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Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition
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Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2025) | Viewed by 2792

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marin Ugrina

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Split, Ruđera Boškovića 35, 21 000 Split, Croatia
Interests: environmental engineering; wastewater treatment processes; heavy metals; sorption; zeolite; chemical modification of natural zeolite; soil and water remediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jelena Milojković

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, 86 Franchet d’Esperey St., Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: biosorption; water and wastewater treatment; environmental engineering; heavy metal contamination; material characterization; uranium phytoremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The most significant and priceless natural resource that humans use that comes from nature is water. The main source of fresh water for various purposes such as food and industrial production, human consumption, etc., is groundwater. All water systems, in particular groundwater, are vulnerable since they are targets of pollution from natural, and more often anthropogenic, sources, which makes them harmful to human health and the environment. Pollutants belong to various categories, such as solid waste, heavy metals, organic pollutants (petroleum derivatives, dyes, etc.) and "new pollutants" such as pharmaceuticals. In recent years, it has often been challenging to meet the required regulatory standards due to increasingly stringent requirements for maximum permissible pollutant concentrations in treated wastewater. For this reason, advanced knowledge is necessary and desirable for developing new advanced technologies or improving existing technologies at all levels of wastewater treatment (preliminary, primary, secondary and tertiary treatment). In addition to the need to obtain purified water, it is extremely important to consider the possibility of energy production (thermal, electrical) from wastewater treatment. The utilization of waste gases and sludge generated through wastewater treatment represents a sustainable approach to cleaner energy production, contributing to reductions in both CO2 emissions and the use of fossil fuels. Ultimately, the production of cleaner water and energy through wastewater recycling is an important pathway to the circular economy and sustainable development.

This Special Issue, titled "Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition", will collect original research papers, as well as review articles, on the latest developments and research efforts in this area. We welcome experimental research, design and simulation and environmental engineering aspects of chemical and biological wastewater treatment processes and energy production.

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

  • Energy conservation /recovery/production from wastewater treatment;
  • Innovative water treatment process in energy generation;
  • Design and operation of industrial wastewater bio-refinery;
  • Assessment of industrial wastewater for future bio-refinery;
  • Electricity generation during industrial wastewater treatment;
  • Physico-chemical wastewater treatment (coagulation/flocculation, adsorption, ion exchange);
  • Biological wastewater treatment (aerobic and anaerobic processes);
  • Advanced aspects of wastewater treatment (application and development of new and alternative materials);
  • Innovative design, modeling and optimization of wastewater treatment processes;
  • Electrochemical technologies (electrocoagulation/electroflocculation, electrodialysis);
  • Advanced oxidation processes (chemical, photochemical and sonochemical, photocatalytic processes);
  • Sustainable green technologies;
  • Development of new strategies for wastewater treatment;
  • New developments in wastewater treatment technologies: the present situation;
  • Other related topics.

Dr. Marin Ugrina
Dr. Jelena Milojković
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Energies 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 2600 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

  • energy production from wastewater treatment
  • physico-chemical and biological wastewater treatment
  • electrochemical technologies
  • advanced membrane technologies
  • advanced oxidation processes
  • environmentally friendly processes
  • advanced wastewater treatment

