scholarly journals Could EB irradiation be the simplest solution for removing emerging contaminants from water and wastewater?

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Capodaglio

Abstract Newly observed presence of ‘emerging contaminants’, defined also Compounds of Emerging Concern, chemicals without regulatory status and which impact on environment and human health are poorly understood has been amply reported in wastewater and aquatic environments. ‘Conventional’ water pollutants have been described for decades and their impact on human health and the environment are known; effective technologies for their removal are well established. This is not the case for most emerging contaminants: no effective removal technologies have been discovered to date, to simultaneously remove all of the concerned contaminants, even though some techniques have been demonstrated to remove some contaminants to a certain extent. Radiation processing using electron beam (EB) accelerators and gamma irradiators has shown promising results in many water-related applications. Radiation/EB processing is an additive-free process using short lived reactive species formed during radiolysis of water for decomposition of pollutants. Isolated studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of radiation, alone or in combination with other treatments, in the decomposition of refractory organic compounds in aqueous solutions and in the removal or inactivation, of microorganisms and parasites. This review paper on this specific technology summarizes results of reported applications.

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-202
Author(s):  
Alexandros I. Stefanakis ◽  
Julie A. Becker

Contaminants of emerging concern or, simply, emerging contaminants represent a newly discovered group of chemicals present in surface and groundwater. It was only the improvements in analytical instrumentation that allowed for the detection of these contaminants even at trace levels. The continuous detection of new chemicals with time raises questions concerning their source pathways, their fate, transport, transformations and impact on aquatic environments. The scope of this chapter is to present an overview of the contaminants classified as “emerging”, their sources and introduction pathways to the environment and the related risks to human health and aquatic life.


Author(s):  
Alexandros I. Stefanakis ◽  
Julie A. Becker

Contaminants of emerging concern or, simply, emerging contaminants represent a newly discovered group of chemicals present in surface and groundwater. It was only the improvements in analytical instrumentation that allowed for the detection of these contaminants even at trace levels. The continuous detection of new chemicals with time raises questions concerning their source pathways, their fate, transport, transformations and impact on aquatic environments. The scope of this chapter is to present an overview of the contaminants classified as “emerging”, their sources and introduction pathways to the environment and the related risks to human health and aquatic life.


GCB Bioenergy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominika Janiszewska ◽  
Rafał Olchowski ◽  
Aldona Nowicka ◽  
Magdalena Zborowska ◽  
Krzysztof Marszałkiewicz ◽  
...  

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Jinwoo Im ◽  
Calogero B. Rizzo ◽  
Felipe P. J. de Barros

With the growing concerns over emerging contaminants in indirect potable reuse (IPR) applications, we investigate the impact on human health risk of emerging contaminants introduced into groundwater. Some emerging contaminants have potential endocrine-related health effects at a specific exposure range that is much lower than current guidelines. We start by analyzing Bisphenol A (BPA), which is one of the frequently detected emerging contaminants in groundwater. The objective of this study is to understand how the non-trivial toxicity of BPA affects the estimation of human health risks and, consequentially, aquifer resilience. Based on our results, we aim to provide indications on how to improve water resources management in BPA contaminated sites. We use numerical methods to model BPA contamination of a three-dimensional aquifer, and human health risks and aquifer resilience are estimated at a control plane representing an environmentally sensitive target. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to compute uncertainty associated with two levels of heterogeneity. In order to evaluate health risks due to BPA, two types of Dose-Response (DR) models are considered: the monotonic DR model for general exposure and the non-monotonic DR model for prenatal/postnatal exposure. The aquifer resilience is defined as the capacity to recover the state where groundwater is considered potable (i.e., negligible health risks due to BPA). When using the non-monotonic DR model, computational results indicate that the aquifer resilience reduces and its uncertainty increases as the aquifer heterogeneity increases. On the other hand, the aquifer resilience considering the monotonic DR model enhances, and its uncertainty increases relatively smaller than the one considering the non-monotonic DR model. In addition, the variability of the aquifer resilience is controlled by the residence time of the BPA plumes at the control plane, which is related to the volumetric flow rate at the front side of the contamination source. Finally, the decision-making strategy for BPA contaminated sites should be established in accordance with the heterogeneous structure of aquifer and land uses that determines which DR model of BPA is more important in estimating the aquifer resilience.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-79 ◽  

Nowadays, the scientific community has focused and prioritised research on “emerging pollutants”. The term “emerging pollutants” stands for the substances that are released in the environment for which currently no regulations are established for their environmental monitoring. Their occurrence is reported worldwide in a range of aquatic environments, such as lakes, rivers, freshwater catchments, estuaries, reservoirs and marine waters. Nevertheless, due to their large number (ranging in an order of thousands), only few of these compounds are toxicologically evaluated. Published data concerning occurrence and potential toxicological effects is limited. The contamination source of the aquatic environment is mainly the effluents from the sewage treatment plants (STPs). Reliable methods are available for residue analysis of these pollutants down to low ng L-1 levels. However, an urgent need is highlighted for the investigation (primarily in environmental media and following in biological ones) of the toxicity and transformation pathways of all emerging pollutants. The aims of this mini-review are to briefly present: (a) the major classes of emerging pollutants; (b) the reasons why these substances constitute an environmental issue; and (c) developments and applications of environmental analysis in this field.


2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.R. Wiesner

Emerging technologies, including nanotechnologies, affect the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of our world, often in ways that are entirely unanticipated. There is considerable effort underway to explore uses of nanomaterials in applications such as membrane separations, catalysis, adsorption, and analysis with the goal of better protecting environmental quality. Along with the growth of a nanochemistry industry there is also the need to consider impacts of nanomaterials on environment and human health.


Author(s):  
Yang Hu ◽  
Yue Peng ◽  
Wen Liu ◽  
Dongye Zhao ◽  
Jie Fu

Conventional water/wastewater treatment methods are incapable of removing the majority of Emerging Contaminants (ECs) and a large amount of them and their metabolites are ultimately released to the aquatic environment or drinking water distribution networks. Recently, nanofiltration, a high pressure membrane filtration process, has shown to be superior to other conventional filtration methods, in terms of effluent quality, easy operation and maintenance procedures, low cost, and small required operational space. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the most relevant works available in literature reporting the use of nanofiltration for the removal of emerging contaminants from water and wastewater. The fundamental knowledge of nanofiltration such as separation mechanisms, characterization of nanofiltration membranes, and predictive modeling has also been introduced. The literature review has shown that nanofiltration is a promising tool to treat ECs in environmental cleaning and water purification processes.


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