Mitigation of emerging pollutants by plants

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Reinhold ◽  
N. Aryal
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Emerging Pollutants ◽  
Food Crops ◽  
Minimal Risk ◽  
Sustainable Technologies ◽  
Trace Concentrations

Low cost, sustainable technologies for addressing pollution of waters with trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are needed. Plant-based ecosystems for wastewater treatment are low-cost, effective technologies with the potential to address PPCPs. This abstract presents recent research examining the phytoremediation of PPCPs in both aquatic and terrestrial systems and discusses potential implications of phytoremediation of PPCPs. Research indicates that duckweed plants can stimulate microbial degradation of ibuprofen, sorb and uptake fluoxetine, and indirectly affect the fate of triclosan. Additionally, research indicates that food crops phytoaccumulate antimicrobials present in biosolids. The implications of these processes include mitigation of ecotoxicological risk from antimicrobial contamination of surface waters and soils with minimal risk to humans from consumption of phytoaccumulated antimicrobials. Additionally, plants may serve as a long-term reservoir for PPCPs in the environment.

Building Evaluation Capital in Government: A Queensland Departmental Approach

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Sarah Goswami ◽  
Vicki Lane
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Value For Money ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
Evaluation Capacity Building ◽  
Statutory Body

Increasingly, government departments are being held accountable for investment in public services. In Queensland the Financial Accountability Act 2009 (Queensland Treasury, 2016) requires that accountable officers and statutory bodies ‘achieve reasonable value for money by ensuring the operations of the department or statutory body are carried out efficiently, effectively and economically’ (Section 61). Whilst there is a directive for agencies to evaluate and demonstrate value for money, it has in practice been difficult to embed long term, as many systems and decision makers have neglected the role of organisation-wide evaluation capital. This paper will outline the work being undertaken in the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) to implement an Impact and Investment Framework, which will support and embed evaluation in a multidisciplinary setting. A central tenant of this framework is ‘business empowerment and learning'—building the evaluation culture in the organisation by first establishing evaluation building blocks, through business empowerment, support and utility. The framework is comprised of five key elements and is built on the principles of evaluation and evaluation capacity building disciplines. It has been designed to be low-cost, effective and efficient, whilst enabling business improvement, meeting accountability needs and allowing the department to demonstrate the value of its work.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact of the Presence, Distribution, and Use of Artificial Sweeteners as Emerging Sources of Pollution

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Ab Qayoom Naik ◽  
Tabassum Zafar ◽  
Vinoy Kumar Shrivastava
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Surface Waters ◽  
Emerging Contaminants ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Food Additive ◽  
Artificial Sweeteners ◽  
Sources Of Pollution ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Water Ecosystem

Artificial sweeteners are posing a new threat to the environment. The water ecosystem is the primary recipient of these emerging contaminants. Once ingested, sufficient amount of these artificial sweeteners escape unchanged from the human body and are added to the environment. However, some are added in the form of their breakdown products through excretion. Artificial sweeteners are resistant to wastewater treatment processes and are therefore continuously introduced into the water environments. However, the environmental behavior, fate, and long-term ecotoxicological contributions of artificial sweeteners in our water resources still remain largely unknown. Some artificial sweeteners like saccharin are used as a food additive in animal feeds. It also forms the degradation product of the sulfonylurea herbicides. All artificial sweeteners enter into the wastewater treatment plants from the industries and households. From the effluents, they finally reside into the receiving environmental bodies including wastewaters, groundwaters, and surface waters. The global production of these sweeteners is several hundred tons annually and is continuously being added into the environment.

scholarly journals Microalgae Water Bioremediation: Trends and Hot Topics

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Pacheco ◽  
Ana Cristina Rocha ◽  
Leonel Pereira ◽  
Tiago Verdelhos
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Emerging Pollutants ◽  
Analysis Software ◽  
Treatment Processes ◽  
Microalgae Biomass

