scholarly journals Investigation of microplastics removal methods from aquatic environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-63
Author(s):  
Sevgi Günes-Durak
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Membrane Bioreactors ◽  
Polymer Chains ◽  
Hydrogen Atoms ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Water Ecosystem ◽  
Wastewater Systems ◽  
Nature Studies

Microplastics are less than 5 mm in length and are polymer chains containing carbon and hydrogen atoms. It poses a direct and indirect danger to all living things in the ecosystem. It is found in products such as microplastics, synthetic clothes, plastic bags and bottles, some cleaners, health and beauty products, toothpaste and causes both soil and water pollution from wastewater systems and solid waste. This situation not only threatens the life of creatures living in aquatic ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans but also penetrates the human body through the food chain, causing various health problems, especially cancer. As with all environmental pollutants, microplastics need to reduce pollution at the source. In this research, treatment methods applied to remove microplastics that cannot be prevented at source from the water ecosystem were investigated and evaluated. According to the results, in wastewater treatment plants, the highest efficiency of microplastic removal is provided by membrane bioreactors. However, by imitating the microplastic removal capabilities and structures of living things in nature, studies on the discovery of new methods of microplastic removal can also be conducted.

scholarly journals Fate of COVID-19 Occurrences in Wastewater Systems: Emerging Detection and Treatment Technologies—A Review

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh ◽  
Mark Opoku Amankwa ◽  
Edward Kwaku Armah ◽  
Sudesh Rathilal
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Contaminants ◽  
Advanced Oxidation Process ◽  
Oxidation Process ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Membrane Bioreactors ◽  
Magnetic Biosensor ◽  
Wastewater Systems ◽  
Treatment Technologies ◽  
Water And Wastewater

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is currently posing a significant threat to the world’s public health and social-economic growth. Despite the rigorous international lockdown and quarantine efforts, the rate of COVID-19 infectious cases remains exceptionally high. Notwithstanding, the end route of COVID-19, together with emerging contaminants’ (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, nanoplastics, pesticide, etc.) occurrence in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), poses a great challenge in wastewater settings. Therefore, this paper seeks to review an inter-disciplinary and technological approach as a roadmap for the water and wastewater settings to help fight COVID-19 and future waves of pandemics. This study explored wastewater–based epidemiology (WBE) potential for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and its metabolites in wastewater settings. Furthermore, the prospects of integrating innovative and robust technologies such as magnetic nanotechnology, advanced oxidation process, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors into the WWTPs to augment the risk of COVID-19’s environmental impacts and improve water quality are discussed. In terms of the diagnostics of COVID-19, potential biosensors such as sample–answer chip-, paper- and nanomaterials-based biosensors are highlighted. In conclusion, sewage treatment systems, together with magnetic biosensor diagnostics and WBE, could be a possible way to keep a surveillance on the outbreak of COVID-19 in communities around the globe, thereby identifying hotspots and curbing the diagnostic costs of testing. Photocatalysis prospects are high to inactivate coronavirus, and therefore a focus on safe nanotechnology and bioengineering should be encouraged.

scholarly journals Membrane Processes for Microplastic Removal

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (22) ◽  
pp. 4148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poerio ◽  
Piacentini ◽  
Mazzei
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Aquatic Environment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Membrane Bioreactors ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Membrane Processes ◽  
Continuous Increase ◽  
Treatment Technologies ◽  
Concrete Solution

Plastic pollution of the aquatic environment is a major concern considering the disastrous impact on the environment and on human beings. The significant and continuous increase in the production of plastics causes an enormous amount of plastic waste on the land entering the aquatic environment. Furthermore, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are reported as the main source of microplastic and nanoplastic in the effluents, since they are not properly designed for this purpose. The application of advanced wastewater treatment technologies is mandatory to avoid effluent contamination by plastics. A concrete solution can be represented by membrane technologies as tertiary treatment of effluents in integrated systems for wastewater treatment, in particular, for the plastic particles with a smaller size (< 100 nm). In this review, a survey of the membrane processes applied in the plastic removal is analyzed and critically discussed. From the literature analysis, it was found that the removal of microplastic by membrane technology is still insufficient, and without the use of specially designed approaches, with the exception of membrane bioreactors (MBRs).

