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Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2024) | Viewed by 8330

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Elizabeth Arkhangelsky

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Guest Editor

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, School of Engineering and Digital Sciences, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan
Interests: environmental engineering; environmental chemistry; water/wastewater treatment; nanomaterials; sustainability

Dr. Vassilis J. Inglezakis

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
Interests: water/wastewater treatment; porous materials and nanocomposites; adsorption process modeling; soil pollution and waste management
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater treatment has been a worldwide issue and has in recent years become a significant problem in a number of countries. This is partly due to inefficient wastewater treatment that leads to continuous and accumulating environment contamination and compromises natural water quality. In order to mitigate the coming water crisis, wastewater must be viewed not as a waste but as a valuable resource, providing water for different purposes, nutrients, and other value-added products. Thus, the adaptation of existing or development of new reliable technologies and materials is needed to be able to valorize this precious resource. Indeed, recent research has shown that both municipal and industrial wastewaters have much to offer.

The Special Issue “Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation’’ is dedicated to physical, chemical, biological methods and their combination, as well as on new materials used in these methods. These methods can be but are not limited to membrane separation, photocatalysis, and biological treatment. This Special Issue aims to share current knowledge in the field with the research community and welcomes both original research and review papers.

Dr. Elizabeth Arkhangelsky
Dr. Vassilis Inglezakis
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

wastewater
treatment
reclamation
emerging
materials
technologies
physical
chemical
biological

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 5195 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of Cotton Stalk as an Adsorbent for Copper(II) Ions in Sustainable Wastewater Treatment

by Mary Triny Beleño Cabarcas, Ricardo Torres Ramos, Benjamín Valdez Salas, Daniel González Mendoza, Aurelia Mendoza Gómez, Mario Alberto Curiel Álvarez and Jonathan Rafael Castillo Sáenz

Sustainability 2024, 16(10), 4291; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16104291 - 19 May 2024

Viewed by 533

Abstract

The capacity of untreated cotton stalk to remove and adsorb Cu²⁺ ions in synthetic and natural aqueous solutions was evaluated. The influence of three sensitive parameters of the adsorption process—solution pH, adsorbent dosage, and contact time—on the percentage of Cu²⁺ removal in agricultural wastewater, livestock wastewater, and synthetic samples was studied. Physicochemical and morphological properties were studied using thermogravimetry, Fourier infrared spectrophotometry, and scanning electron microscopy. The elemental composition, proximal composition, zero charge point, and acid–base sites were determined. In addition, kinetic studies were performed, and the adsorption equilibrium was analyzed. The optimum conditions for Cu²⁺ adsorption were the following: solution pH = 5.5, adsorbent dosage of 0.6 g, and contact time of 60 min. Under these conditions, the percentage of Cu²⁺ removal in synthetic samples was 66.5% when the initial copper concentration was 50 mg/L. The removal percentage in agricultural and livestock wastewater samples was 87.60% and 85.05%, respectively, when the initial copper concentration was 25 mg/L. The adsorption data are consistent with the Freundlich isotherm model, which achieved a quadratic fit of 0.991 compared to 0.5542 for the Langmuir model. The experimental results indicate that the adsorption adequately fits the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The results suggest that cotton stalks are a promising adsorbent for the ecological and economical removal of Cu²⁺ in wastewater. This research, therefore, provides relevant information that contributes to the sustainable management of agricultural waste and instills hope for a reduction in water pollution from heavy metals derived from agricultural activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation)

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15 pages, 1484 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Adding Value to Reclaimed Water from Wastewater Treatment Plants: The Environmental Feasibility of a Minimal Liquid Discharge System for the Case Study of Larnaca

by Maria Avramidi, Christina Spyropoulou, Constantinos Loizou, Maria Kyriazi, Jelica Novakovic, Konstantinos Moustakas, Dimitris Malamis and Maria Loizidou

Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14305; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914305 - 27 Sep 2023

