Themed collection Recent Open Access Articles

This article provides an ethical exploration of wastewater research surveillance, incorporating insights from data ethics, public health ethics, research ethics, and environmental and water ethics.

Recent research on antimicrobial resistance in the environment has emphasized targeted methods. Increased use of non-targeted methods is needed to determine how frequently novel resistance genes arise.

Infiltrating systems microbiology concepts in the water industry requires the development of a language of love and shared endpoints in analytical bioscience and process engineering at the (waste)water line.

Closing the human nutrient cycle with decentralized urine separation would help to achieve progress in food security and water protection – especially in poor countries. For this, radical innovation is needed along the whole sanitation value chain.

This tutorial review synthesizes literature on sustainability analyses to introduce quantitative sustainable design (QSD) for technology research, development, and deployment.

Individual resource recovery processes are monitored as health risk barriers.

Homogeneous photodriven advanced oxidation processes (HP-AOPs) have been increasingly investigated in past years as a possible alternative solution to conventional tertiary treatment methods of urban wastewater.

This article has critically reviewed the story of macroscopic developments of COFs for water remediation. The various macroscopic COFs for removing toxic organic and inorganic pollutants have been systematically surveyed.

A field study was carried out in Peru to remove arsenic from water in arsenic-contaminated regions using milk protein nanofibril filters. Results show that this technology can bring back water to drinking standard in both urban and rural settings.

We propose a minimum set of meta-information to accompany the reporting of SARS-CoV-2 occurrence in wastewater for improved data interpretation.

Wastewater-based epidemiology is a promising tool to anticipate potential viral outbreaks not only at city-scale but also at precincts-scale or even buildings.

Amino acid modified graphene nanosheets adsorb emerging contaminants from tap water outperforming unmodified precursors and activated carbon for carbamazepine, bisphenol A and benzophenone 4. Structure–adsorption relationships are unraveled.

Tracking accumulation and mobilisation behaviour of pipe wall material layers shows the Variable Condition Discolouration Model (VCDM) capable of simulating long term hydraulic induced discolouration behaviour in drinking water distribution systems.

This study explores the potential of sustainable and precise management based on machine learning in real-world urban engineering applications.

Polymeric beads functionalised with a chemical receptor show they can remove arsenate from contaminated water to levels below 5 ppb (well below the WHO guideline value of 10 ppb).

Clinoptilolite zeolite was chemically modified with sodium, calcium, or magnesium to comparatively study the physical recovery of ammonium and phosphates from simulated blackwater.

Congo red dye protects bacteriophages from the adverse effects of UV radiation, allowing for simultaneous membrane surface cleaning from biofoundries.

Water pollution caused by the frequent use of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) has been attracting increased media and political coverage in England as in other places in the world.

Active and passive manganese and iron impurities in drinking water-grade lime hydrate are removed through redox treatment.

Eleven furan-like disinfection byproducts were reported for the first time as byproducts from the chlorination of phenolic natural organic matter surrogates.

Novel adsorbents produced from β-lactoglobulin, a low-cost milk protein, have shown a high affinity to inorganic As(III) and As(V).

The article demonstrates a method for the adaptation of denitrifying woodchip bioreactors for the removal of sulfate as well. Sulfate is removed by sulfate reduction and subsequent iron sulfide precipitation.

Multicoated magnetite magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) with polyacrylic acid as a terminal hydrophilic ligand showed reproducibility of the composite particles when used as a draw solution. The tight covalent bond allows MNPs to maintain their osmotic potential after filtration.

A story of microbial community assembly and nutrient removal under fluctuational environmental conditions during start-up and operation of full-scale aerobic granular sludge.

MIB and geosmin removal performance by 11 supplier-recommended powdered activated carbons varied by factor 3 to 4. Well performing carbons also effectively removed benzene traces.

Assessing the efficacy of thermal hydrolysis of waste activated sludge in terms of boosting specific methane yield by using a normalized solids retention time of the activated sludge process.

Process of building predictive gas-phase chemical mechanisms faster and less computationally intensive using state of the art automated chemical tools and linking the predicted chemical reactivity to underlying chemical structure information.

Novel economically-sustainable and environmentally-friendly technologies for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) destruction are becoming increasingly important as PFAS contamination has increased in drinking water throughout the globe.

Shortcut nitrogen removal (SNR) reduces aeration, carbon, and alkalinity requirements, but the magnitude of this benefit is often overstated. SNR allows for upstream carbon diversion and anammox processes allow for significant WRRF capacity gains.

QSDsan is an open-source platform that integrates the design, simulation, and sustainability characterization of sanitation and resource recovery systems.

We present a simple method for the screening of recovered water from shale gas extraction that can be used to avoid contamination incidents.