scholarly journals Perspectives on Microalgal Biofilm Systems with Respect to Integration into Wastewater Treatment Technologies and Phosphorus Scarcity

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2245
Author(s):  
Kateřina Sukačová ◽  
Daniel Vícha ◽  
Jiří Dušek
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Phosphorus Removal ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Phosphorus Uptake ◽  
Phosphorus Recovery ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
High Concentration ◽  
Water Ecosystem ◽  
Treatment Technologies

Phosphorus is one of the non-renewable natural resources. High concentration of phosphorus in surface water leads to undesirable eutrophication of the water ecosystem. It is therefore necessary to develop new technologies not only for capturing phosphorus from wastewater but also for phosphorus recovery. The aim of the study was to propose three different integration scenarios for a microalgal biofilm system for phosphorus removal in medium and small wastewater treatment plants, including a comparison of area requirements, a crucial factor in practical application of microalgal biofilm systems. The area requirements of a microalgal biofilm system range from 2.3 to 3.2 m2 per person equivalent. The total phosphorus uptake seems to be feasible for construction and integration of microalgal biofilm systems into small wastewater treatment plants. Application of a microalgal biofilm for phosphorus recovery can be considered one of the more promising technologies related to capturing CO2 and releasing of O2 into the atmosphere.

Legionella prevalence in wastewater treatment plants of Taiwan

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1303-1310 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. W. Huang ◽  
B. M. Hsu ◽  
P. H. Ma ◽  
K. T. Chien
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Domestic Wastewater ◽  
Aquatic Environments ◽  
Human Pathogens ◽  
Wastewater Systems

Legionella is a bacterium that is ubiquitous in natural and artificial aquatic environments. Some species of Legionella are recognized as opportunistic potential human pathogens. We investigated the distribution of Legionella at seventeen WWTPs throughout Taiwan. Legionella were detected in 10 of the 17 WWTPs (58.8%) and 25 of 41 samples (61.0%). In the integrated, hospital, industrial and domestic wastewater systems were 13/18 (72.2%), 7/12 (58.3%), 2/7 (28.6%) and 3/4 (75.0%) of the samples were positive for Legionella, respectively. The most frequently encountered species were L. donaldsonii and uncultured L. spp., which were both found in 10 samples (24.4% of all samples), then followed by L. lytica (4.9%) and L. pneumophila (4.9%). L. anisa was detected in one sample (2.4%). The results of this survey confirm that Legionella are ubiquitous in WWTPs in Taiwan. Therefore, long-term investigations should be conducted to evaluate the overall occurrence of Legionella in WWTPs in Taiwan.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact of the Presence, Distribution, and Use of Artificial Sweeteners as Emerging Sources of Pollution

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ab Qayoom Naik ◽  
Tabassum Zafar ◽  
Vinoy Kumar Shrivastava
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Emerging Contaminants ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Food Additive ◽  
Artificial Sweeteners ◽  
Sources Of Pollution ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Water Ecosystem

Artificial sweeteners are posing a new threat to the environment. The water ecosystem is the primary recipient of these emerging contaminants. Once ingested, sufficient amount of these artificial sweeteners escape unchanged from the human body and are added to the environment. However, some are added in the form of their breakdown products through excretion. Artificial sweeteners are resistant to wastewater treatment processes and are therefore continuously introduced into the water environments. However, the environmental behavior, fate, and long-term ecotoxicological contributions of artificial sweeteners in our water resources still remain largely unknown. Some artificial sweeteners like saccharin are used as a food additive in animal feeds. It also forms the degradation product of the sulfonylurea herbicides. All artificial sweeteners enter into the wastewater treatment plants from the industries and households. From the effluents, they finally reside into the receiving environmental bodies including wastewaters, groundwaters, and surface waters. The global production of these sweeteners is several hundred tons annually and is continuously being added into the environment.

scholarly journals Pelaksanaan Peraturan Walikota Denpasar Nomor 36 Tahun 2018 tentang Pengurangan Penggunaan Kantong Plastik

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-506
Author(s):  
Ni Luh Yuni Setyawati ◽  
I Ketut Kasta Arya Wijaya ◽  
Luh Putu Suryani
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
City Government ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Inhibiting Factors ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The Government

Plastic waste is one of the causes of environmental problems. Therefore, the Denpasar City Government issued a Mayor Regulation on Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags. The purposes of this study are to reveal the implementation of the Denpasar Mayor Regulation Number 36 of 2018 concerning Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags and the inhibiting factors in the implementation of the Mayor's Regulation Number 36 of 2018. The type of research used is empirical legal research with a statutory approach. The technique of collecting legal materials is done by observation, interviews and documentation methods. Sources of data used are primary and secondary data sources. After the data was collected, the data were analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques. The results of the discussion revealed that the Mayor's regulation was formed with the aim of controlling environmental damage and ensuring the sustainability of living things. The implementation of this regulation has not been effective because there are still many business actors and people who use plastic bags without replacing them with alternative bags. Inhibiting factors in the implementation of Denpasar Mayor Regulation No. 36 of 2018, namely the lack of public awareness of the dangers posed by the use of single-use plastic bags, the existence of the covid-19 pandemic which hinders government programs in directly socializing this regulation. Efforts that can be made by the government in socializing the reduction of plastic use can only be done virtually through mass media in the form of radio and television.

scholarly journals Heavy Metals Uptake of Salty Soils by Ornamental Sunflower, Using Cow Manure and Biosolids: A Case Study in Alborz city, Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 117862211989846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmadreza Yazdanbakhsh ◽  
Seyed Nadali Alavi ◽  
Seyed Alireza Valadabadi ◽  
Fatemeh Karimi ◽  
Zainab Karimi
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Organic Amendments ◽  
Heavy Metal Accumulation ◽  
Cow Manure ◽  
Randomized Design ◽  
Completely Randomized Design ◽  
Heavy Metals Uptake

Heavy metals are among the most critical environmental pollutants close to industrial areas. One example is the cultivated fields in the south of Alborz industrial city in Iran, which is irrigated by treated industrial wastewater. It is contaminated by heavy metals and irrigation with wastewater treatment plants effluent, which made it salty. In this study, the application of 2 amendments, biosolids and cow manure, in improving the heavy metal accumulation in the ornamental sunflower from these types of soils was investigated. A greenhouse experiment using a completely randomized design with 4 replications and applying cow manure and biosolids in 3 weight ratios (6%, 12%, 25%) was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of sunflower in removing Pb, Ni, and Zn from the soil. Adding the amendments increased the rate of germination by 50% to 176%. Although the simultaneous utilization of cow manure in high ratios with biosolids and cow manure with low biosolids decreased the sunflower survival, nonetheless, the simultaneous addition of these organic amendments could increase the survival rate in other treatments. Moreover, the plants’ biomass was increased by adding modifiers such as cow manure and biosolids. The results showed that in treatments with 2 modifiers, the remediation factor of Pb, Zn, and Ni has increased 83.7 to 95.5, 78.4 to 87.5, and 74.9 to 94.9, respectively, in comparison to the control one. Therefore, we conclude that adding biosolids and cow manure simultaneously could improve the ornamental sunflower ability to accumulate heavy metals.

Landfill mining : potential source for maintenance-free construction materials?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aarne Saareväli
Keyword(s):  
Construction Materials ◽  
Plastic Waste ◽  
Polymer Chains ◽  
Single Type ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Plastic Recycling ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Free Construction ◽  
Different Types

