Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Water Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2024 | Viewed by 14947

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Wei Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Environmental, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Interests: water reclamation; aquifer storage and recovery; emerging contaminants; resistance gene; colloid transport

Dr. Yang Huo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130117, China
Interests: microbial communities; metagenomics; potential pathogens; wastewater-impacted streams; antibiotic resistance genes; sewage virome

Dr. Tao Lyu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
Interests: constructed wetlands; nanobubble technology; micropollutants; nature-based solutions; Eutrophication control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Suiyi Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Resources and Environment, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China
Interests: industrial wastewater; heavy metals; hazardous disposal; fe-rich sludge; catalyst

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Rapid population growth, urbanization, and climate change are putting tremendous stress on global water resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of both the extent and consequences of the lack of access to a reliable water supply. By 2025, more than 1.8 billion people will live in conditions of absolute water stress, and more than two-thirds of the world’s population will experience water-related problems. Therefore, water reclamation and reuse (WRR) approaches have become vitally important to tackle this issue. The reuse of wastewater reduces the pressure on freshwater resources, as well as the pollution discharged into the water body, which benefits achieving environmental sustainability and public health security.

In recent years, the emerging contaminants have drawn significantly concern and will have a significant impact on water resources in the future. These include the risks related to the massive use of new chemicals, such as endocrine disruptors and antibiotics. Climate change has also led to more natural disasters, such as floods, storms, droughts, coastal flooding. Hence, these new threats require the development of resilience strategies for water reclamation and reuse. This Special Issue of Water aims to compile the latest advances in water reclamation and reuse in a changing world, in terms of advanced technology, applications, evaluation, and management. The themes in this special issue include but are not limited to the following:

advancement in water and wastewater treatment and reuse
emerging pollutants in water
drinking water treatment
municipal wastewater treatment
stormwater treatment
urban water system
water quality monitoring
water reclamation and reuse
Artificial groundwater recharge
Aquifer storage and recovery

Dr. Wei Fan
Dr. Yang Huo
Dr. Tao Lyu
Prof. Dr. Suiyi Zhu
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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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

advancement in water and wastewater treatment and reuse
emerging pollutants in water
drinking water treatment
municipal wastewater treatment
stormwater treatment
urban water system
water quality monitoring
water reclamation and reuse
Artificial groundwater recharge
Aquifer storage and recovery

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

15 pages, 5033 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Constructing Z-Scheme 3D WO₃@Co₂SnO₄ Heterojunction as Dual-Photocathode for Production of H₂O₂ and In-Situ Degradation of Organic Pollutants

by Danfeng Zhang, Lei Zhang, Changwei An and Min Wang

Water 2024, 16(3), 406; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16030406 - 26 Jan 2024

Viewed by 858

Abstract

As photoelectrochemical catalyst material, Z-scheme heterojunction 3D WO₃@Co₂SnO₄ composites were designed through a hydrothermal-calcination method. The morphology and structure were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, XPS, DRS, and Mott–Schottky analysis, and the photoelectrochemical properties were explored with the transient photocurrent and electrochemical impedance. The construction of Z-scheme heterojunction markedly heightened the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs of WO₃ and enhanced the light absorption intensity, retaining the strong redox ability of the photocatalyst. The 3D WO₃@Co₂SnO₄ was used as a photocathode for production of H₂O₂. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the yield of H₂O₂ can reach 1335 μmol·L⁻¹·h⁻¹. The results of free radial capture and rotating disc test revealed the existence of direct one-step two-electron and indirect two-step one-electron oxygen reduction to produce H₂O₂. Based on the excellent H₂O₂ production performance of the Z-scheme heterojunction photoelectrocatalytic material, 3D WO₃@Co₂SnO₄ and stainless-steel mesh were used to construct a dual-cathode photoelectric-Fenton system for in-situ degradation of a variety of pollutants in water, such as dye (Methyl orange, Rhodamine B), Tetracycline, sulfamethazine, and ciprofloxacin. The fluorescence spectrophotometry was used to detect hydroxyl radicals with terephthalic acid as a probe. Also, the photocatalytic degradation mechanism was revealed, indicating the dual-cathode photoelectron-Fenton system displayed satisfactory potential on degradation of different types of environmental pollutants. This work provided insights for designing high-activity photoelectrocatalytic materials to produce H₂O₂ and provided possibility for construction of a photoelectric-Fenton system without extra additions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 3192 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Catalytic Performance of Fe-Rich Sludge in Pyrolysis of Waste Oil Scum as Volatiles and Magnetic Char

by Jiancong Liu, Manhong Ji, Jiabao Qin, Jia Zhu and Suiyi Zhu

Water 2023, 15(14), 2637; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15142637 - 20 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1011

