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The impact of Fenton oxidation (FO) and Air stripping (AS) pre-treatments on the bacterial community of a biological activated sludge (B-AS) process for the co-treatment of mature landfill leachate (MLL) and urban wastewater (UWW) was assessed. In this work high-throughput sequencing was used to identify changes in the composition of the bacterial communities when exposed to different landfill leachate's pre-treatments. The combination of FO and AS to increase biodegradability (BOD 5 /COD) and reduce ammonia concentration (NH 3 ) respectively, allowed to successfully operate the B-AS and effectively treat MLL. In particular, BOD 5 /COD resulted to be the key factor for bacterial community shifting. The microbiological community of the B-AS, mainly composed by the phylum Bacteroidota (Saprospiraceae, PHOS-HE51, Chitinophagaceae) after FO pre-treatment, shifted to Pseudomonadota (Caulobacteraceae and Hyphomicrobiaceae) when FO was not used. At the same time a drastic reduction in BOD 5 removal was observed (90%-58%). On the other hand, high NH 3 concentration affected the abundance of the family Saprospiraceae, known to play a key role in the degradation of complex organic compounds in B-AS. The results obtained suggest that a suitable combination of pre-treatments can reduce the negative effect of MLL on the B-AS process, reducing the pressure on autochthonous bacteria and therefore the acclimatization time of the biological process., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Groundwater pollution has increased in recent years due to the intensification of agricultural and livestock activities. This results in a significant reduction in available freshwater resources. Here, we have studied the long term assessment of a green technology (1-4 L/day) based on a photobioreactor (PBR) containing immobilised microalgae-bacteria in polyurethane foam (PF) followed by a cork filter (CF) for removing nitrates, pesticides (atrazine and bromacil), and antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole and sulfacetamide) from groundwater. The prototype was moderately effective for removing nitrates (58%) at an HRT of 8 days, while its efficiency decreased at a HRT of 4 and 2 days (<20% removal). The combined use of PBR-CF enabled antibiotics and pesticides to be attenuated by up to 95% at an HRT of 8 days, but their attenuation decreased with shorter HRT, with pesticides being the compounds most affected (reducing from 97 to 98% at an HRT of 8 days to 23-45% at an HRT of 2 days). Pesticide transformation products were identified after the CF, supporting biodegradation as the main attenuation process. A gene-based metataxonomic assessment linked the attenuation of micropollutants to the presence of specific pesticide biodegradation species (e.g. genus Phenylobacterium, Sphingomonadaceae, and Caulobacteraceae). Therefore, the results highlighted the potential use of microalgae and cork to treat polluted groundwater., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Contaminants of emerging concern (including pharmaceuticals) are not effectively removed by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), so particular concern is related to agricultural wastewater reuse due to their possible uptake in crops irrigated with WWTPs effluents. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and solar AOPs have been demonstrated to effectively remove pharmaceuticals from different aqueous matrices. In this study, an heterogeneous photocatalytic process using powdered nitrogen-doped TiO 2 immobilized on polystyrene spheres (sunlight/N-TiO 2 ) was compared to the benchmark homogenous AOP sunlight/H 2 O 2 in a compound triangular collector reactor, to evaluate the degradation of three pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine (CBZ), diclofenac (DCF), trimethoprim (TMP)) in water. The degradation of the contaminants by sunlight and sunlight-AOPs well fit the pseudo-first order kinetic model (but for TMP under sunlight). High removal efficiency by solar photolysis was observed for DCF (up to 100%, half-life sunlight cumulative energy Q S,1/2  = 2 kJ L -1 , half-life time t 1/2  = 32 min), while CBZ (32%, Q S,1/2  = 28 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 385 min) and TMP (5% removal after 300 min) removal was poor. The degradation rate of CBZ, TMP and DCF was found to be slower during sunlight/H 2 O 2 (Q S,1/2  = 5 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 77 min; Q S,1/2  = 20 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 128 min; Q S,1/2  = 4 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 27 min, respectively) compared to sunlight/N-TiO 2 (Q S,1/2  = 4 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 55 min; Q S,1/2  = 3 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 42 min; Q S,1/2  = 2 kJ L -1 , t 1/2  = 25 min, respectively). These results are promising in terms of solar technology upscale because the faster degradation kinetics observed for sunlight/N-TiO 2 process would result in smaller treatment volume, thus possibly perspective compensating the cost of the photocatalyst., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The removal of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) from urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) is really important to minimize the risk for human health and environment. In this study, the homogeneous advanced oxidation process (AOP) UV-C/free chlorine (UV-C/FC) was investigated at pilot scale in the degradation of a mixture of four CECs, in different water matrices and compared to a consolidated AOP, namely UV-C/H 2 O 2 . As matter of fact 90% degradation of CECs was observed after 15 min (Q UVC  = 0.33 kJ L -1 ) by UV-C/FC (5 mg L -1 of FC) and 30 min (0.67 kJ L -1 ) by UV-C/H 2 O 2 (5 mg L -1 of H 2 O 2 ) in natural water. However, CECs degradation by UV-C/H 2 O 2 and UV-C/FC was comparable (>82%) in wastewater samples, under the investigated conditions (60 min, 1.33 kJ L -1 ). The effect of sunlight/FC process on the target CECs was also investigated (in a compound parabolic collector based reactor). Interestingly, a different behaviour was observed between the two light sources. In particular, a total removal