The need to reduce costs associated with the production of microalgae biomass has encouraged the coupling of process with wastewater treatment. Emerging pollutants in municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastewaters, ranging from pharmaceuticals to metals, endanger public health and natural resources. The use of microalgae has, in fact, been shown to be an efficient method in water-treatment processes and presents several advantages, such as carbon sequestration, and an opportunity to develop innovative bioproducts with applications to several industries. Using a bibliometric analysis software, SciMAT, a mapping of the research field was performed, analyzing the articles produced between 1981 and 2018, aiming to identifying the hot topics and trends studied until now. The application of microalgae on water bioremediation is an evolving research field that currently focuses on developing efficient and cost-effective treatments methods that also enable the production of add-value products, leading to a blue and circular economy.

scholarly journals MIRRA: A Modular and Cost-Effective Microclimate Monitoring System for Real-Time Remote Applications

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4615
Author(s):  
Olivier Pieters ◽  
Emiel Deprost ◽  
Jonas Van Der Donckt ◽  
Lore Brosens ◽  
Pieter Sanczuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Real Time Data ◽  
Microclimate Monitoring ◽  
Weather Stations

Monitoring climate change, and its impacts on ecological, agricultural, and other societal systems, is often based on temperature data derived from official weather stations. Yet, these data do not capture most microclimates, influenced by soil, vegetation and topography, operating at spatial scales relevant to the majority of organisms on Earth. Detecting and attributing climate change impacts with confidence and certainty will only be possible by a better quantification of temperature changes in forests, croplands, mountains, shrublands, and other remote habitats. There is an urgent need for a novel, miniature and simple device filling the gap between low-cost devices with manual data download (no instantaneous data) and high-end, expensive weather stations with real-time data access. Here, we develop an integrative real-time monitoring system for microclimate measurements: MIRRA (Microclimate Instrument for Real-time Remote Applications) to tackle this problem. The goal of this platform is the design of a miniature and simple instrument for near instantaneous, long-term and remote measurements of microclimates. To that end, we optimised power consumption and transfer data using a cellular uplink. MIRRA is modular, enabling the use of different sensors (e.g., air and soil temperature, soil moisture and radiation) depending upon the application, and uses an innovative node system highly suitable for remote locations. Data from separate sensor modules are wirelessly sent to a gateway, thus avoiding the drawbacks of cables. With this sensor technology for the long-term, low-cost, real-time and remote sensing of microclimates, we lay the foundation and open a wide range of possibilities to map microclimates in different ecosystems, feeding a next generation of models. MIRRA is, however, not limited to microclimate monitoring thanks to its modular and wireless design. Within limits, it is suitable or any application requiring real-time data logging of power-efficient sensors over long periods of time. We compare the performance of this system to a reference system in real-world conditions in the field, indicating excellent correlation with data collected by established data loggers. This proof-of-concept forms an important foundation to creating the next version of MIRRA, fit for large scale deployment and possible commercialisation. In conclusion, we developed a novel wireless cost-effective sensor system for microclimates.

scholarly journals A Review on Gelatin Based Hydrogels for Medical Textile Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Seblewongel Petros ◽  
Tamrat Tesfaye ◽  
Million Ayele
Keyword(s):  
Biological Fluids ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Polymer Networks ◽  
Covalent Bond ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Intermolecular Forces ◽  
Natural Polymers ◽  
Synthesis Mechanism ◽  
Sustainable Technologies ◽  
Drug Delivery Carrier

