–138, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.04.059.
2. Arévalo, J.; Ruiz, L.M.; Parada-Albarracín, J.A.; González-Pérez, D.M.; Pérez, J.; Moreno, B.; Gómez, M.A. Wastewater reuse after treatment by MBR. Microfiltration or ultrafiltration? Desalination 2012, 299, 22–27, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2012.05.008.
3. Vieno, N.; Sillanpää, M. Fate of diclofenac in municipal wastewater treatment plant — A review. Environ. Int. 2014, 69, 28–39, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2014.03.021.
4. Kumar, J.A.; Krithiga, T.; Sathish, S.; Renita, A.A.; Prabu, D.; Lokesh, S.; Geetha, R.; Namasivayam, S.K.R.; Sillanpaa, M. Persistent organic pollutants in water resources: Fate, occurrence, characterization and risk analysis. Sci. Total Environ. 2022, 831, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154808.
5. Hiller, C.; Hübner, U.; Fajnorova, S.; Schwartz, T.; Drewes, J. Antibiotic microbial resistance (AMR) removal efficiencies by conventional and advanced wastewater treatment processes: A review. Sci. Total Environ. 2019, 685, 596–608, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.315
6. Pistocchi, A.; Alygizakis, N.A.; Brack, W.; Boxall, A.; Cousins, I.T.; Drewes, J.E.; Finckh, S.; Gallé, T.; Launay, M.A.; McLachlan, M.S.; et al. European scale assessment of the potential of ozonation and activated carbon treatment to reduce micropollutant emissions with wastewater. Sci. Total Environ. 2022, 848, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157124.
7. González-Pérez, D.M.; Pérez, J.I.; Nieto, M..G. Carbamazepine behaviour and effects in an urban wastewater MBR working with high sludge and hydraulic retention time. J. Environ. Sci. Heal. Part A 2016, 51, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1080/10934529.2016.1181462.
8. McLaughlin, M.C.; Blotevogel, J.; Watson, R.A.; Schell, B.; Blewett, T.A.; Folkerts, E.J.; Goss, G.G.; Truong, L.; Tanguay, R.L.; Argueso, J.L.; et al. Mutagenicity assessment downstream of oil and gas produced water discharges intended for agricultural beneficial reuse. Sci. Total Environ. 2020, 715, 136944, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.136944.
9. Deviller, G.; Lundy, L.; Fatta-Kassinos, D. Recommendations to derive quality standards for chemical pollutants in reclaimed water intended for reuse in agricultural irrigation. Chemosphere 2019, 240, 124911, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.124911.
10. Lin, X.; Xu, J.; Keller, A.A.; He, L.; Gu, Y.; Zheng, W.; Sun, D.; Lu, Z.; Huang, J.; Huang, X.; et al. Occurrence and risk assessment of emerging contaminants in a water reclamation and ecological reuse project. Sci. Total Environ. 2020, 744, 140977, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140977.

Dr. Daniel M. González-Pérez
Guest Editor

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• municipal wastewater treatments
• industrial wastewater treatments
• wastewater reclamation and reuse
• emerging pollutants
• reuse water and emerging pollutants
• personal care and pharmaceutical products
• pesticides
• microplastics
• heavy metals
• micropollutants
• water reuse for agricultural irrigation and emerging pollutants
• wastewater treatment in developing countries
• regulations and policy