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In recent years, microplastic pollution has been a hot topic as these compounds have been used in various production contexts such as health, food or technology due to their chemical and physical properties and "shelf-life," making them almost indispensable products in daily life. On the other hand, they have a negative impact on the environment and, consequently, on biota and human health. It is therefore necessary to assess the actual presence of microplastics in drinking water by analysing real samples in order to estimate the possible exposure through drinking water consumption. In this pilot study, drinking water from different aqueous matrices was examined for the presence of microplastics and characterized in terms of shape, size, abundance and polymer type by Raman microspectroscopy analysis. Not all samples analysed were found to be contaminated with microplastics, indeed, some, as in the case of water kiosk samples, were found to be free of such contaminants. The results for the various matrices showed that the microplastics content ranged from less than 2 particles/L to a maximum of 5 + 1.5 particles/L, with sizes ranging from 30 to 100 μm and consisted of the most common polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene or polyethylene terephthalate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Circular and Green Economy principles is inspiring new approaches to municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs) design and operation. Recently, an ever-growing interest is devoted to exploring the alternatives for switching the WWTPs from being able to 'simply' removing contaminants from water to biorefinery-like plants where energy and material can be recovered. In this perspective, both wastewater and residues from process can be valorised for recovering nutrients (N and P), producing value added products (i.e. biopolymers), energy vectors and biofuels (i.e. bio-H2, bio-CH4 and bioethanol). As an additional benefit, changing the approach for WWTPs design and operation will decrease the overall amount of landfilled residues. In this context, the present research is aimed at evaluating the CH4 production potential of MWW screening units' residues. While such a stream is typically landfilled, the expected progressive increase of biodegradable matter content due to the ban on single-use plastic along with the boost of bioplastics makes the investigation of different biochemical valorisation routes more and more interesting from an environmental and economical perspective. Thus, a full-scale data collection campaign was performed to gain information on screening residues amount and properties and to analyse the relationship with influent flowrate. The most relevant residue properties were measured, and lab-scale tests were carried out to evaluate the bio-CH4 potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A monitoring campaign of 34 months was conducted on 76 Wastewater Treatment Plants. • Influent and effluent concentrations of 13 Organic Micropollutants were determined. • Some illicit drugs and Ketoprofen showed the highest concentrations. • Steroid concentrations were in most cases under the detection limits. • Secondary-tertiary treatment provided the best removal for most of the pollutants. The present study shows the results of an experimental survey conducted over 34 months on 76 full-scale Wastewater Treatment Plants located in central Italy with the aim to determine the influent and effluent concentrations of 13 Organic Micropollutants belonging to the class of illicit drugs, pharmaceuticals and steroids. The survey focused on a large set of plants differing for the main characteristics (e.g. treatment capacity, type of lay-out). Based on the values measured in the influent and effluent, removal efficiency of each contaminant in each plant was also determined, as well as the seasonal variation of the influent concentration. Among the monitored pollutants, some illicit drugs (i.e. Benzoylecgonine, 11-nor-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and Ketoprofen showed the highest concentrations in the influent and were also the most frequently detected in the wastewater; nonetheless, the plants were capable of removing these pollutants at high extent (median removal value of 70 %, 65 % and 74 %, respectively). On the other side, steroid concentrations were in most cases under the detection limits. About the type of lay-out, the comparison of the efficiency obtained by the different plants showed that combination of secondary and tertiary treatment provides the best removal for most of the target Organic Micropollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Removals were 59–68% of PFOA and 66–96% of PFOS, depending on the concentrations. • Adsorption on the sludge was the main responsible of the removal, particularly for PFOS. • Loss from the system was observed, due to processes other than biological and adsorption. • The inhibition index was found equal to 14 % at 4000 ng/L concentrations. • Adsorbed pollutants were released from the sludge for less than 1 %. Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are the most investigated compounds in the class of perfluoroalkyl substances for their persistence and wider diffusion in the environment. However, fate and behaviour of PFOA and PFOS in the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) have not been fully understood yet. The aim of the present study was to obtain a better understanding of the processes occurring to PFOS and PFOA in the activated sludge reactor. Several experimental tests were performed in the presence of activated sludge and sterilized sludge. PFOA and PFOS showed removals from the liquid phase from 59 % to 68 % and from 66 % to 96 %, respectively, for initial concentrations from 200 ng/L to 4000 ng/L in the presence of activated sludge. A significant fraction of the initial contaminant load was found adsorbed on the sludge, mainly in the case of PFOS. Other processes occurred, not fully identified, which were responsible of a further loss from the system. Leaching tests showed negligible release of the adsorbed pollutants from the sludge. Carbon and ammonia removal in the activated sludge reactor were not significantly affected by the presence of PFOA and PFOS. The pseudo-second order kinetic model and the Freundlich isotherm provided the best fitting of the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The present study focused on 11-nor-9carboxy-Δ9-THC (THC-COOH) and Benzoylecgonine (BE), the most common metabolites of cannabis and cocaine, respectively, present in the domestic sewage entering the wastewater treatment plants. The aims of the study were: (1) to validate the analytical method of detection in wastewater and sludge; (2) to determine contribution of biodegradation and other processes to the removal in the biological reactor of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the response of biomass to different drug concentrations. The Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to tandem Mass Spectrometry method showed to be repeatable and reliable (recovery>75%; repeatability<10–15%; bias uncertainty<10) for measurements in wastewater; the ultrasound assisted extraction (USE) demonstrated to be reliable as pre-treatment of activated sludge solid phase. Both drugs were fully removed from the liquid phase in the lab-scale biological reactor within 24 h. Biodegradation was the main BE removal mechanism, and the first order kinetic model provided the best fitting of the experimental data. THC-COOH was mainly removed due to a combination of adsorption and biodegradation; adsorption was better described by the pseudo-second order kinetic model and the Freundlich isotherm. Both drugs at the higher concentrations caused inhibition of nitrogen oxidation and carbon removal. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • BE in the range 500–4000 ng L−1 was fully removed in the biological reactor. • Biodegradation was the main removal process of BE. • THC-COOH in the range 150–2000 ng L−1 was fully removed in the biological reactor. • Removal of THC-COOH was mainly due to adsorption on sludge. • At the highest concentrations, both BE and THC-COOH caused partial inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the greatest challenges for the future is represented by the conservation of global agricultural production: it is necessary to implement early monitoring of the health conditions of crops through innovative technologies that allow a sustainable development. To reach this goal, the development of portable biosensors might represent a robust strategy for monitoring agricultural sites in agreement with the requirement of precision agriculture. In this work, an electrochemical inhibition biosensor has been engineered onto a glove to quantify organophosphorus pesticides directly on fruits peels. The biosensor was obtained through modification with a bio-hybrid probe which included Prussian blue, Carbon black and butyrylcholinesterase enzyme. The detection concept is based on the inhibition of the enzyme in presence of the pesticide, namely dichlorvos. The experimental setup has been characterized and the ultimate on-glove configuration has been applied towards the detection of dichlorvos directly on fruit peels, namely apples and oranges. The only task required for the end-user was to scrub the surface of the fruit with the strip and performing the electrochemical reading. The portable system was characterized by a low detection limit in the nanomolar range (high ppt) and a satisfactory repeatability lower than 10 %. It represents the starting point towards the design of on-glove biosensors in many fields of application, including the precision agriculture., 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 © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Since 1940, poly- or perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have been largely used in many applications, including paints, fire foaming, household items, product packaging, and fabrics. Because of their extremely high persistency, they have been defined as "forever chemicals". Although the EU is taking action to reduce their use, their widespread occurrence in environmental matrices and their harmful effects on human health require the use of highly performing analytical methods for efficient monitoring. Furthermore, novel PFAS are constantly revealed by both EU and National environmental agencies. The objective of this work is to investigate the cause of the signal decrease during the analysis of a standard PFAS mixture in water-based matrices, by proposing an efficient technical procedure for laboratory specialists. The analyses were carried out on a mixture of 30 PFAS, including both regulated and unknown substances (which are expected to be introduced in the guidelines), characterized by different chemical features, using LC-vials of two different materials, namely, glass and polypropylene, and dissolved in two solvents, namely, water and water-methanol. The temperature of analysis and the concentration of PFAS were also considered through LC-MS analyses at different times, in the 0-15 h range. Depending on the chemical structure and length of the PFAS, sampling and treatment procedures may be adopted to tackle the decrease and the release from the containers, reducing the risk of underestimating PFAS also in real water matrices., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)