Emerging pollutants in developing countries: Optimising sustainable treatment solutions

This is the author accepted manuscriptOver the past decade the research surrounding the occurrence, source, fate and removal of emerging pollutants has been increasing. The aim of this study was to create an add-on program which analyses the removal of emerging pollutants, to an existing decision support tool (WiSDOM). The tool was also used to evaluate the performance of each optimal solution in terms of removal of conventional pollutants using Multi Objective Genetic Algorithms and Multi Criteria Decision Analysis. Information was collated regarding minimum and maximum concentrations of emerging pollutants for surface water, groundwater, untreated wastewater, drinking water and treated wastewater. This information was used to populate an Excel Spreadsheet Program (ESP) which analysed the removal efficiencies of 13 different emerging pollutants for 42 wastewater treatment unit processes. The ESP is incorporated into the WiSDOM tool to allow the tool to calculate the removal of emerging pollutants. Three main scenarios were created to test the application of the tool and ESP. Scenario 1 focussed on the removal of emerging pollutants from from areas effected by tourism at different scales. Scenario 2 looked at the treatment suited for the removal of emerging pollutants from different socio-economic regions. Lastly, Scenario 3 looked at removing emerging pollutants from hospital and industrial wastewater. The scenarios were focused on wastewater treatment in India and investigated the removal of 13 emerging pollutants commonly found in India.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)European CommissionNatural Environment Research Council (NERC

Emerging Pollutants in the Environment

This edited book, Emerging Pollutants in the Environment Current and Further Implications, includes overviews by significant researchers on the topic of emerging pollutants toxicology, which covers the hazardous effects of common emerging xenobiotics employed in our every day anthropogenic activities. We hope that this book will meet the expectations and needs of all those who are interested in the negative implications of several emerging pollutants on living species

Photolysis of in-situ electrogenerated hydrogen peroxide for the degradation of emerging pollutants

This study investigates the degradation of paracetamol, an emerging contaminant widely used as pain and fever reliever, by means of hydrogen peroxide either alone or in combination with UV-C photolysis. In particular, we provide a comparison between the performance of both commercial and electrogenerated H2O2 whose production has been achieved by galvanostatic electrolysis in undivided reactor with a gas diffusion cathode. The performance of the treatments has been assessed in terms of both pollutant decay and mineralization. The influence of the H2O2 to paracetamol molar ratio is discussed. The results show that the electrogenerated hydrogen peroxide, when activated by UV-C irradiation, results in faster degradation and mineralization of paracetamol. However, under the conditions adopted, complete depletion of the total organic carbon (TOC) has never been attained

Removal of emerging pollutants in conventional and microalgae based biotechnology urban wastewater treatment plants

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) reduce portion of the input of pharmaceuticals in aquatic systems, but there is no data available about the elimination of emerging contaminants with microalgae technology. The aim of this work was to determine the average mass flows and concentrations of pharmaceuticals in influents and effluents from two sewages treatment plants using conventional and microalgae based biotechnologies and to compare the removal of pharmaceuticals using both depuration technologies. Only between 20 to 60% of five pharmaceuticals groups is reduce in both WWTP using conventional technologies consisting of a pretreatment, primary settling and secondary treatment by aerobic biological reactor. Using microalgae based biotechnologies efficiency of removal pharmaceuticals is higher than conventional technologies and it increase by using DAF (Dissolve Air Flotation) technology to separate algae biomass

Removal of emerging pollutants from aqueous matrices

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a Dulaty Taraz State UniversityWater pollution is a growing problem and causes rising concern among researchers. As a result of increased consumption of pharmaceuticals and, as a consequence, the growth of the pharmaceutical industry, the pollution of substances harmful to human health in water matrices is gradually increasing every year. The lack of satisfactory methods for wastewater treatment from emerging pollutants exacerbates the situation. That is why many researchers have directed their efforts to the study of the removal processes and the development of new water treatment methods. Of considerable interest is the possibility of using organic waste to prepare an effective adsorbent and its use in the removal of pharmaceuticals. In this work some knowledge of recent years studies is gathered together on purpose to study preparation and application of organic wastes based activated carbon for removal pharmaceutical compounds from aqueous matrices. Methods of adsorbent preparation and adsorption providing are described. Factors influencing adsorption efficiency were also analyzed.A poluição da água é um problema crescente que causa preocupação progressiva entre os investigadores científicos. Como resultado do aumento do consumo de produtos farmacêuticos e, como consequência, do crescimento da indústria farmacêutica, a poluição de substâncias nocivas à saúde humana nas matrizes hídricas vem aumentando gradualmente a cada ano. A falta de métodos satisfatórios para o tratamento de águas residuais relativamente à remoção de poluentes emergentes agrava a situação. Por essa razão, muitos investigadores têm direcionado seus esforços para o estudo dos processos de remoção e o desenvolvimento de novos métodos de tratamento de água. Neste contexto, é de considerável interesse a possibilidade de usar resíduos orgânicos para a preparaçãode adsorventes eficazes na remoção de produtos farmacêuticos de matrizes aquosas. Neste trabalho, alguns conhecimentos referentes a estudos científicos recentes são reunidos com o objetivo de estabelecer um resumo do estado atual do conhecimento referenteà aplicação de materiais de carbono ativadobaseados em resíduos orgânicos para a remoção de compostos farmacêuticos de matrizes aquosas. Os métodos de preparação dos adsorventes, assimcomoos processos de adsorção são descritos. Analisam-se igualmente os fatores que influenciam a eficiência da adsorção

A transition in the Dutch wastewater system? : The struggle between discourses and with lock-ins

Recently, calls have increased for a paradigm shift or transition towards resource recovery and a circular economy in the Dutch wastewater system. However, we have observed diverging interpretations on the nature of the transition. This reflects the political environment of sustainability transitions: political struggle emerges over the definition of problems, futures and strategies to be used. In order to help clarify the emerging debate and identify political choices, we conducted a discourse analysis. We identified three discourses that reveal some of the political choices to be made. One discourse is becoming dominant and focusses on optimising the large-scale infrastructure, market development and legislative changes. The discourse draws on the existing infrastructure and current political-economic institutions, which gives it an advantage in becoming dominant. Our findings also suggest that this discourse shapes a transition pathway that is characterised by lock-in effects and, at most, incremental changes instead of a fundamental shift in the established Dutch wastewater system

Chapter 10 Emerging Pollutants: Fate, Pathways, and Bioavailability

A number of new products, which include common personal-care products, prescription and nonprescription drugs, household items, as well as new-generation pesticides, surfactants, and industrial products contain nanomaterials (NMs) and/or microplastics. Nanoparticles (NPs) have a high surface area for their size, and thus, are likely to be very reactive, which are utilized in several applications such as their use as catalysts and antioxidants, and in remediation of polluted waters, and so on. However, these properties also make them potentially threatening for the environment and for the human health because they can pass through cell membranes, affect seed germination and growth, remain suspended in the air and travel long distances, pass and carry pollutants easily through small soil pores in the ground, and eventually can become available to ecosystems and humans. Because of the emergence of nanotechnology only recently, little is known about the behavior of NPs in the environment, the dominant physical and chemical factors that affect their movement, their toxicological effects once they enter a living organism, and so on. In addition, the expansion in the use of plastics has reached a stage where it is estimated that 60%–80% of the waste is in that form, polluting large areas of land and water, and entering the food chain. This chapter summarizes some of the recent scientific information on these emerging materials and highlights the potential and the threat that they pose

Adsorption of emerging pollutants with different biochar adsorbents

Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstrac