New Horizons in Wastewaters Management

In the past few years, there has been a considerable increase in the number of new and emerging pollutants in the limited water resources around the world, posing a serious threat to human health and the ecosystems. These pollutants, which are also referred to as new chemicals without regulatory status, are poorly understood and therefore not properly monitored or effectively removed from wastewater using conventional methods. Relevant topics addressing these challenges are presented in this book containing 12 chapters, which are consequently divided into two sections (Section 1: Pollutants in Wastewater; Section 2: Wastewater Remediation Strategies). The first section provides a systematic review of recent detection methods suitable for the rapid and accurate identification of some emerging pollutants from wastewater. Further development in the book fairly complement the first part by providing solutions for the removal of the emerging pollutants from wastewater and restoration of usable water; innovative approaches encompassing inter-disciplinary processes supported by sustainable technologies are therefore the focus of the second part of the book. The enhancement of bioreactor systems with consideration of volumetric organic loads, membrane configurations and reactor types has been highlighted by authors as strategies to ensure increased biomass proliferation, high effluent production rates and high quality effluents. The development of smart materials for pollutants removal from wastewater being a promising trend for remediation of water pollution, could not be ignored in this book, which aims to emphasize on the latest sustainable and effective technologies. This has been taken care in a few chapters which explore the synthesis of nanocomposite for various applications; in one, the synthesis of nanocomposite hydrogels (NCHs) has been contemplated to produce adsorbents with improved thermomechanical, electrical, optical, swelling properties and adsorption capacity contrasted with the traditional polymeric hydrogel; while a separate chapter covers a brilliant approach consisting to combine nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and organic polymers to develop effective antimicrobial compounds with the potential to exhibit microbicidal activities against bacteria and fungi. The ability to predict and assess the performance of the treatment process is very important to ensure that the system remains effective. This is the topic of two chapters that cover the use of models to predict the feasibility of reactions and the structural suitability of adsorbents. The book therefore covers a complete set of information for an inter-disciplinary approach to wastewater monitoring and treatment.