Wastewater treatment is a big deal. It's something that happens behind the scenes. It keeps our environment safe. But there's a catch. The process can release harmful gases into the air. One of these gases is nitrous oxide. It's a problem that's been overlooked for too long. Nitrous oxide is not just any gas. It's a potent greenhouse gas. It's about 300 times more e...
The world of wastewater treatment just got a new superhero. It is a closed fixed-bed bacteria-algae biofilm reactor. This is a fancy name for a system that uses tiny living things to clean up water polluted with phenol. Phenol is a harmful chemical found in many industrial wastewaters. This new system is not just about cleaning up the mess. It is also about turning w...
Wastewater treatment plants are home to a vast and largely unknown world of tiny organisms. These plants use a process called activated sludge to clean water. This sludge is teeming with diverse microorganisms, many of which have never been studied before. Most research has focused on bacteria and viruses, but there is a whole other group of tiny life forms called eu...
Gadolinium, a heavy metal, has been quietly making its way into our waterways. It's a rare earth element that's quite toxic in its Gd3+ form. To make it safe for use in MRI scans, it's bound to other molecules. However, once it's used, it's not so easy to get rid of. Wastewater treatment plants struggle to remove it, so it ends up in rivers and even our tap water. Th...
In the heart of Columbus, Ohio, a silent battle is unfolding in the city's waterways. This battle is not fought with weapons, but with tiny, invisible warriors known as Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales, or CPE for short. These superbugs have become a significant threat in hospitals, but they don't stop there. They can also be found in the guts of healthy peop...
Heavy metals like copper and lead are big troublemakers in wastewater. They can cause serious health issues and environmental damage. So, scientists are always looking for better ways to remove these nasty pollutants. One promising method is called capacitive deionization (CDI). This process uses special electrodes to attract and remove charged particles from water. ...
Psychotropic drugs are everywhere. They're among the most commonly prescribed medicines worldwide. These drugs can have serious effects on the environment. They can hurt other organisms even in tiny amounts. But what happens to these drugs when they go down the drain? Not much, it turns out. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) don't do a great job of removin...
Microplastics, tiny particles smaller than 1 mm, are everywhere. They come from factories making plastic and from bigger plastic waste breaking down over time. These tiny bits of plastic behave differently in the environment because of their small size and unique surface chemistry. Think of it like how a tiny droplet of water behaves differently than a big wave. The ...
The world's water treatment plants churn out a mountain of sewage sludge every day. This stuff is a hassle to manage and dispose of safely because it's messy and expensive. The sun is powerful. A lot of people have been thinking about using it to dry out this sludge. This is the process of using solar greenhouses to evaporate the water from the sludge and is beco...
Imagine a giant magnet helping to clean wastewater from farms. A team of scientists crafted a clever system using magnets to tackle a big problem: wastewater loaded with antibiotics. The system they designed, called the MC-IFAS, uses magnets to boost the cleaning power of tiny living things in the water. The magnets help these tiny cleaners, called microbes, do a be...