Abstract

Waste oil scum is commonly discharged during the air flotation process at oil-bearing wastewater treatment plants and disposed as an additive in cement kilns and/or furnaces. Herein, it was mixed with a magnetite-rich waste sludge and then completely recycled as value-added gas/oil and magnetic char via a facile catalytic pyrolysis route. Results showed that the oil scum was a blackish gel and contained 36.2% water, 52.5% tar, and 11.3% inorganics. After direct pyrolysis, the conversion efficiencies of tar to gas, oil, and char were 30.2%, 41.2%, and 28.6%, respectively, and the generated gas/oil was rich in aromatics. By adding Fe-rich sludge, the efficiencies varied to 57.3%, 26.9%, and 15.8%, respectively, and the gas/oil mainly comprised a chain hydrocarbon. During oil scum pyrolysis, the redox reaction of tar to Fe-rich sludge enabled a cycle of Fe/magnetite to accelerate the cleavage of tar as volatiles and to steadily retard the polycondensation of tar as char. In addition, the added Fe-rich sludge not only activated the rest of the char and created more surface functional groups for contaminant adsorption but also endowed the char with a good magnetic response. Such magnetic char showed a maximum adsorption capacity of ciprofloxacin of 63.5 mg/g, higher than that without the Fe-sludge catalyst, and had ability to selectively adsorb ciprofloxacin from benzoic/sulfanilamide-bearing wastewater. In summary, a ‘waste to treat waste’ strategy was developed to recycle waste oil scum as combustible gas/oil and magnetic char with the addition of magnetite-rich sludge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

12 pages, 2100 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Threshold Recognition of Water Turbidity for Clogging Prevention during Groundwater Recharge Using Secondary Effluent from Wastewater Treatment Plant

by Shiwei Li, Siyue Wang, Shubin Zou, Yang Wang, Wei Fan and Dan Xiao

Water 2023, 15(3), 594; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15030594 - 02 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1906

Abstract

The recharge efficiency during artificial groundwater recharge (AGR) is reduced primarily by clogging that is triggered by suspended particles. However, there are loopholes in the current standards of recharge-water quality for clogging control during AGR, and the threshold values of turbidity to prevent clogging have not been reasonably determined. In this study, secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were injected into saturated sand columns to simulate the process of AGR. Batch experiments under different turbidity conditions were conducted, and the numerical modeling of particle transport and deposition was performed to assess the clogging processes. Theories of single-collector contact and interfacial interaction energy were applied to elucidate possible microcosmic mechanisms. The results showed that the diluted secondary effluent (SE) with turbidities of 0.540 ± 0.050, 1.09 ± 0.050, and 1.84 ± 0.060 NTU caused considerable clogging in the porous media, which decreased the relative hydraulic conductivities (K/K₀) by 13.2%, 17.6%, and 83.6%, respectively. The filtered SE with a turbidity of 0.160 NTU did not cause clogging, and K/K₀ was reduced by only 1.70%. The clogging was attributed to the deposition of suspended particles in the sand matrix because they have a high collision efficiency (0.007–1.98) and attachment efficiency (0.029–0.589 k_BT). Finally, this paper recommends that the turbidity of the recharge water should not exceed 0.500 NTU during AGR practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

10 pages, 1745 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Soil Health Assessment of Three Semi-Arid Soil Textures in an Arizona Vineyard Irrigated with Reclaimed Municipal Water

by Isaac K. Mpanga, Herbert Sserunkuma, Russell Tronstad, Michael Pierce and Judith K. Brown

Water 2022, 14(18), 2922; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14182922 - 18 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2027