of carbamazepine (CBZ) and imidacloprid (IMD) was observed for UV-C/FC process with 0.27 kJ L -1 and 10 mgL -1 of FC, while, in the sunlight/FC process (same FC dose), CBZ total removal took place quite fast (0.50 kJ L -1 ), but 90% removal of IMD was observed only after 60 min (7.09 kJ L -1 ). In conclusion, UV-C/FC process can be an interesting solution for tertiary treatment of urban wastewater for the removal of CECs and sunlight/FC is worthy of further investigation to evaluate its possible application in small UWTPs., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Urban wastewater treatment plant (UWWTP) effluents are among the possible sources of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) spread into the environment. In this work, the effect of UV radiation on antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) strains was compared with that of chlorination process. Under the investigated conditions, UV disinfection process resulted in a total inactivation after 60min of irradiation (1.25×10(4)μWscm(-2)) compared to 120min chlorine contact time (initial chlorine dose of 2mgL(-1)). Moreover, no change in E. coli strains' resistance to amoxicillin (AMX) (minimum inhibiting concentration (MIC)>256mgL(-1)) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) (MIC>1024mgL(-1)) could be observed after UV treatment, while the treatment affected resistance of the lower resistance strain to ciprofloxacin (CPX) (MIC decreased by 33% and 50% after 60 and 120min, respectively). Contrarily, chlorination process did not affect antibiotic resistance of the investigated E. coli strains. Finally, the effect of UV radiation on the mixture of three antibiotics was also investigated and photodegradation data fit quite well pseudo first order kinetic models with t1/2 values of 14, 20 and 25min for CPX, AMX and SMZ, respectively. According to these results, conventional disinfection processes may not be effective in the inactivation of ARB, and the simultaneous release of ARB and antibiotics at sub-lethal concentrations into UWWTP effluent may promote the development of resistance among bacteria in receiving water., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The combination of ozonation and spent mushroom compost (SMC)-mediated aerobic biological treatment was investigated in the removal of benzo(a)pyrene from contaminated soil. The performances of the process alone and combined were evaluated in terms of benzo(a)pyrene removal efficiency, mineralization efficiency (as total organic carbon removal), and soil residual toxicity (phytotoxicity to Lepidium Sativum and toxicity to Vibrio fischeri). In spite of the removal efficiency (35%) obtained by SMC-mediated biological process as a stand-alone treatment, the combined process showed a benzo(a)pyrene concentration reduction higher than 75%; the best removal (82%) was observed after 10 min pre-ozonation treatment. In particular, ozonation improved the biodegradability of the contaminant, as confirmed by the increase of CO(2) production (close to 70% compared to the control), mineralization (greater than 60%) and bacterial density (which increased by two orders of magnitude). Moreover, according to phytotoxicity tests on L. Sativum, the aerobic biological process of pre-ozonated soil decreased toxicity. According to the results achieved in the present study, ozonation pre-treatment showed an high potential to overcome the limitation of bioremediation of recalcitrant compound, but it should be carefully operated in order to maximize PAH removal efficiency as well as to minimize soil residual toxicity which can result from the formation of the oxidation intermediates., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Solar disinfection (SODIS) of Escherichia coli suspensions in low-density polyethylene bag reactors was investigated as a low-cost disinfection method suitable for application in developing countries. The efficiency of a range of SODIS reactor configurations was examined (single skin (SS), double skin, black-backed single skin, silver-backed single skin (SBSS) and composite-backed single skin) using E. coli suspended in model and real surface water. Titanium dioxide was added to the reactors to improve the efficiency of the SODIS process. The effect of turbidity was also assessed. In addition to viable counts, E. coli injury was characterised through spread-plate analysis using selective and non-selective media. The optimal reactor configuration was determined to be the SBSS bag (t(50)=9.0min) demonstrating the importance of UVA photons, as opposed to infrared in the SODIS disinfection mechanism. Complete inactivation (6.5-log) was achieved in the presence of turbidity (50NTU) using the SBSS bag within 180min simulated solar exposure. The addition of titanium dioxide (0.025gL(-1)) significantly enhanced E. coli inactivation in the SS reactor, with 6-log inactivation observed within 90min simulated solar exposure. During the early stages of both SODIS and photocatalytic disinfection, injured E. coli were detected; however, irreversible injury was caused and re-growth was not observed. Experiments under solar conditions were undertaken with total inactivation (6.5-log) observed in the SS reactor within 240min, incomplete inactivation (4-log) was observed in SODIS bottles exposed to the same solar conditions., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study is the application of photocatalysis as an effective post treatment scheme for the removal of the organic matter and bacteria released by an innovative biological denitrification process referred to as heterotrophic-autotrophic denitrification, which combines heterotrophic and autotrophic denitrification processes. Photocatalytic treatment was applied using TiO2 as a photocatalyst in the loading range of 0.25-2.00 g l(-1) for irradiation periods up to 60 min using a black light fluorescent lamp with an intensity of I(0)=1309 microW cm(-2). The photocatalytic inactivation data were modelled to pseudo first order kinetics as well as by the areal rates to evaluate the photocatalyst loading effect. Chlorination was used as a final disinfection step to attain an overall inactivation of total coliforms as well as to the formation of very low level of trihalomethanes.