Advances in Wastewater Treatment 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Certainly, the most significant and priceless natural resource that humans use comes from nature is water. The main source of fresh water for various purposes such as food and industrial production, human consumption, etc. is mainly 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, from solid waste, heavy metals, organic pollutants (petroleum derivatives, dyes, etc.) to "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 in 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. Utilization of waste gases and sludge generated by wastewater treatment represents a sustainable approach to the cleaner energy production, contributing to the reduction of 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 circular economy and sustainable development.

This Special Issue "Advances in Wastewater Treatment 2023" aims to collect original research papers as well as review articles on the latest developments and research efforts on this topic. We welcome experimental research, design and simulation, and environmental engineering aspects of physical, 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 (chemical precipitation, coagulation/flocculation, adsorption, ion exchange, biosorption, disinfection)
• Biological wastewater treatment (aerobic and anaerobic processes)
• Batch and continuous sorption enhanced 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 membrane technologies (mico-, ultra-, nano-filtration, reverse osmosis)
• Advanced oxidation processes (chemical, photochemical, sonochemical, photocatalytic processes)
• Remediation processes
• Sustainable green technologies
• Development of new strategies for wastewater treatment
• New developments in wastewater treatment technologies: the present situation
• Future of circular economy of water – wastewater treatment
• Other related topics

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marin Ugrina
Dr. Jelena Milojković
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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