Online algorithms have been developed to automatically adjust monitoring schemes to sample instants characterized by maximum and/or minimum daily concentrations while reducing sampling costs with respect to traditional monitoring schemes.

Suwannee river natural organic matter greatly increased dissolved lead release from galvanic corrosion due to complexation with humic acid-like substances.

The influence of WWTP treatment standard on contaminant breakthrough is explored for 293 compounds.

Recent applications of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) have demonstrated its ability to track the spread and dynamics of COVID-19 at the community level.

Biochar amendments to conventional sand filters can remove hydrophilic trace organic contaminants from urban stormwater and are, therefore, a good barrier to protect the aquatic environment.

The pollution of aqueous environments by metals has continued to increase due to anthropogenic activities such as mining, waste disposal, industrial activities and the use of motor vehicles.

Orthophosphate promotes more biofilm growth than sodium silicates at water temperatures above 20 °C.

Increasing hydraulic residence time (HRT) along a chain of interconnected reservoirs enhances the formation potential of carbonaceous disinfection by-products (DBPs) and reduces the formation potential of nitrogenous DBPs, particularly N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in New York City were significantly correlated with clinical case rates in corresponding sewersheds.

SARS-CoV-2 community wastewater surveillance across a range of scales to establish optimal sampling strategies.

This study analysed the spatial and temporal occurrence of 29 disinfection by-products (DBPs) formed by chlorination and chloramination.

Absorbance-based sensors produce large raw attenuation datasets. We developed AbspectroscoPY, an open-source Python toolbox to implement semi-automated processing of these data and explore the full potential of high-frequency measurements.

We compared SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in primary settled solids and raw wastewater samples matched in date to investigate the relationship between the two matrices.

Novel linear free energy relationships were determined between experimentally measured rate constants of solvated electrons and theoretically calculated one electron reduction potential for the elucidation of reductive reaction mechanisms.

Application of plasma oxidation for removal of pharmaceuticals in urine was assessed and compared to a traditional advanced oxidation process.

Waste streams continuously introduce active and inactive microbial populations that can influence assembly of microbial communities in chain elongation systems.

We demonstrate the application of a rapid pre-concentration protocol and a magnetic bead-based RNA extraction method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from raw wastewater without the need for extensive sample treatment.

The formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) during drinking water treatment has been associated with various health concerns but the agents, i.e., the DBPs that cause these health concerns, are still unknown.

Particle-bound OPEs were observed at fractions higher than expected based on predicted partitioning behaviour, i.e. organic carbon–water partitioning ratios (log ) calculated from field data were generally higher than predicted values.

A linear UV dose response is demonstrated using an ELISA assay that measures thymine dimers formed in the genomic DNA extracted from the mixed species of microorganisms filtered from UV treated pre-disinfection drinking water.

UV photolysis is an effective process to remove nitrosamines from contaminated water resources.

Environmental water quality data from England are used to establish the excess heat in sewage effluent discharges to rivers and subsequently estimate the national scale heat recovery potential of wastewater.

We introduce a green and efficient approach for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) based on the β-lactoglobulin amyloid fibril membrane.

The trash-excluding attachment (Excluder) can be connected to a custom vacuum (such as the Flexcrevator), a vacuum truck, or a sludge pump. The system allows the mechanized emptying of pit latrines with high levels of trash without manual “fishing”.

The electrooxidation of PFOS can be significantly improved with the simultaneous electrosynthesis of ferrate and permanganate from low concentration ambient Fe²⁺ and Mn²⁺ in source waters, even in the presence of natural organic matter (NOM).

A simple passive sampling protocol using cheesecloth and electronegative filters coupled with a Tween®20-based elution technique provided reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at targeted locations in a region of low COVID-19 prevalence.

Identifying the breakthrough pattern of drinking water bacteria through faucet-mounted activated carbon block filters at the point of use using abiotic microspheres and biotic surrogates, fluorescent-tagged E. coli and P. aeruginosa.

Low pH allows for selective oxidation of the organic fraction in urine while retaining nitrogen.

This study elucidates the short- and long-term impacts of lead service line replacement in Flint homes following a corrosion event.

The direct sampling method revealed the high treatment capacity of the unsaturated zone and the significant impact of infiltration basin management on microbial communities in managed aquifer recharge (MAR).

Droplet digital PCR revealed antibiotic resistance genes, metal resistance genes, and intI1 across all pipe biofilm sample types (biomass surfaces, pipe surfaces, corrosion tubercles, and under corrosion tubercles).

Conventional drinking water treatment is inefficient in removing a large fraction of known organic micropollutants (OMPs). Ozonation in combination with granular activated carbon is a promising approach for addressing this issue.

The reproducibility and sensitivity of 36 methods for quantifying the genetic signal of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater was evaluated in a nationwide interlaboratory assessment in the U.S.