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Water
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Desalination and Water Treatment
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Desalination and Water Treatment

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 35722

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Pei Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA
Interests: desalination; water reuse; membrane processes; photocatalysis; contaminants of emerging concern; produced water treatment; concentrate treatment; advanced nanomaterials for water treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue is designed for the publication of original research papers and review articles related to all aspects of desalination and water treatment. All papers should demonstrate a high level of novelty, originality and uniqueness. The special issue focuses on desalination technologies and processes that mitigate environmental contaminants, including reuse and recycling of municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewaters.

Subject areas may include, but are not limited to:

  • Innovative desalination and water treatment technologies.

  • Concentrate treatment, management, and recovery.

  • Treatment of hydraulic fracturing flowback water and produced water.

  • Advanced oxidation processes.

  • Photolysis and photocatalysis.

  • Removal of inorganic and organic environmental contaminants of emerging concerns.

  • Natural treatment systems (wetlands, riverbank filtration, aquifer recharge and recovery).

  • Novel environmental analytical methods for contaminant (bio)monitoring and assessment.

  • Methods for resources recovery from wastewater (nutrients, energy, and valuable minerals).

Prof. Dr. Pei Xu
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. 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

  • desalination

  • water reuse

  • innovative treatment technologies

  • water quality

  • membrane processes

  • contaminants of emerging concern

  • desalination concentrate treatment

  • zero liquid discharge

  • wastewater resources recovery

  • case studies

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 5963 KiB  
Article
Improving the Distillate Prediction of a Membrane Distillation Unit in a Trigeneration Scheme by Using Artificial Neural Networks
by Luis Acevedo, Javier Uche and Alejandro Del-Amo
Water 2018, 10(3), 310; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10030310 - 13 Mar 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3725
Abstract
An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been developed to predict the distillate produced in a permeate gap membrane distillation (PGMD) module with process operating conditions (temperatures at the condenser and evaporator inlets, and feed seawater flow). Real data obtained from experimental tests were [...] Read more.
An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been developed to predict the distillate produced in a permeate gap membrane distillation (PGMD) module with process operating conditions (temperatures at the condenser and evaporator inlets, and feed seawater flow). Real data obtained from experimental tests were used for the ANN training and further validation and testing. This PGMD module constitutes part of an isolated trigeneration pilot unit fully supplied by solar and wind energy, which also provides power and sanitary hot water (SHW) for a typical single family home. PGMD production was previously estimated with published data from the MD module manufacturer by means of a new type in the framework of Trnsys® simulation within the design of the complete trigeneration scheme. The performance of the ANN model was studied and improved through a parametric study varying the number of neurons in the hidden layer, the number of experimental datasets and by using different activation functions. The ANN obtained can be easily exported to be used in simulation, control or process analysis and optimization. Here, the ANN was finally used to implement a new type to estimate the PGMD production of the unit by using the inlet parameters obtained by the complete simulation model of the trigeneration unit based on Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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17 pages, 2519 KiB  
Article
Energetic, Exergetic, and Economic Analysis of MED-TVC Water Desalination Plant with and without Preheating
by Nuri Eshoul, Abdulrahman Almutairi, Rasaq Lamidi, Hamad Alhajeri and Abdulrahman Alenezi
Water 2018, 10(3), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10030305 - 12 Mar 2018
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4568
Abstract
Desalination is the sole proven technique that can provide the necessary fresh water in arid and semi-arid countries in sufficient quantities and meet the modern needs of a growing world population. Multi effect desalination with thermal vapour compression (MED-TVC) is one of most [...] Read more.
Desalination is the sole proven technique that can provide the necessary fresh water in arid and semi-arid countries in sufficient quantities and meet the modern needs of a growing world population. Multi effect desalination with thermal vapour compression (MED-TVC) is one of most common applications of thermal desalination technologies. The present paper presents a comprehensive thermodynamic model of a 24 million litres per day thermal desalination plant, using specialised software packages. The proposed model was validated against a real data set for a large-scale desalination plant, and showed good agreement. The performance of the MED-TVC unit was investigated using different loads, entrained vapour, seawater temperature, salinity and number of effects in two configurations. The first configuration was the MED-TVC unit without preheating system, and the second integrated the MED-TVC unit with a preheating system. The study confirmed that the thermo-compressor and its effects are the main sources of exergy destruction in these desalination plants, at about 40% and 35% respectively. The desalination plant performance with preheating mode performs well due to high feed water temperature leading to the production of more distillate water. The seawater salinity was proportional to the fuel exergy and minimum separation work. High seawater salinity results in high exergy efficiency, which is not the case with membrane technology. The plant performance of the proposed system was enhanced by using a large number of effects due to greater utilisation of energy input and higher generation level. From an economic perspective, both indicators show that using a preheating system is more economically attractive. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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13 pages, 906 KiB  
