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In this study, three sequencing batch biofilter granular reactors (SBBGRs) were employed to treat model lignin wastewater containing different lignin models (2,6-dimethoxyphenol, 4-methoxyphenol, and vanillin). After 40 days of cultivation, uniform-shaped aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was successfully developed through nutrient supplementation with synthetic wastewater. During the acclimation stage, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction efficiencies of the three reactors showed a trend of initial decreasing (5-20%) and then recovering to a high reduction efficiency (exceeding 90%) in a short period of time. During the stable operation stage, all three reactors achieved COD reduction efficiencies exceeding 90%. These findings indicated the cultivated AGS's robust resistance to changes in lignin models in water. UV-Vis spectra analysis confirmed the effective degradation of the three lignin models. Microbiological analysis showed that Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were always the dominant phyla. At the genus level, while Acinetobacter (15.46%) dominated in the inoculation sludge, Kapabacteriales (7.93%), SBR1031 (11.77%), and Chlorobium (25.37%) were dominant in the three reactors (for 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, 4-methoxyphenol, and vanillin) after degradation, respectively. These findings demonstrate that AGS cultured with SBBGR effectively degrades lignin models, with different dominant strains observed for various lignin models., Competing Interests: The authors declare there is no conflict., (© 2024 The Authors This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Advanced oxidation technologies based on hydroxyl radical (•OH) and sulfate radical (SO 4 -• ) are two common types of advanced oxidation technologies, but there are not many reports on the application of advanced oxidation methods in actual wastewater pretreatment. This article compares the pre-treatment performance of Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 and Fe 2+ /Persulfate systems in actual pharmaceutical wastewater, and combines EEM, GC-MS, and toxicity testing results to explore the differences in TOC, COD, and NH 3 -N removal rates, optimal catalyst dosage, applicable pH range, toxicity of effluent after reaction, and pollutant structure between the two systems. The results indicate that the Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 system has a higher pollutant removal rate (TOC: 71.9%, COD: 66.9%, NH 3 -N: 34.1%), but also requires a higher catalyst (Fe 2+ ) concentration (6.0 g/L), and its effluent exhibits characteristic peaks of aromatic proteins. The Fe 2+ /Persulfate system has a wider pH range (pH ≈ 3-7) and is more advantageous in treating wastewater containing more cyclic organic compounds, but the effluent contains some sulfur-containing compounds. In addition, toxicity tests have shown that the toxicity reduction effect of the Fe 2+ /Persulfate system is stronger than that of the Fe 2+ /H 2 O 2 system.

Microcystins with leucine arginine (MC-LR) is a virulent hepatotoxin, which is commonly present in polluted water with its demethylated derivatives [Dha 7 ] MC-LR. This study reported a low-cost molecularly imprinted polymer network-based electrochemical sensor for detecting MC-LR. The sensor was based on a three-dimensional conductive network composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), graphene quantum dots (GQDs), and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The molecularly imprinted polymer was engineered by quantum chemical computation utilizing p-aminothiophenol (p-ATP) and methacrylic acid (MAA) as dual functional monomers and L-arginine as a segment template. The electrochemical reaction mechanism of MC-LR on the sensor was studied for the first time, which is an irreversible electrochemical oxidation reaction involving an electron and two protons, and is controlled by a mixed adsorption-diffusion mechanism. The sensor exhibited a great detection response to MC-LR in the linear range of 0.08-2 μg/L, and the limit of detection (LOD) is 0.0027 μg/L (S/N = 3). In addition, the recoveries of the total amount of MC-LR and [Dha 7 ] MC-LR in the actual sample by the obtained sensor were in the range from 91.4 to 116.7%, which indicated its great potential for environmental detection.

Sewage treatment plants (STPs) are significant routes through which microplastics (MPs) are released into the aquatic environment. Constructed wetland is an effective facility for deep treatment of tailwater. At present, research on the removal of MPs in the tailwater of STPs by multi-stage constructed wetlands is limited. This work investigated and analyzed the removal characteristics of MPs in the tailwater treatment system of Cihu wetland park in Huangshi, Hubei Province of China. The abundance/removal of MPs in the Cihu Lake-wetland microcosm system was investigated. The results showed that the multi-stage constructed wetlands achieved a total removal rate of 94.7% for MPs with 2.2 particles/L MPs in the effluent. The removal rates of MPs reached 89 and 37.5%, respectively, in the (horizontal/vertical) subsurface flow constructed wetland and surface flow constructed wetland. The abundance of MPs in receiving water of Cihu Lake substantially decreased due to the dilution of wetland effluents. This study partially bridged the knowledge gap hypothesis on the treatment of MPs in tailwater by multi-stage constructed wetlands.

Excessive phosphorus causes eutrophication problems. The adsorptive removal of phosphate is prevalent and practical in large-scale applications, such as column adsorption. A metal organic framework (MOF)-enhanced layered double hydroxide (LDH) adsorbent material was developed and studied for batch adsorption and then combined with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) to form MOF/LDH/PAN composite beads working as a functional material for columns. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed the well-dispersed adsorbent powder in porous composite beads. The Fowler-Guggenheim isotherm model described the phosphate adsorption behavior of the MOF/LDH powder with a maximum capacity of 74.96 mg P/g. Mass transfer in the composite beads was successfully described with the Fickian diffusion model. The composite-packed fixed bed treated 37.95 BVs of the influent (55.51 mg P/L phosphate solution) and achieved an uptake of 18.92 mg P/g, with a removal efficiency of 96.42%, before the breakthrough point in the column study. The phosphate-loaded composite bed was regenerated with 0.1 M NaOH to 70% efficiency within 30 BVs. The polymer composite can be considered a practical solution for adsorption-based water treatment applications in tank and column processes where powder adsorbents cannot be applied.

