Pesticides pose a significant threat to aquatic ecosystems due to their persistent nature and adverse effects on biota. The increased detection of pesticides in various water bodies has prompted research into their toxicological impacts and potential remediation strategies. However, addressing this issue requires the establishment of robust regulatory frameworks to determine safe thresholds for pesticide concentrations in water and the development of effective treatment methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHospital wastewater management has become a significant concern across the globe due to the presence of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) and other toxic substances, which can potentially disrupt ecosystems. The presence of recalcitrant PhACs in hospital wastewater increases the difficulty level for conventional wastewater treatment systems. Furthermore, incorporating advanced oxidation-based treatment systems increase capital and operation costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisinfection has been acknowledged as an inevitable technique in water treatment. However, an inadvertent consequence of generation of carcinogenic and mutagenic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) is associated with the reaction of disinfectants and natural organic matter (NOM) present in water. More than 700 DBPs have been identified in drinking water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe shortage of water resources and generation of large quantum of wastewater has posed a significant concern to the environment and public health. Recent research on wastewater treatment has started to focus on reusing wastewater for different activities to reduce the stress on natural water resources. Constructed wetland (CWs) is a low-cost wastewater treatment option.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe global concern of the pollution of freshwater resources is associated with faecal sludge (FS) disposal, which is an inevitable component of onsite wastewater management mostly in developing countries. The difficulties with its treatment facilities lies in its higher organic content and low dewaterability of various available treatment systems. Moreover, the higher variability in characteristics and quantity of FS generated at different locations creates hindrances in designing the treatment system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of micro and nanoplastic debris on our aquatic ecosystem is among the most prominent environmental challenges we face today. In addition, nanoplastics create significant concern for environmentalists because of their toxicity and difficulty in separation and removal. Here we report the development of a 3D printed moving bed water filter (M-3DPWF), which can perform as an efficient nanoplastic scavenger.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
January 2022
The kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamics of adsorptive removal of fluoride from the real-life groundwater was evaluated to assess the applicability of a green adsorbent, aluminum/olivine composite (AOC). The isotherm and kinetics were demonstrated by the Freundlich and Elovich model indicating significant surface heterogeneity of AOC in favouring the fluoride sorption. The fluoride removal efficiency of AOC was achieved as 87.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydraulic performance assessment and benchmarking of water distribution networks (WDNs) impose a major challenge to water utilities worldwide. Presently, benchmarking strategies for WDNs are not fully developed, especially for analyzing intermittent systems commonly encountered in non-developed nations. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes an index-based benchmarking strategy for WDNs, comparing their actual hydraulic performance and expected serviceability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rapid rise in the healthcare sector has led to an increase in pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in different aqueous bodies. The toxicity of the PhACs and their ability to persist after conventional treatment processes have escalated research in the field of photocatalytic treatment. Although different photocatalysts have been successful in degrading PhACs, their inherent drawbacks have severely limited their application on a large scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng
June 2021
The adsorptive removal of a pollutant from water is significantly affected by the presence of coexisting ions with various concentrations. Here, we have studied adsorption of arsenate [As(V)] by calcined Mg-Fe-(CO)-LDH in the presence of different cations (Mg, Na, K, Ca, and Fe) and anions (CO, Cl, PO, SO, and NO) with their different concentrations to simulate the field condition. The experimental results indicated that Ca, Mg and Fe have a synergistic effect on removal efficiency of As(V), whereas PO and CO ions have a significant antagonistic impact.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe hospital wastewater imposes a potent threat to the security of human health concerning its high vulnerability towards the outbreak of several diseases. Furthermore, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic demanded a global attention towards monitoring viruses and other infectious pathogens in hospital wastewater and their removal. Apart from that, the presence of various recalcitrant organics, pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs), etc.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCiprofloxacin, a pharmaceutically active compound, is present as a micropollutant in wastewater, which cannot be removed by conventional techniques due to its recalcitrant nature. Therefore, in the present study, the photocatalytic degradation of this bio-toxic compound was demonstrated using a three-dimensional sulfur-doped graphitic-carbon nitride/zinc oxide hybrid, with enriched oxygen vacancies. The influence of various water matrices and experimental conditions on the ciprofloxacin degradation was optimized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConstructed wetlands (CWs) are one of the most promising and sustainable alternatives for wastewater treatment that are being successfully implemented in several countries, especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions. The predominant mechanisms of removal of contaminants in CWs are microbial degradation, phytodegradation, phytoextraction, filtration, sedimentation, and adsorption, etc. Vertical flow subsurface CWs and hybrid CWs demonstrated promising results in terms of TN, BOD, and COD removal, while horizontal flow subsurface CWs were proficient in removal of TP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPetroleum refinery and petrochemical plants (PRPP) are one of the major contributors to toxic and recalcitrant organic polluted water, which has become a significant concern in the field of environmental engineering. Several contaminants of PRPP wastewater are genotoxic, phytotoxic, and carcinogenic, thereby imposing detrimental effects on the environment. Many biological processes were able to achieve chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal ranging from 60% to 90%, and their retention time usually ranged from 10 to 100 days.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe removal of the harmful carcinogen arsenic from drinking water by a green technology is a major concern in the field of environmental engineering. The sorptive profile of arsenic remediation by calcined Mg-Fe-layered double hydroxide, fabricated by a one-pot synthesis technique, was investigated to delineate its applicability in real-life water. The physicochemical properties of adsorbent, as demonstrated from spectroscopy and microscopy, which described the existence of amorphous material with significant surface roughness possess selectivity towards arsenic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCiprofloxacin is a pharmaceutically active compound which belongs to a class of micropollutants that cannot be removed using conventional water treatment systems. In this study, photocatalytic degradation using materials with high surface area and active sites was proposed to remove such contaminants. We demonstrated an easily scalable and simple synthesis route to prepare a 3D porous sulfur-doped g-CN/ZnO hybrid material, and the preparation process parameters were optimized using response surface methodology targeting Ciprofloxacin degradation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Sci Health A Tox Hazard Subst Environ Eng
January 2020
The kinetic, isotherm and thermodynamic modeling of the adsorption of arsenite by layered double hydroxide have been performed to analyze the feasibility, efficacy and mechanism of the system. The fast uptake was observed during the initial phase of the process, which reached equilibrium at 240 min following Elovich model. The diffusion kinetic model exhibited that the rate-limiting step of adsorption was controlled by film diffusion as well as intraparticle diffusion.
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