As the use of plastic products is very widespread, reuse of the plastic waste represents a huge challenge. Plastic packaging (e.g. thin plastic bags, foil, foodwrappings) and other plastic waste (pallets, garden furniture, buckets, sport and hobby equipment, car bumpers, canisters, pipes, bobbins, computer and TV cases, plastic refrigerator details, etc.) form the most problematic and continuously growing type of waste, that according to common solutions can be mainly landfilled, or incinerated.Initial sorting of waste and subsequent recycling of single-type plastics into uniform mass, granules or new products are the generally preferred solutions for recycling plastic. Recycling is normally performed based on one specific type of plastic, e.g. LDPE, HDPE, PS, PP or PET, in the course of which the sorted plastic waste is washed, shredded, dried and granulated. The biggest problem with mixed plastics is posed by the fact that polymers of different types are immiscible because of their different molecular weights and long polymer chains. Heating the polymers is not sufficient for decomposing polymer molecules; therefore, the polymers to be recovered must typically have identical compositions to achieve effective mixing. When plastics of different types are simultaneously melted together, they usually do not mix – like oil and water – and will form layers. Low-grade mixed dirty plastic is typically rejected from recycling. Rexest Grupp Ltd, however, has developed a technology for recycling mixed plastic waste.In this study it has been discovered that mixed plastic waste that was landfilled for over a decade did not differentiate from the fresh mixed plastic, neither had the landfilled plastic lost its polymeric properties. Landfilled plastic needs only to be separated from other materials (eg textile, paper) and soil. After mechanical separation, recycling technologies that are able to use of mixed plastic waste, were as also able to handle mixed landfill plastic.Experiments demonstrate that construction materials and products like decking boards, noise barriers, garden furniture etc. could therefore be produced also from landfilled plastic waste, turning this waste into the maintenance free products that are also recyclable after decades of use. Taking into account vast number of landfills that contain plastic waste it raises question whether turning these materials into recyclable construction materials could form a new challenge and possibility to support the environment, and lower the need for the usage of new resources.

scholarly journals Evaluating the performance of a simple phenomenological model for online forecasting of ammonium concentrations at WWTP inlets

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Vezzaro ◽  
Jonas Wied Pedersen ◽  
Laura Holm Larsen ◽  
Carsten Thirsing ◽  
Lene Bassø Duus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Integrated Control ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Forecast Model ◽  
Flow Sensors ◽  
Sewer Systems ◽  
Wastewater Systems ◽  
Water Quality Forecasting ◽  
Modelling Approach

Abstract A simple model for online forecasting of ammonium (NH4+) concentrations in sewer systems is proposed. The forecast model utilizes a simple representation of daily NH4+ profiles and the dilution approach combined with information from online NH4+ and flow sensors. The method utilizes an ensemble approach based on past observations to create model prediction bounds. The forecast model was tested against observations collected at the inlet of two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) over an 11-month period. NH4+ data were collected with ion-selective sensors. The model performance evaluation focused on applications in relation to online control strategies. The results of the monitoring campaigns highlighted a high variability in daily NH4+ profiles, stressing the importance of an uncertainty-based modelling approach. The maintenance of the NH4+ sensors resulted in important variations of the sensor signal, affecting the evaluation of the model structure and its performance. The forecast model succeeded in providing outputs that potentially can be used for integrated control of wastewater systems. This study provides insights on full scale application of online water quality forecasting models in sewer systems. It also highlights several research gaps which – if further investigated – can lead to better forecasts and more effective real-time operations of sewer and WWTP systems.

Approaches to membrane fouling control in anaerobic membrane bioreactors

2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 363-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
K-H. Choo ◽  
I-J. Kang ◽  
S-H. Yoon ◽  
H. Park ◽  
J-H. Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Ceramic Membrane ◽  
Substantial Improvement ◽  
Membrane Bioreactors ◽  
Polymer Chains ◽  
Polymeric Membrane ◽  
Hydrophilic Modification ◽  
Grafted Polymer ◽  
Fouling Control ◽  
Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors

Various fouling control methods were investigated for polymeric and ceramic microfiltration membranes in the anaerobic membrane bioreactors where inorganic precipitates and/or fine colloids have been recently known as the most significant foulants: (i) Substantial improvement of flux was achieved by backfeeding of acidic wastewater through the membrane module. The backfeeding mode formed an acidic environment around the membrane pores and thus suppressed struvite formation. (ii) Struvite precipitation was also mitigated when an additional combined dialysis/zeolite unit was attached to the bioreactor. With this combined unit the flux improvement for the ceramic membrane, where struvite had a severer fouling effect, was achieved more significantly than that for the polymeric membrane. (iii) To control the deposition of organics and fine colloids onto the polymeric membrane, powdered activated carbon (PAC) was added into the bioreactor, which gave rise to the reduction of specific cake resistances of biosolids through the sorption and/or coagulation of dissolved and colloidal matter. (iv) The hydrophilic modification of polypropylene (PP) membranes by graft polymerization reduced membrane fouling. Its effectiveness was most substantial at 70% of the degree of grafting, indicating that there was an optimal degree of grafting. This is possibly due to the steric hindrance of grafted polymer chains and the increase in the hydrophilicity of the grafted PP membrane.

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