Abstract

The depletion of freshwater supply is occurring at a faster rate than it is being replenished. The agriculture sector is the largest consumer of freshwater for irrigation and production-related processes. The use of reclaimed municipal water for the irrigation of crops offers a sustainable alternative solution for reducing the dependence of agriculture on freshwater. However, the long-term and continuous use of reclaimed water may contribute to soil salinity and sodicity limitations in agriculture production. The chemical and microbial properties of three different soil textures (all Alluvial soil with 60% clay: pH 8.6; 30% clay: pH 8.2; and 20% clay: pH 7.9) were evaluated in a vineyard irrigated using reclaimed water (126 mg/L Na⁺, 154 mg/L Cl⁻, 7.6 water pH, and 1.2 dS/m EC_w). The results indicate that the reclaimed irrigation water significantly (p < 0.05) increased the pH (by 0.4 to 18%), nitrate-N (over 100%), electrical conductivity (EC) (over 100%), and sodium absorption ratio (SAR) in these arid soils. A significant decline in microbial respiration (48 to 80%) was also documented in the three different soil textures that received reclaimed water. Although using reclaimed water for crop irrigation may be a substitute for using limited freshwater resources and offer a partial solution to increasing water security for wine grape production, the development of innovative technologies is needed for the long-term use of reclaimed water to counter its undesirable effects on soil quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

9 pages, 1170 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Nanobubble Technology Enhanced Ozonation Process for Ammonia Removal

by Yuncheng Wu, Wei Tian, Yang Zhang, Wei Fan, Fang Liu, Jiayin Zhao, Mengmeng Wang, Yu Liu and Tao Lyu

Water 2022, 14(12), 1865; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121865 - 10 Jun 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5017

Abstract

Ozone (O₃) has been widely used for water and wastewater treatment due to its strong oxidation ability, however, the utilization efficiency of O₃ is constrained by its low solubility and short half-life during the treatment process. Thereby, an integrated approach using novel nanobubble technology and ozone oxidation method was studied in order to enhance the ozonization of ammonia. Artificial wastewater (AW) with an initial concentration of 1600 mg/L ammonia was used in this study. In the ozone-nanobubble treatment group, the concentration of nano-sized bubbles was 2.2 × 10⁷ particles/mL, and the bubbles with <200 nm diameter were 14 times higher than those in the ozone-macrobubble treatment control group. Ozone aeration was operated for 5 min in both nanobubble treatment and control groups, however, the sampling and measurement were conducted for 30 min to compare the utilization of O₃ for ammonia oxidation. H⁺ was the by-product of the ammonia ozonation process, thus the pH decreased from 8 to 7 and 7.5 in nanobubble treatment and control groups, respectively, after 30 min of operation. The fast removal of ammonia was observed in both systems in the first 10 min, where the concentration of ammonia decreased from 1600 mg/L to 835 and 1110 mg/L in nanobubble treatment and control groups, respectively. In the nanobubble treatment group, ammonia concentrations kept the fast-decreasing trend and reached the final removal performance of 82.5% at the end of the experiment, which was significantly higher than that (44.2%) in the control group. Moreover, the first-order kinetic model could be used to describe the removal processes and revealed a significantly higher kinetic rate constant (0.064 min⁻¹) compared with that (0.017 min⁻¹) in the control group. With these results, our study highlights the viability of the proposed integrated approach to enhance the ozonation of a high level of ammonia in contaminated water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

24 pages, 1932 KiB

Open AccessReview

Reclaimed Water Reuse for Groundwater Recharge: A Review of Hot Spots and Hot Moments in the Hyporheic Zone

by Yu Li, Mingzhu Liu and Xiong Wu

Water 2022, 14(12), 1936; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14121936 - 16 Jun 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2479

Abstract

As an alternative resource, reclaimed water is rich in the various nutrients and organic matter that may irreparably endanger groundwater quality through the recharging process. During groundwater recharge with reclaimed water, hot spots and hot moments (HSHMs) in the hyporheic zones, located at the groundwater–reclaimed water interface, play vital roles in cycling and processing energy, carbon, and nutrients, drawing increasing concern in the fields of biogeochemistry, environmental chemistry, and pollution treatment and prevention engineering. This paper aims to review these recent advances and the current state of knowledge of HSHMs in the hyporheic zone with regard to groundwater recharge using reclaimed water, including the generation mechanisms, temporal and spatial characteristics, influencing factors, and identification indicators and methods of HSHMs in the materials cycle. Finally, the development prospects of HSHMs are discussed. It is hoped that this review will lead to a clearer understanding of the processes controlling water flow and pollutant flux, and that further management and control of HSHMs can be achieved, resulting in the development of a more accurate and safer approach to groundwater recharge with reclaimed water. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Water Reclamation and Reuse in a Changing World)

► Show Figures