Viewed by 1145

Abstract

The escalating water demand in Cyprus has necessitated the exploration of alternative water resources. The available water, which relies on rainfall and dam storage supplemented by methods such as desalination and aquifer enrichment, is inadequate to meet the current water demand. As a solution, Cyprus is utilizing reclaimed water for irrigation, in full compliance with both local and EU regulations. To address sustainable water management in Cyprus, a minimal liquid discharge (MLD) system is assessed for its environmental feasibility. A system incorporating reverse osmosis (RO), a multi-effect distillation (MED) evaporator, and a vacuum crystallizer (VC) is proposed for treating reclaimed water from the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Larnaca. The proposed system aims to control the salinity (2500 mg/L) that limits the use of recovered water to the irrigation of non-sensitive types of crops, while recovering salt (sodium chloride). A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted, comparing the proposed MLD system with a reference system based on RO technology, where water is recovered, and brine is rejected back into the sea. The environmental feasibility was assessed via comparing 16 different environmental impact categories. Based on the analysis, the reference study provided a positive numeric value for most of the impact categories that were examined. Thus, it was concluded that the reference study has an overall negative impact on the environment, whereas the proposed MLD system demonstrated an overall positive impact, mainly due to low ecotoxicity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation)

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25 pages, 6016 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From Hazardous Chrysotile and Polyamide Wastes into Sustainable Serpentine/Polyamide Nanocomposite Membrane: Fabrication, Characterization, and Environmental Application

by Amal H. El Maghrabi, Mohmmed M. El-Rabiee, Bahaa S. Metwally, Mostafa A. Masoud, Mohamed H. Abdelaziz, Petros Petrounias, Nikolaos Koukouzas and Ahmed M. Zayed

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7060; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097060 - 23 Apr 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1931

Abstract

Sustainable serpentine/polyamide nanocomposite (SP/PAM) was fabricated using malicious mining (serpentine chrysotile, SP Ctl) and industrial (polyamide, PA6) wastes via the electro-spinning technique. Before fabrication, the fibrous nature of Ctl was demolished through intensive grinding into nano-fractions. The successful impregnation of Ctl within PA6 via the electro-spinning technique at fixed ratios of precursor raw materials in the dissolving agent (7.5/92.5% SP/PA wt/wt solid/solid) created an internal network structure within the polymer fibers by molecular self-assembly. SP/PAM showcased its prowess in tackling the remediation of diverse dyes and Fe(III) from synthetic solutions in a batch system. Based on correlation coefficient outcomes (R² ≈ 0.999), the pseudo-second-order equation justified the sorption data in an adequate way for all contaminants. In addition, intra-particle diffusion was not the only driving factor in the sorption process. Similarly, the Langmuir equation with maximum removal capacity (qmax) 5.97, 4.33, and 5.36 mg/g for MO, MB, and Fe(Ⅲ), respectively, defined the sorption data better than Freundlich. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation)

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Review

Jump to: Research

32 pages, 1372 KiB

Open AccessReview

Biological Treatment, Advanced Oxidation and Membrane Separation for Landfill Leachate Treatment: A Review

by Arailym Kamal, Ardak Makhatova, Bakzhan Yergali, Aigerim Baidullayeva, Aliya Satayeva, Jong Kim, Vassilis J. Inglezakis, Stavros G. Poulopoulos and Elizabeth Arkhangelsky

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14427; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114427 - 3 Nov 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3500

Abstract

Landfill leachate, especially when produced in old municipal solid waste landfills, is a challenging type of wastewater which contains a variety of toxic substances. The existence of pollutants in the landfill leachate is primarily due to inadequate solid waste separation at the source. Pretreatment on site is a must for the landfill leachate to be safely released into the environment. One-step treatment is insufficient since landfill leachate has a complex composition that spatially and temporally varies. Often, the landfill leachate and municipal wastewater are treated together. Biological treatment is a routine technique which is applied to landfill leachate less than five years old. The concentration of easily biodegradable organic matter in the young landfill leachate declines with time and, as a result, the application of physical and chemical treatment processes is required. The goal of the current work is to investigate the usefulness and capability of the most efficient and widely available technique/s for landfill leachate treatment, to identify the main challenges and strengths of each technology and seek the optimum solution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Technologies and Materials for Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation)

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