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Water
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The Application of Novel Biotechnologies for Removal of Emerging Contaminants
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The Application of Novel Biotechnologies for Removal of Emerging Contaminants

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2025 | Viewed by 1571

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Paulina Rusanowska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, 10-720 Olsztyn, Poland
Interests: anaerobic digestion; substrate pretreatment; antibiotic contamination; microorganisms consortia (activated sludge, aerobic granules, biofilm); extracellular polymers; microalgae; oil extraction; FAME determination

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, the aquatic environment is exposed to severe pollution related to the ubiquity of microplastic, the overuse of antibiotics, and uncontrolled pollution from emerging contaminants. Due to these threats, environmental biotechnology faces a major challenge when it comes to finding solutions to their removal from the water. A significant portion of these pollutants bypass conventional wastewater treatment processes and enter aquatic ecosystems, or accumulate in treatment byproducts (e.g., excess sludge or adsorbents), potentially finding other pathways to environmental dispersion. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to find innovative solutions that enable their effective destruction.

Emerging contaminants include disinfection by-products, pharmaceutical and personal care products, fire retardants, insecticides, and industrial chemicals, as well as their partial degradation products. The evaluation of their residual presence in wastewater treatment plants, effluents, and byproducts is important for determining the risk to the environment.

This Special Issue seeks the submission of research findings on the application of novel biotechnologies in sewage purification for the removal of hard-to-degrade pollutants. The studies that contribute to a better understanding of this influence and which look for solutions to control emerging contaminants in the environment are welcome.

Dr. Paulina Rusanowska
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

  • microplastic
  • antibiotics
  • heavily polluted wastewater
  • microorganisms communities
  • membranes

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 3056 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Microbial Biosorbents for Efficient Cd(II) Removal from Aqueous Solutions
by Mihaela Roșca, Mariana Diaconu, Raluca-Maria Hlihor, Petronela Cozma, Bruna Silva, Teresa Tavares and Maria Gavrilescu
Water 2024, 16(24), 3660; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16243660 - 19 Dec 2024
Viewed by 224
Abstract
The biosorption of heavy metals has become an attractive alternative to conventional methods and is considered feasible, environmentally friendly and often low-cost option. Five microorganisms (Rhodotorula sp., Cladosporium sp., Bacillus megaterium, Trichosporon sp. and Geotrichum sp.) were isolated from different environments [...] Read more.
The biosorption of heavy metals has become an attractive alternative to conventional methods and is considered feasible, environmentally friendly and often low-cost option. Five microorganisms (Rhodotorula sp., Cladosporium sp., Bacillus megaterium, Trichosporon sp. and Geotrichum sp.) were isolated from different environments and used for the biosorption of Cd(II) from aqueous solutions in batch mode to expand upon the existing studies and generate new data related to the main microorganisms that could be successfully applied to the removal of heavy metals from wastewaters. Considering a constant biosorbent dose (5 g/L), pH (5.4) and temperature (25 °C) and varying contact times and initial pollutant concentrations, the process efficiency and uptake capacity of the biosorbents were assessed. Statistical analysis of the experimental results revealed that a contact time longer than 24 h did not significantly increase the uptake capacity or removal efficiency of Cd(II) by B. megaterium or Geotrichum sp., which means that the available binding sites on the cell wall immediately participate in the removal of metal ions. For the other three biosorbents, increasing the contact time from 24 h to 48 h led to a significant increase in the uptake capacity and removal efficiency. A comparison of the uptake values of each biosorbent revealed that Bacillus megaterium had the highest Cd(II) uptake capacity (8.53 mg/g), followed by Trichosporon sp. (8.21 mg/g). The lowest uptake capacity, as well as the lowest efficiency after 48 h of contact, was obtained for Geotrichum sp. (0.73 mg/g and 14.97%, respectively). The results of the FTIR analysis revealed that almost all the functional groups were present on the surface of the biosorbent, but their involvement in Cd(II) biosorption differed from biosorbent to biosorbent. The phosphodiester, amide and hydroxyl groups found on the cell surface of Bacillus megaterium, Cladosporium sp., Rhodotorula sp. and Trichosporon sp. were the main groups involved in Cd(II) biosorption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Novel Biotechnologies for Removal of Emerging Contaminants)
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12 pages, 11774 KiB  
Article
Coupling Iron Coagulation and Microalgal–Bacterial Granular Sludge for Efficient Treatment of Municipal Wastewater: A Proof–of–Concept Study
by Bingheng Chen, Chenyu Wang, Changqing Chen, Anjie Li, Xiaoyuan Zhang, Shulian Wang and Bin Ji
Water 2024, 16(21), 3035; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16213035 - 23 Oct 2024
Viewed by 776
Abstract
The rapid expansion of global urbanization and industrialization has significantly increased the discharge of municipal wastewater, leading to issues of carbon emissions and energy consumption when using traditional biological treatment processes. This study proposes an innovative process that couples iron coagulation with microalgal–bacterial [...] Read more.
The rapid expansion of global urbanization and industrialization has significantly increased the discharge of municipal wastewater, leading to issues of carbon emissions and energy consumption when using traditional biological treatment processes. This study proposes an innovative process that couples iron coagulation with microalgal–bacterial granular sludge (MBGS), with optimization and regulation based on operational conditions. The study found that the coagulation performance achieved optimal levels at an iron concentration of 25 mg/L and an anionic polyacrylamide concentration of 1 mg/L, which could remove approximately 61% of the organics and over 90% of phosphorus from raw wastewater. By relying on heterotrophic microorganisms, such as Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, and Chloroflexi, along with the synergistic interaction between algae and bacteria, the subsequent MBGS process could further effectively remove organics over the day-night cycles. Moreover, the addition of inorganic carbon sources of NaHCO3 increased the abundance of denitrification-related genes, reduced the accumulation of nitrite within MBGS, and led to effective total nitrogen removal. These results indicate that the iron coagulation–MBGS coupling process can efficiently treat municipal wastewater, offering potential for environment-sustainable pollutant removal with reduced energy consumption. These findings provide valuable insights for the practical engineering application of MBGS in wastewater treatment systems aiming for carbon-neutral wastewater treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Application of Novel Biotechnologies for Removal of Emerging Contaminants)
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