Article
Minimum Performance Requirements for Microbial Fuel Cells to Achieve Energy-Neutral Wastewater Treatment
by Zachary A. Stoll, Jan Dolfing and Pei Xu
Water 2018, 10(3), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10030243 - 27 Feb 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4186
Abstract
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have recently achieved energy-positive wastewater treatment at pilot scale. Despite these achievements, there is still a limited understanding as to whether all wastewaters contain sufficient amounts of energy and, if so, whether MFCs can capture a sufficient amount of [...] Read more.
Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have recently achieved energy-positive wastewater treatment at pilot scale. Despite these achievements, there is still a limited understanding as to whether all wastewaters contain sufficient amounts of energy and, if so, whether MFCs can capture a sufficient amount of energy to offset electrical energy requirements in the wastewater treatment process. Currently, there are no tools or methods available that can determine whether an MFC can be energy-neutral a priori. To address this, we derived a simple relationship by setting the electrical energy requirements of a wastewater treatment facility equal to the net energy output of the MFC, such that the resulting expression describes the minimum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal needed to achieve energy-neutral treatment. The resulting equation is simply a function of electrical energy requirements, Coulombic Efficiency, and cell voltage. This work provides the first ever quantitative method for determining if the MFCs are feasible to achieve energy-neutral treatment for a given wastewater and what level of performance is needed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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15 pages, 1468 KiB  
Article
Sorption of Arsenic from Desalination Concentrate onto Drinking Water Treatment Solids: Operating Conditions and Kinetics
by Xuesong Xu, Lu Lin, Charalambos Papelis and Pei Xu
Water 2018, 10(2), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10020096 - 24 Jan 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5293
Abstract
Selective removal of arsenic from aqueous solutions with high salinity is required for safe disposal of the concentrate and protection of the environment. The use of drinking water treatment solids (DWTS) to remove arsenic from reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate was studied by batch [...] Read more.
Selective removal of arsenic from aqueous solutions with high salinity is required for safe disposal of the concentrate and protection of the environment. The use of drinking water treatment solids (DWTS) to remove arsenic from reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate was studied by batch sorption experiments. The impacts of solution chemistry, contact time, sorbent dosage, and arsenic concentration on sorption were investigated, and arsenic sorption kinetics and isotherms were modeled. The results indicated that DWTS were effective in removing arsenic from RO concentrate. The arsenic sorption process followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Multilayer adsorption was simulated by Freundlich equation. The maximum sorption capacities were calculated to be 170 mg arsenic per gram of DWTS. Arsenic sorption was enhanced by surface precipitation onto the DWTS due to the high amount of calcium in the RO concentrate and the formation of ternary complexes between arsenic and natural organic matter (NOM) bound by the polyvalent cations in DWTS. The interactions between arsenic and NOM in the solid phase and aqueous phase exhibited two-sided effects on arsenic sorption onto DWTS. NOM in aqueous solution hindered the arsenic sorption onto DWTS, while the high organic matter content in solid DWTS phase enhanced arsenic sorption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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18 pages, 1944 KiB  
Article
Uptake of Zn2+ and As3+ from Wastewater by Adsorption onto Imine Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles
by Mike O. Ojemaye, Omobola O. Okoh and Anthony I. Okoh
Water 2018, 10(1), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/w10010036 - 04 Jan 2018
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3639
Abstract
In this paper, imine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNP-Maph) were employed to aqueous solutions for the uptake of Zn(II) and As(III). Characterization of the material showed the successful synthesis of this material. Factors affecting the uptake of metal ions in aqueous solution such as [...] Read more.