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2354 KB  
Article
Vertical-Ordered Electrogenic Biofilms Engineered Through Substrate-Electric Field Synergy for Enhanced Microbial Fuel Cell Performance
by Xinyuan He, Shaoan Cheng, Zhufan Lin, Yi Lu and Yuxiang Zhou
Energies 2025, 18(21), 5796; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18215796 - 3 Nov 2025
Viewed by 480
Abstract
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a novel and environmentally friendly technology for wastewater treatment and pollutant resource utilization. Although advances have been made in various aspects including electrode materials and synthetic biology approaches, the overall performance of MFC still requires improvement, with mass [...] Read more.
Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a novel and environmentally friendly technology for wastewater treatment and pollutant resource utilization. Although advances have been made in various aspects including electrode materials and synthetic biology approaches, the overall performance of MFC still requires improvement, with mass transfer efficiency and structural stability of biofilms emerging as key bottlenecks constraining their practical applications. This study investigated the regulation of substrate type and electrode potential during bioanode culture to optimize biofilm structure and enhance MFC performance. Results demonstrated that bioanodes cultured with glucose at −0.3 V formed vertically ordered biofilms that exhibited significant advantages in mass transfer characteristics, electrocatalytic activity, and structural stability. Under these culture conditions, enriched fermentative microorganisms facilitated the construction of porous biofilm scaffolds, while the electric field generated by the −0.3 V potential further induced vertical orientation and ordered arrangement of the biofilm. The superior mass transfer characteristics enabled the inner, middle, and outer layers of the biofilm to maintain high microbial activity (>50%), thereby maximizing the catalytic activity of electroactive microorganisms in each layer and enhancing biofilm structural stability. This study proposes a bioanode culture strategy centered on biofilm structural optimization, providing new theoretical foundations and technical pathways for achieving long-term stable and efficient MFC operation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition)
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28 pages, 31155 KB  
Article
Numerical Simulation of Treatment Capacity and Operating Limits of Alkali/Surfactant/Polymer (ASP) Flooding Produced Water Treatment Process in Oilfields
by Jiawei Zhu, Mingxin Wang, Keyu Jing, Jiajun Hong, Fanxi Bu and Zhihua Wang
Energies 2025, 18(13), 3420; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18133420 - 29 Jun 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 692
Abstract
As an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique, alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding effectively mitigates production decline in mature oilfields through chemical flooding mechanisms. The breakthrough of ASP chemical agents poses challenges to the green and efficient separation of oilfield produced water. In this paper, sedimentation [...] Read more.
As an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique, alkali/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding effectively mitigates production decline in mature oilfields through chemical flooding mechanisms. The breakthrough of ASP chemical agents poses challenges to the green and efficient separation of oilfield produced water. In this paper, sedimentation separation of produced water was simulated using the Eulerian method and the RNG k–ε model. In addition, the filtration process was simulated using a discrete phase model (DPM) and a porous media model. The distribution characteristics of oil/suspended solids obtained through simulation, along with the water quality parameters at each treatment node, were systematically extracted, and the influence of operating conditions on treatment capacity was analyzed. Simulations reveal that elevated treatment loads and produced water polymer concentrations synergistically impair ASP flooding produced water treatment efficiency. Fluctuations of operating conditions generate oil/suspended solids content in output water ranges spanning 13–78 mg/L and 19–92 mg/L, respectively. The interpolation method is adopted to determine the critical water quality parameters of each treatment node, ensuring that the treated produced water meets the treatment standards. The operating limits of the ASP flooding produced water treatment process are established. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition)
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Review

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21 pages, 2349 KB  
Review
Scaling Up Non-Thermal Plasma Technology for Water and Wastewater Treatment: Opportunities and Challenges
by Benjamin Morenas, Sidra Saqib, Ahmad Mukhtar, Jonathan Stromberg and Sarah Wu
Energies 2025, 18(21), 5692; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18215692 - 29 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1114
Abstract
Emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) pose significant challenges for conventional wastewater treatment technologies. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has gained attention as a promising advanced oxidation process capable of degrading persistent pollutants via hydrated electrons and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species under ambient [...] Read more.
Emerging contaminants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) pose significant challenges for conventional wastewater treatment technologies. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has gained attention as a promising advanced oxidation process capable of degrading persistent pollutants via hydrated electrons and reactive oxygen/nitrogen species under ambient conditions. This review summarizes recent progress in the application and scale-up of NTP for water treatment, with a focus on reactor configurations, degradation mechanisms, and energy efficiency. Key plasma reactor types—including dielectric barrier discharge, corona discharge, plasma jets, and gliding arc discharge—are evaluated for their suitability in large-scale applications. Pilot-scale studies addressing pharmaceuticals, dyes, and PFASs are reviewed to assess scalability, cost, and operational viability. Although NTP systems consistently achieve >80% contaminant removal, optimizing energy use and maintaining performance across complex water matrices remain critical challenges. Hybrid systems integrating NTP with ozonation, ultrafiltration, or cavitation show potential to improve treatment efficacy and reduce energy demands. Future research priorities include reactor design optimization, contaminant-specific plasma tuning, and technoeconomic analysis to support the translation of NTP technologies from lab-scale innovation to field-scale implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wastewater Treatment, 2nd Edition)
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