In this study, the effect of arsenic on the sulfamethoxazole (SMX) removal efficiency and microbial community structure was investigated over 60 days using the SBR process. The results showed that the presence of arsenic had no significant impact on the system performance, the removal efficiencies of two reactors, R1 (the control test) and R2 (with the addition of arsenic), were 13.36 ± 5.71 and 14.20 ± 5.27%, which were attributed to the adsorption of SMX by fulvic acid-like substances and tryptophan-like proteins of extracellular polymeric substances. Compared to the seed sludge, the species number indicated that R2 possessed the richer diversity, while R1 possessed the lower diversity on day 60, which might be relative to the transferring of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in sludge bacterial communities; the minute amounts of arsenic could make the relative levels of Sul1 and Sul2 genes which encode ARGs of sulfonamides in R2 (2.07 and 2.47%) be higher than that in R1 (1.65 and 1.27%), which made the bacterial community of the R2 system more adaptable to SMX stress. Therefore, the minute amounts of arsenic weakened the effect of SMX on the system and enhanced the stability of the microbial community structure.

The detoxification of dye-contaminated water by photocatalysis has become a research priority. Here, a novel hybrid material, cuprous oxide/sunflower stem pith (Cu 2 O/SSP), was successfully synthesized in situ, using copper hydroxide gel, prepared by ion exchange, as the precursor to Cu 2 O. The presence of Cu 2 O nanoparticles on the SSP was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses. Using methylene blue (MB) as the target pollutant, Cu 2 O/SSP delivered excellent adsorption-photocatalytic degradation and was readily photoregenerated. Cu 2 O/SSP removed 72.7% of MB after 60 min under visible light irradiation, an increase of 15.6 % compared with unmodified SSP. SSP plays three roles in the removal of MB: it acts as an adsorbent for the MB, a carrier for the Cu 2 O nanoparticles and it also inhibits photocorrosion of Cu 2 O. The mechanism of adsorption-photocatalysis by Cu 2 O/SSP was investigated and a description of the mechanism is provided. This study paves the way for the detoxification of dye-containing wastewater using hybrid biomass materials.

Pulp and paper wastewater (PPWW) contains numerous refractory and harmful contaminants that require advanced treatment to meet the discharge criteria. This study compared the efficacy of two PPWW treatments: ultraviolet/peroxymonosulfate (UV/PMS) and ultraviolet/H 2 O 2 (UV/H 2 O 2 ) working under similar circumstances. The initial pH value, oxidant dosage, UV radiation intensity, and pseudo-first-order constant k obs were systematically studied in both systems. Optimally, the UV/PMS process produced an effluent of higher quality than the UV/H 2 O 2 , as measured by the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in 60 min, which were 48.2 and 64.3% for the respective UV/H 2 O 2 and UV/PMS processes and corresponding k obs values of 0.0102 and 0.0159 min -1 , respectively. Radical scavenging experiments demonstrated that •OH was the primary reactive oxygen species in UV/H 2 O 2 process, and •OH and SO 4 • in the UV/PMS process. Moreover, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled mass spectroscopy analyses showed that deep treatment of petroleum hydrocarbons with carbon chain lengths greater than 18 and macromolecular semi-volatile organic compounds in paper wastewater is difficult, whereas the UV/PMS process can significantly improve the removal of amides, esters, phenols, and other aromatic compounds.- • in the UV/PMS process. Moreover, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and gas chromatography coupled mass spectroscopy analyses showed that deep treatment of petroleum hydrocarbons with carbon chain lengths greater than 18 and macromolecular semi-volatile organic compounds in paper wastewater is difficult, whereas the UV/PMS process can significantly improve the removal of amides, esters, phenols, and other aromatic compounds.

Synthetic organic pollutants emanating continuously in the ecosystem have become a global concern because of their toxicity and persistent nature. Bisphenol A (BPA) is one such pollutant which threatens public health and safety. It is a monomer used in manufacturing plastics, polycarbonate resins, epoxy resins and is a well-recognised endocrine disruptor mimicking estrogen. BPA leaches into food and beverages stored in containers causing contamination issues. Its widespread exposure and potential toxicity is an environmental health concern. In this review, a systematic investigation has been carried out on the heterogeneous catalysts used for Fenton-like processes for BPA degradation. The Fenton-like reaction is one such reaction that is used for wastewater remediation purposes. The reaction advances through the generation of powerful oxidizing radicals like •OH and SO 4 •- in the presence of a suitable catalyst. The application of various Fenton catalysts, with their distinguished morphological characteristics, oxidizing properties, toxicity analysis, and the present state of the art of BPA degradation by these catalysts, have been documented in the current work. This review also highlights a few challenges and prospects for analysing degradation products of landfill leachate.

In this study, we investigated using the main composition of pipe deposits from water distribution networks as catalyst to activate dual-oxidant H 2 O 2 /Na 2 S 2 O 8 system to produce radicals for perchloroethylene and chloramphenicol removal. According to the results, the degradation efficiency of perchloroethylene by H 2 O 2 /Na 2 S 2 O 8 system was 92.05% within 8 h. Due to the slow conversion between ≡Fe 3+ and ≡Fe 2+ , the hydroxylamine was introduced to reduce reaction time. As for the results, the degradation efficiency of chloramphenicol in the H 2 O 2 /Na 2 S 2 O 8 system with hydroxylamine assistance was 73.31% within 100 min. Meanwhile, several key affecting factors and the kinetic models were investigated. The primary radicals were identified by electron paramagnetic resonance and radical scavenging tests. Eleven degradation products were confirmed by high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The result of this study provided the theoretical basis for resource utilization of pipe deposits in water treatment in case of emerging contamination events.