Effective removal of iron, nutrients, micropollutants, and faecal bacteria in constructed wetlands cotreating mine water and sewage treatment plant effluent.

Regulators in England and Wales have set new targets under the Environment Act 2021 for freshwater quality by 2038 that include halving the length of rivers polluted by harmful metals from abandoned mines and reducing phosphorus loadings from treated wastewater by 80%. In this context, an intriguing win-win opportunity exists in the removal of iron from abandoned mines and phosphate from small sewage treatment plants by coprecipitation in constructed wetlands (CWs). We investigated such a CW located at Lamesley, Northeast England, which cotreats abandoned coal mine and secondary-treated sewage treatment plant effluents.

Environmental DNA clarifies impacts of combined sewer overflows on the bacteriology of an urban river and resulting risks to public health.

There is no reference of microbiological water quality in the European Union's Water Framework Directive, adapted into English law, and consequently microbial water quality is not routinely monitored in English rivers, except for two recently designated bathing water sites. To address this knowledge gap, we developed an innovative monitoring approach for quantitative assessment of combined sewer overflow (CSO) impacts on the bacteriology of receiving rivers. Our approach combines conventional and environmental DNA (eDNA) based methods to generate multiple lines of evidence for assessing risks to public health.

Valorisation of agricultural waste derived biochars in aquaculture to remove organic micropollutants from water - experimental study and molecular dynamics simulations.

In this work, we evaluated the valorisation of agricultural waste materials by transforming coconut husks and shells, corncobs and rice straw into biochar for water treatment in aquaculture. We compared the biochars' suitability for removal of organic micropollutants (acetaminophen, oxytetracycline, tetracycline, enrofloxacin, atrazine, diuron and diclofenac) from surface water needed for aquaculture. The biochars were prepared by three methods ranging from inexpensive drum kilns (200 °C) to pyrolysis with biogasfication (350-750 °C).

Coconut husk biochar amendment enhances nutrient retention by suppressing nitrification in agricultural soil following anaerobic digestate application.

Anaerobic digestate and biochar are by-products of the biogasification and pyrolysis of agricultural wastes. This study tested the hypothesis that combined application of anaerobic pig/cattle manure digestate and coconut husk (CH) biochar can improve soil nutrient conditions, whilst minimizing atmospheric and groundwater pollution risks. Microcosms simulated digestate application to agricultural soil with and without CH biochar.