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Bioremediation and Resource Recovery from Wastes and Wastewater: Advanced Materials and Hybrid Treatment Technologies

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 1146

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Guest Editor
Environmental Research Institute, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea
Interests: bioremediation; environmental microbiology; phytoremediation; biological wastewater treatment; microalgae; bioelectrochemical fuel cells
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In waste and wastewater management, the affordability, efficiency, and sustainability of treatment technologies remain major challenges. These challenges are largely driven by increasing pollutant complexity, rising treatment costs, and limited technical and financial resources for advanced treatment facilities. As a result, conventional remediation approaches often struggle to deliver long-term and environmentally sustainable solutions. Recent research has therefore focused on developing eco-efficient bioremediation and resource recovery strategies supported by advanced and bio-based materials. Bio-derived materials such as biochar, biopolymers, natural minerals, and functional nanocomposites offer several advantages over purely chemical or physical treatment methods, as they are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and adaptable to diverse treatment conditions. When integrated with biological and physicochemical processes, these materials can significantly enhance contaminant removal efficiency, operational stability, and overall treatment performance.

Despite these advances, several challenges remain in identifying appropriate remediation strategies. Variations in contaminant type, concentration, and wastewater composition can strongly influence treatment effectiveness. Therefore, it is essential to select suitable materials and system configurations that ensure effective remediation while minimizing ecological risks to living organisms and abiotic environments. Advanced and bio-based remediation systems have strong potential for future scale-up, as they can reduce reliance on fossil-based chemicals, support water reuse, and emphasize resource recovery with economic benefits, including the recovery of water, nutrients, metals, and energy. Hence, we invite the submission of original research articles, review papers, case studies, short communications, and novel methodologies on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Bio-based and advanced materials for waste and wastewater remediation;
  • Bioremediation strategies for emerging and legacy pollutants;
  • Hybrid biological and physicochemical treatment systems;
  • Removal and recovery of nutrients, heavy metals, dyes, and emerging contaminants;
  • Performance evaluation, toxicity assessment, and environmental risk analysis;
  • Emerging trends and innovative techniques in bioremediation;
  • Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of remediation and recovery systems.

Dr. Fida Hussain
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • bioremediation
  • waste and wastewater treatment
  • bio-based materials
  • advanced functional materials
  • hybrid remediation systems
  • environmental sustainability
  • emerging contaminants
  • heavy metal removal
  • organic pollutant removal

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 10337 KB  
Article
Advanced TiO2–SiO2–Biochar Thin-Film Nanocomposite Membranes for High-Performance Removal of Dyes and Heavy Metals from Wastewater
by Muhammad Shahid Sami, Fida Hussain, Ammarah Mushtaq, Jalal Shah, Sang-Eun Oh and Aneela Anwar
Water 2026, 18(12), 1480; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18121480 - 16 Jun 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 677
Abstract
Next-generation wastewater treatment and recycling rely on membrane-based processes, but they face a trade-off among permeability, selectivity, and fouling resistance. In the present study, thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were fabricated by incorporating a ternary TiO2-SiO2-biochar nanofiller into a polysulfone [...] Read more.
Next-generation wastewater treatment and recycling rely on membrane-based processes, but they face a trade-off among permeability, selectivity, and fouling resistance. In the present study, thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were fabricated by incorporating a ternary TiO2-SiO2-biochar nanofiller into a polysulfone (PSf) support using nonsolvent-induced phase separation, after which m-phenylenediamine and trimesoyl chloride were used via interfacial polymerization to produce a selective polyamide layer. The membrane compositions were M1 (22 wt.% PSf), M2 (22 wt.% PSf/0.5 wt.% TiO2/0.5 wt.% SiO2/0.5 wt.% biochar), and M3 (polyamide-coated M2). FTIR, XRD, SEM, contact-angle, porosity, and mechanical analyses supported successful membrane formation and changes in morphology, wettability, and structural strength after nanofiller incorporation and TFC coating. The addition of a nanofiller increased the hydrophilicity of the membranes by decreasing the water contact angle from 98.6 ± 0.8° for pristine PSf to 35.6 ± 1.5° for the nanocomposite membrane. Consequently, the pure-water permeability increased from 21 to 37 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. After polyamide layer formation, the optimized TFN membrane maintained a contact angle of 55.4 ± 3.8° and achieved a high Congo red rejection of 98% with permeate flux of 7–9 L m−2 h−1 bar−1. The membrane also showed good antifouling performance, with flux recovery ratios exceeding 90%. For heavy-metal-containing solutions, the optimized membrane showed apparent removal efficiencies of 78–98% for multivalent heavy metals (Pb2+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Mn2+, Zn2+, Cu2+, Ni2+, Fe3+, As3+, and Cr6+). Static adsorption tests showed the order M2 > M3 > M1, confirming that exposed TiO2-SiO2-biochar sites contribute to pollutant uptake, while the superior filtration performance of M3 is attributed to the combined effect of the polyamide selective layer and adsorption-assisted interactions. Overall, the TiO2-SiO2-biochar-based TFN membrane provides a promising platform for dye removal and preliminary heavy-metal attenuation from contaminated water. Full article
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