The global crisis of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an enormous burden not only on the health, social and economic sectors but also on many essential municipal services. Water distribution and wastewater management have faced increasing uncertainty due to the possible transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via aerosols. Additionally, behavioral and social changes have impacted the water/wastewater services and caused the need for adaptation. In this study, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the influent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in Poland was analysed together with other parameters important for the water/wastewater sector, such as long-term (2015-2020) water usage and wastewater quality during the working days, and holidays, including the 2020 lockdowns. According to the obtained results, the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 was detected in all tested wastewater samples, which confirmed the utility of wastewater monitoring to analyse the COVID-19 trends in local communities. Another important issue was the elevated presence of surfactants and the observed change in organic matter structure in raw wastewater generated during lockdowns. Also the NGS approach and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing confirmed the changes of functional diversity and heterogeneity in activated sludge bacterial community, especially in terms of nutrients removal and biomass separation. Thus, it is crucial to a baseline understanding of how the water-wastewater sector can serve to control disease transmission among the community and which tools should be adopted as countermeasures not only for new water consumption patterns but also for keeping safe and effective wastewater treatment.
Landfill leachates (LLs) is a complex, refectory and difficult to depurate liquid generated from sanitary landfills. It contains excessive levels of biodegradable and in particular non-biodegradable products (e.g. heavy metals, phenols, sulphide, plasticisers). LLs are among the effluents that may pose major environmental concerns, they can be a dangerous source of pollution e.g. due to infiltration into soil and underlying water. The biological refractory nature of LLs makes it necessary to search effective, alternative (other than biodegradation) methods to reduce the contaminant loading of these effluents.In this study, the role of the BDD anodes, with different content of boron and substrates such as silicone and niobium was evaluated in the removal of macropollutants and selected MPs from LLs. By-products formed during electrolysis have been identified, too. The investigations have shown that macropollutants removal efficiency increases with higher applied current density (but also the energetic costs do). The best anode substrate was Nb, yielding very positive pollutants reduction results (better than Si substrate). Moreover, this substrate was durable and resistant to damage. The highest efficiency of macropollutants removal was achieved at 100mA/cm2 current density by BDD 0.5k, Nb (COD= 97.1%, BOD20=93.8%, N-NH4+=62%, TN=29.3%) followed by BDD 10k, Nb (COD= 86.3%, BOD20=63.5%, N-NH4+=40%, TN=34.5%). BDD electrodes were also tested in terms of MPs removal. The obtained results indicate that the BDD10k/Nb anodic oxidation in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.8) is able to degrade BPA with approximately 80% efficiency, diclofenac sodium with 60%, trimethoprim 96%, sulfamethoxazole 94%, PFOA 90% and PFOS 90%. It was preliminarily found that BDD 0.5k electrode is the most efficient at investigated MPs removal (e.g. BPA removal with 90% efficiency, diclofenac sodium with 85%). Formation of by-products during this process was also observed, e.g. m/z=243 and m/z=241 for BPA, m/z=264 for diclofenac sodium, m/z=284 and m/z =299 for sulfamethoxazole. It can be concluded that BDD/Nb is a promising material in wastewater treatment. The results confirmed high performance of BDD electrodes in pollutants removal from the studied matrixes, nevertheless this method still requires further optimization.
Inventory of existing treatment technologies in wastewater treatment plants : case studies in four coastal regions of the South Baltic Sea; Poland, Sweden, Lithuania and Germany
Abstract The global crisis of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an enormous burden not only on the health, social, and economic sectors but also on many essential municipal services. Water distribution and wastewater management have faced increasing uncertainty due to the possible transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via aerosols. Additionally, behavioral and social changes have impacted the water/wastewater services and caused the need for adaptation. In this study, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the influent of wastewater treatment plant located in Poland was analyzed November–December 2020, while other parameters important for the water/wastewater sector (e.g.: water usage and wastewater quality) were monitored in long-term period (2015–2020) during the working days, and holidays, including the 2020 lockdowns. In all tested wastewater samples, the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 was detected, which confirmed the utility of wastewater monitoring to analyse the COVID-19 trends in local communities. Another important issue was the elevated presence of surfactants and the observed change in the organic matter structure in raw wastewater generated during lockdowns. Also the NGS approach and 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing confirmed the changes of functional diversity and heterogeneity in activated sludge bacterial community, especially in terms of nutrients removal and biomass separation. Thus, it is crucial to a baseline understanding of how the water-wastewater sector can serve to control disease transmission among the community and which tools should be adopted as countermeasures not only for new water consumption patterns but also for keeping safe and effective wastewater treatment. Graphical abstract
Bisphenol A (BPA) and diclofenac (DCF) are among the most prevalent micropollutants in aquatic environments, with concentrations reaching up to several hundred µg/L. These compounds pose significant risks to biodiversity and environmental health, necessitating the development of effective removal methods. However, both BPA and DCF can be resistant to conventional treatment technologies, highlighting the need for innovative approaches. Electrochemical oxidation (EO) has emerged as a promising solution. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of EO using boron-doped diamond (BDD) anodes to remove BPA and DCF from two types of treated wastewater (TWW-W and TWW-D) and landfill leachate (LL). The evaluation included an analysis of the removal efficiency of BPA and DCF and the identification of transformation products generated during the process. Additionally, the feasibility of the EO-BDD process to remove ammonium nitrogen (N-NH4+) and organic compounds present in these environmental matrices was investigated. The EO-BDD treatment achieved remarkable removal efficiencies, reducing BPA and DCF concentrations by over 96% in LL and TWW-W. Transformation product analyses identified four intermediates formed from parent compounds during the oxidation process. Furthermore, the EO-BDD process effectively removed both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonium nitrogen from LL, although weaker results were observed for TWWs. These findings underscore the potential of the EO-BDD process as an effective method for the removal of BPA and DCF from challenging matrices, such as wastewater containing micropollutants. It also shows promise as a complementary technology for enhancing current conventional wastewater treatment methods, especially biological degradation.
In this study, wastewater from municipal services, such as a port wastewater reception facility (PRF-WW) and a municipal solid waste plant (MSWP), was tested for the presence of the suspected endocrine-disrupting compounds phthalates (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA). PAEs and BPA were found in this study in high concentrations in raw wastewater obtained from passenger ships (RMT-WWs) (up to 738 μg/L and 957 μg/L, respectively) collected in the Port of Gdynia and in landfill leachates (LLs) (up to 536 μg/L and up to 2202 μg/L, respectively) from a MSWP located near Gdynia. In particular, the presence of reprotoxic di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP, up to 536 μg/L in LLs and up to 738 μg/L in RMT-WWs) requires further action because if this compound, as well as other PAEs and BPA, is not degraded by activated sludge microorganisms, it may reach receiving waters and adversely impact aquatic organisms. Therefore, PAEs and BPA should be removed either during the onsite pretreatment of tested industrial wastewater or during tertiary treatment at municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs, representing end-of-pipe technology). Graphical abstract.
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