In this paper, imine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNP-Maph) were employed to aqueous solutions for the uptake of Zn(II) and As(III). Characterization of the material showed the successful synthesis of this material. Factors affecting the uptake of metal ions in aqueous solution such as change in pH, time, adsorbent dose, adsorbate concentration, and temperature were investigated and optimized to determine the best experimental conditions for the effective adsorption of Zn(II) and As(III) from wastewater samples. The adsorption capacity of MNP-Maph followed similar patterns as that of amine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNP-NH2) for the uptake of both metal ions from aqueous solution when solution pH was varied. Higher pH values favored the uptake of Zn(II) and As(III) by using both adsorbents. Also, increasing the contact time and temperature yielded a higher uptake of Zn(II) and As(III). Both processes can best be described with a pseudo-second order kinetic model, while the Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity (qm) for Zn(II) increased from 35.83 to 54.53 mg g−1, and for As(III) from 50.08 to 57.60 mg g−1. Of note is that the qm of As(III) was higher than that of Zn(II) because of the lower concentration of As(III) in solution compared to that of Zn(II), and thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption processes were heat absorbing and rapid in nature. Experiments to evaluate if the adsorbent could be recycled showed excellent recyclability capacity of MNP-Maph after seven runs. Lastly, application of MNP-Maph for the uptake of Zn(II) and As(III) from municipal wastewater samples showed remarkable sorption performance confirming the potential of imine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles as an excellent adsorbent for the uptake of metal ions from aqueous solutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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1641 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Performance for Treatment of Cr (VI)-Containing Wastewater by Microbial Fuel Cells with Natural Pyrrhotite-Coated Cathode
by Junxian Shi, Wenyan Zhao, Chang Liu, Tao Jiang and Hongrui Ding
Water 2017, 9(12), 979; https://doi.org/10.3390/w9120979 - 15 Dec 2017
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 5434
Abstract
Here we reported the investigation of enhanced performance for the removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) by a new microbial fuel cell (MFC) with natural pyrrhotite-coated cathode. By comparisons of the graphite-cathode, the MFCs equipped with a pyrrhotite-coated cathode generated the maximum power [...] Read more.
Here we reported the investigation of enhanced performance for the removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) by a new microbial fuel cell (MFC) with natural pyrrhotite-coated cathode. By comparisons of the graphite-cathode, the MFCs equipped with a pyrrhotite-coated cathode generated the maximum power density of 45.4 mW·m−2 that was 1.3 times higher than that of with bare graphite cathode (35.5 mW·m−2). Moreover, the Cr (VI) removal efficiency of 97.5% achieved after 4.5 h compared with only 46.1% by graphite cathode MFC. In addition, Cr (VI) removal rate with different initial Cr (VI) concentrations for 10 mg/L and 30 mg/L was investigated and a decreased removal percentage with increasing Cr (VI) concentration was observed. Batches of experiments of different pH values from 3.0 to 9.0 in catholyte were carried out to optimize system performance. The complete Cr (VI) removal was achieved at pH 3.0 and 99.59% of Cr (VI) was removed after 10.5 h, which met the requirement of the Cr (VI) National Emission Standard. When the value of pH was decreasing, the removal rate was obviously increased and Cr (VI) could be removed successfully with a broad pH range indicating pyrrhotite-coated cathode MFC had more extensive usage scope. Furthermore, cathode treatment products were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Cr2O3, Cr (III)-acetate were detected on the cathode by the XPS Cr2p spectra and no Cr (VI) founded, indicating that the Cr on the surface of cathode was Cr (III) and Cr (VI) were reduced. On cathode, pyrrhotite not only played a significant role for catalyst of MFCs, but also acted as reactive sites for Cr (VI) reduction. Our research demonstrated that pyrrhotite, an earth-abundant and low-cost natural mineral was promised as an effective cathode material. Which had great potential applications in MFCs for reduction of wastewater containing heavy metals and other environmental contaminants in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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3349 KiB  
Article
Removal of Uranium from Contaminated Water by Clay Ceramics in Flow-Through Columns
by Charles Florez, Young Ho Park, Delia Valles-Rosales, Antonio Lara and Emilio Rivera
Water 2017, 9(10), 761; https://doi.org/10.3390/w9100761 - 02 Oct 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5907
Abstract
Uranium contamination of groundwater increasingly concerns rural residents depending on home wells for their drinking water in communities where uranium is a source of contamination. Established technologies to clean up contaminated aquifers are ineffective in large contaminated areas or are prohibitively expensive. Permeable [...] Read more.
Uranium contamination of groundwater increasingly concerns rural residents depending on home wells for their drinking water in communities where uranium is a source of contamination. Established technologies to clean up contaminated aquifers are ineffective in large contaminated areas or are prohibitively expensive. Permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) are a low-cost alternative to these methods. In this paper, the applicability of clay ceramic pellets was investigated as permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) material for the treatment of uranium-contaminated groundwater. Flow-through columns were fabricated and used to mimic the flow path of a contaminant plume through the reactive media. Experiment results show that clay ceramic pellets effectively remove uranium from uranium-contaminated water and also can be a cost-efficient technique for remediating uranium contaminated groundwater by a clay pellet barrier. Using clay ceramic pellets is also a practical treatment method for uranium removal from drinking water and can supply potable water for households in the affected areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desalination and Water Treatment)
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