Sustainable Environmental Engineering in Water Resource Recovery Facility Design with AI Tools
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 6 January 2025 | Viewed by 191
Special Issue Editor
Interests: sustainable environmental engineering; water 5.0; water resource recovery facility; water and wastewater treatment engineering; desalination; desinfection; advanced oxidation processes
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
How can a circular water economy achieve zero water waste? What design principles and tools can expedite engineering design in this context? How can data-driven decision making assist water utilities in maximizing the return on their investments? This call for papers invites contributions that tackle significant challenges in selecting innovative technologies, designs, and policies within Sustainable Environmental Engineering (SEE), leveraging OpenAI tools. SEE developed six design hierarchies: prevention, recovery, separation, treatment, remediation and optimization. Each level can be assessed through six dimensions such as integrated system, material economy, reliability on a spatial scale, resiliency on a temporal scale, and cost-effectiveness.
Given the impending implementation of the maximal contaminant level (MCL) of 4 ng/l PFAS by the US EPA in 2025, the focus of this Special Issue is on designing innovative Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs) or desalination processes for brackish or seawater to meet drinking water requirements. This approach aims to enable water and wastewater infrastructure to establish multiple barriers to compliance with the new standards. Fortunately, OpenAI tools, such as ChatGPT, can effortlessly generate computer codes to facilitate these engineering designs. Crucially, they allow for the accurate estimation of both capital and operating expenses (CAPEX and OPEX), aiding decision-makers in choosing multiple barriers for their water utility. I eagerly anticipate receiving your submissions on recent research, contributing to the effective application of SEE design principles in addressing this grand challenge.
This Special Issue aims to present sustainable engineering design, analysis, and assessment methods that contribute to achieving the goals of a circular water economy in sustainable environmental engineering. We welcome original research articles and reviews addressing various research areas, including but not limited to:
- Innovative technologies crucial for Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs).
- Topics encompass micro-sieving, Anammox, moving bed biological reactor, thermal hydrolysis of bio-solids, recovery of nutrients through struvite precipitation, UV disinfection, desalination of brackish water, and resource mining from desalination brine.
- Evaluation of the capital (CAPEX) and operational (OPEX) expenditures associated with innovative designs of circular water economies.
We eagerly anticipate and appreciate your contributions to this important endeavor.
Dr. Walter Z. Tang
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs)
- micro-sieving
- anammox
- moving bed biological reactor
- thermal hydrolysis of biosolids
- recover nutrients through struvite precipitation
- desalination of brackish water
- resource mining from desalination brine
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