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Advanced Biotechnologies for Water and Wastewater Treatment, 3rd Edition

A Special Issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441) belonging to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 2223

Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA
Interests: water supply and water treatment; municipal wastewater treatment; industrial waste treatment; biological waste treatment; water and wastewater treatment plant design; water pollution control; water quality engineering
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Guest Editor
Graduate School of Sciences and Technology for Innovation, Yamaguchi University, 2-16-1, Tokiwadai, Ube City 755-8611, Yamaguchi, Japan
Interests: biological wastewater treatment (aerobic, anaerobic); biological treatment/recycling of organic solid waste; oxygen supply methods in aerobic wastewater treatment; CO2 removal and storage
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad, Pakistan
Interests: wastewater treatment; anaerobic digestion; bioremediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water treatment and wastewater treatment are very important to protect public health, environmental health, and the global economy since these treatment processes maintain safe and reliable water resources and may help promote sustainable development. Biological treatment technologies for water and wastewater treatment have been in existence for many years and are closely related to treatment performance efficiency, construction and operation costs, energy requirements, operational flexibility, and environmental impacts. 

Recently, biotechnology has been explored for the improvement of water treatment and wastewater treatment processes. The challenge will be to couple treatment efficiency with sustainable development to remove contaminants in water as well as wastewater, produce renewable energy, and meet the increasingly stringent standards of regulatory agencies.

The aim of this Special Issue of Water is to present the latest reports on applications of current biotechnology processes that seek to enhance and improve water and wastewater treatment performance and to reduce the costs of treatment, whilst also potentially recovering energy. Authors are encouraged to present their original research and review papers in related areas.

Prof. Dr. Yung-Tse Hung
Prof. Dr. Tsuyoshi Imai
Prof. Dr. Issam A. Al-Khatib
Prof. Dr. Qaisar Mahmood
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water 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

  • biotechnologies for water treatment
  • biotechnologies for wastewater treatment
  • advanced water treatment
  • advanced wastewater treatment
  • nutrient recovery from wastewater
  • energy recovery from wastewater
  • emerging contaminants in water and wastewater treatment
  • industrial waste treatment
  • municipal wastewater treatment
  • water reuse
  • water treatment

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 2372 KB  
Article
Synergistic Effect of Electrostatic Field Pretreatment and Microbial Degradation of Selected Pharmaceuticals in Real Wastewater
by Tomáš Sezima, Martina Ujházy, Radmila Kučerová, Adéla Příhodová, Nikola Drahorádová and David Chrastina
Water 2026, 18(13), 1627; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18131627 - 4 Jul 2026
Viewed by 506
Abstract
The increasing contamination of municipal wastewater by a broad spectrum of pharmaceuticals necessitates effective quaternary treatment stages. This pilot study evaluates an innovative combined technology: physical electrostatic pretreatment (conducted using experimental equipment based on a patented design (EP 2388068)) followed by biodegradation in [...] Read more.
The increasing contamination of municipal wastewater by a broad spectrum of pharmaceuticals necessitates effective quaternary treatment stages. This pilot study evaluates an innovative combined technology: physical electrostatic pretreatment (conducted using experimental equipment based on a patented design (EP 2388068)) followed by biodegradation in real secondary effluent samples (COD(Cr) 22.0 mg·L−1 to 32.0 mg·L−1). A total of 17 selected micropollutants were subjected to an 8-h exposure in a high-intensity electrostatic field (20 kV) and a subsequent 20-day microbial degradation using a mixed culture of erythropolis, R. rhodochrous, and R. degradans. Results demonstrate high substance-specific efficiency. The most significant synergistic effect was observed for moderately biodegradable compounds, particularly venlafaxine (improvement up to ~44%), trimethoprim (25–36%), and tramadol (31–58%), representing a ~30–37% efficiency increase over standalone biodegradation. For readily biodegradable (e.g., metoprolol) or highly persistent substances, the impact was inconsistent. Physical pretreatment alone at 20 kV exhibited low to moderate efficiency (up to ~30%) without the biological stage. This combined approach represents a promising synergistic solution for wastewater treatment plant intensification. The primary mechanism involves enhancement of target compound bioavailability induced by the electrostatic field, which subsequently accelerates microbial metabolism. Full article
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25 pages, 4696 KB  
Article
A Circular Economy Approach to Landfill Leachate Biotransformation: Application of Microalgae and Cyanobacteria for Environmental Sustainability and Value-Added Products
by Antonio Zuorro, Maria D. Ortiz-Alvarez, Roberto Lavecchia, Crisostomo Barajas-Ferreira, Janet B. García-Martínez and Andrés F. Barajas-Solano
Water 2026, 18(4), 462; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18040462 - 10 Feb 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1092
Abstract
Landfill leachate is a complex pollutant that contains high levels of nitrogenous compounds, heavy metals, and organic contaminants, posing serious environmental risks. This study presents an innovative and sustainable strategy for leachate biotransformation using the microalgae Chlorella sp. (UFPS_016, 017) and the cyanobacteria [...] Read more.
Landfill leachate is a complex pollutant that contains high levels of nitrogenous compounds, heavy metals, and organic contaminants, posing serious environmental risks. This study presents an innovative and sustainable strategy for leachate biotransformation using the microalgae Chlorella sp. (UFPS_016, 017) and the cyanobacteria Oscillatoria sp. (UFPS_004) and Potamosiphon sp. (UFPS_008), integrating circular economy and Blue Economy principles. Strains were cultivated in 5% and 10% leachate under optimized photoperiods, LED illumination, and controlled CO2 supplementation. The best performance was achieved by Oscillatoria sp. (UFPS_004) with biomass productivity of 0.3923 g L−1 and carbohydrate accumulation up to 64.97% w/w, while Potamosiphon sp. (UFPS_008) achieved the highest PHB content (19.7% w/w). Chlorella sp. strains exhibited greater lipid accumulation, reaching 14.96% w/w, and produced phytohormones (Indole-3-acetic acid) with potential for agricultural applications. 20 L reactors validated scalability, maintaining productivity like that of small-scale systems. This dual-purpose bioprocess simultaneously detoxifies leachate and produces valuable bioproducts, including bioplastics, biofertilizers, and biofuels. The results demonstrate a feasible, low-cost, and eco-efficient biotechnology for landfill leachate management, contributing to waste valorization and environmental sustainability. Full article
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