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New Approaches to Water Treatment: Challenges and Trends, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 499

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Technologies for Water Management and Treatment Research Group, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva s/n 18071, Granada, Spain
Interests: design; modelling; optimization; simulation; wastewater treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Technologies for Water Management and Treatment Research Group, University of Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva s/n 18071, Granada, Spain
Interests: desalination; drinking water; emerging contaminants; MBR; wastewater treatment; water reuse; xenobiotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a continuation of our previous Special Issue, entitled "New Approaches to Water Treatment: Challenges and Trends". The first edition of this Special Issue can be accessed at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/ST0099H79O.

The objective of this Special Issue is to gain insights into the main challenges and trends related to water treatment (e.g., drinking water, rainwater, desalination, wastewater, etc.). Articles focused on the development of new technologies and digitalization in water treatment are also of interest. We welcome the submission of original research articles, both methodological and experimental, and reviews covering all issues related to the abovementioned topics.

Possible topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Drinking water treatment;
  • Desalination;
  • Rainwater purification systems;
  • Wastewater treatment;
  • Reclaimed water and wastewater reuse;
  • Modeling and simulation;
  • Digitalization;
  • Water–energy nexus;
  • Energy optimization.

Dr. Luz Marina Ruíz
Prof. Dr. Miguel Ángel Gómez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • desalination
  • digitalization
  • drinking water
  • optimization
  • rainwater
  • reclaimed water
  • water treatment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2743 KiB  
Article
Effects of Ozone Oxidation Process on Residual Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in a Swine Wastewater Treatment Plant
by Taeyoung Cha, Min-Sang Kim, Yuhoon Hwang, Eun Sook Jeong, Hongmok Jo and Si-Kyung Cho
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(9), 5158; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15095158 - 6 May 2025
Viewed by 294
Abstract
Extensive antibiotic use in swine production contaminates manure and wastewater with antibiotics. Discharging this waste into the environment, even after treatment, potentially fuels the spread of antibiotic resistance. This study investigated a full-scale swine wastewater treatment plant that combines coagulation–sedimentation, sand filtration, ozonation, [...] Read more.
Extensive antibiotic use in swine production contaminates manure and wastewater with antibiotics. Discharging this waste into the environment, even after treatment, potentially fuels the spread of antibiotic resistance. This study investigated a full-scale swine wastewater treatment plant that combines coagulation–sedimentation, sand filtration, ozonation, activated carbon filtration, and a deaeration process. At each stage of this process, samples were collected and analyzed to determine their water quality parameters, antibiotic concentrations, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The experimental results showed coagulation–sedimentation effectively removed suspended solids (92.2%) and total phosphorus (96.9%). Ozonation significantly reduced antibiotic levels, including sulfamethazine by over 99.9%, although ARGs such as tetM, sul1, and sul2 were only removed at levels up to 95.9%. Interestingly, partial rebounds of sulfamethazine (438.9 μg/L) and marbofloxacin (0.40 μg/L) appeared in the final effluent, suggesting that desorption or operational factors (e.g., hydraulic fluctuation, filter media saturation, and pH) may affect the treatment process. In addition, strong correlations emerged between the levels of suspended solids and those of certain antibiotics (lincomycin, tiamulin), indicating particle-mediated sorption as a key mechanism. Even though ozonation and coagulation–sedimentation were found to contribute to the substantial removal of pollutants, the observed rebounds and residual ARGs highlight the need for optimized operational strategies and multi-barrier approaches to fully mitigate antibiotic contamination and inhibit the proliferation of resistant bacteria in swine wastewater. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Approaches to Water Treatment: Challenges and Trends, 2nd Edition)
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