Opportunities and Challenges in Biological 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: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 468
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental microbiome applications; membrane filtration technology; nitrogne removal; ultraviolet disinfection and ultraviolet advanced oxidation; ozone-biological activated carbon processes; carbon neutrality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: anammox; denitrification; anaerobic digestion; sludge fermentation; biological nitrogen removal; carbon neutrality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: nitrification; emerging pollutant removal technologies; combined pollution; antibiotic resistance genes; advanced oxidation technology; activated sludge; secondary effluent
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of our journal focusing on the topic of “Opportunities and Challenges in Biological Water Treatment”. Biological water treatment processes rely partially or entirely on biological mechanisms to achieve the removal of target pollutants. These processes encompass natural (e.g., riverbank) and engineered (e.g., biofiltration, activated sludge, and membrane bioreactors) processes. Compared to natural systems, engineered systems are characterized by a more controlled design and well-defined operating parameters. Understanding the relationships between operational parameters, microorganisms, and system performance, as well as identifying keystone taxa in water treatment systems, are the primary objectives and challenges in water treatment systems, which can help stabilize and enhance the performance of biological units in water treatment. With the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing technology, the diversity of microbial communities in water treatment systems has gradually attracted much attention. However, it is still a challenge to reveal the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of microbial communities and regulate functional taxa for effective water treatment. For example, it is necessary to further discover, identify, and verify the keystone taxa in the water treatment system while understanding their impact on its performance and stability. Multi-omics technologies (e.g., metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and metaproteomics) offer great advantages in analyzing the functions of microbial communities, and can provide data on microbial community structure/function under different water qualities and operational conditions. This information can then be utilized to precisely regulate the microbiomes in order to maximize their engineering and ecological value in the fields of water treatment and resource recovery.
We invite authors to submit original research articles, reviews, or perspectives addressing various aspects of opportunities and challenges in biological water treatment, such as drinking water treatment, urban sewage treatment, reclaimed water treatment, and rural wastewater treatment.
Dr. Zedong Lu
Prof. Dr. Shenbin Cao
Prof. Dr. Xiaoyan Fan
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- biological water treatment
- nutrient and energy recovery
- biological nutrient removal
- microbial community
- keystone taxa
- multi-omics
- biofiltration
- activated sludge
- membrane bioreactors
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