Hydrogels are hydrophilic polymer networks that absorb any kind of liquid including biological fluids. Natural polymers and their derivatives along with synthetic polymers are used to form the hydrogels. Networks that constitute the hydrogels are created by the crosslinking of either synthesized polymers starting from monomers or already developed polymers. Crosslinking can be developed either physically if secondary intermolecular forces are involved or chemically in which a covalent bond between polymeric chains is created. Gelatins are natural driven protein polymers. One of the main biopolymers used for producing hydrogels is gelatin. Gelatin has a very wide application other than hydrogels. In this review, hydrogels and their property and synthesis mechanism, as well as their application in biomedical along with gelatin chemistry and application, are reviewed. Due to its nonimmunogenicity, nontoxicity, low cost, and high availability gelatin-based hydrogels could find applications in drug delivery carrier, bioink, transdermal therapy, wound healing, and tissue repair. The beneficiation of gelatin can result in their sustainable conversion into high-value biomaterials on the proviso of the existence or development of cost-effective, sustainable technologies for converting this biopolymer into useful bioproducts.

scholarly journals Provision of Staged Onsite Wastewater Treatment Units at Environmental Floors of Multi-storeyed Building with Hydraulic and Structural Feasibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 4488-4493 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Treatment System ◽  
Operating Efficiency ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Wastewater Treatment System

In the present day context of urban areas in Indian climate, looking at the statistics of the operating efficiency of existing mechanically operated water treatment plants run by local governing bodies and even when huge costs are incurred in their maintenance, it is necessitated that an efficient wastewater treatment system suitable in Indian climatic conditions and that too efficient, self-operating with minimum interference and at a low-cost construction, operating and maintenance cost. Decentralized onsite and naturally operating treatment methods are much efficient, cost-effective and feasible for Indian context. In current research, Effective positioning and modeling of the non-mechanised, gravity-based wastewater treatment system is carried out at refuge floor which is coined to be proposed as “environmental floor” for G+32 storeyed residential building. Comparative analytical study for structural and seismic response of both the structures (with and without environmental floors) is performed to check feasibility of the treatment system and quantify the benefits arising from it. It is observed form obtained results that the system can be adopted as an ultimate sustainable solution for wastewater treatment in cities where otherwise a lot of unhygienic conditions prevail if centralized treatment plants are not efficiently working.

Wastewater biosolids as an environmentally sustainable resource: Keys to success

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. LeBlanc ◽  
Conrad J. Allain ◽  
Peter J. Laughton
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Meaningful Communication

The paper traces the success of a large Canadian wastewater utility that has dealt with the issue of biosolids management and recycling to the extent that it now has more demand for its biosolids than it produces. The Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission's (GMSC) problem is not one of disposing of biosolids, but one of determining which product and uses will be best for the environment as well as being most sustainable and cost effective in the long term. Wastewater treatment and the management of the sludge or biosolids produced are global issues, with growing challenges, that must address the concerns of all of the stakeholders, including the facility administrators and operators, regulators and elected officials, the scientific community, wastewater generators, taxpayers and the general public. The failure to take into consideration the concerns of all of the stakeholders including the lack of meaningful communication with the public has resulted in predictable but preventable problems, including the banning of scientifically acceptable biosolids recycling options in different countries. Consequently, a successful and viable wastewater treatment and biosolids recycling management plan requires a "big picture" view and a sustainable approach, which takes into consideration the concerns of all stakeholders. The paper will deal with key issues to the success of an environmentally sustainable biosolids management programme.

scholarly journals Removal of Copper from Water Solutions by Adsorption on Spruce Sawdust

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zdenka Kovacova ◽  
Stefan Demcak ◽  
Magdalena Balintova
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Peat Moss ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Cost Effective Method ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Major Factors ◽  
Scientific Attention

Pollution of water by toxic elements is one of the major factors of concern for human health, as well as for environmental quality, and draws a large amount of scientific attention. New and cheaper methods of wastewater treatment are increasing the quality of the environment and reducing the negative impacts on fauna, flora, and human beings. The sorption technique is considered a cost effective method for effectively removing heavy metals. During the past few years, there have been increasing studies dedicated to using low-cost adsorbents like bark, tannin-rich materials, lignin, chitosan peat moss, and sawdust. The presented paper describes the adsorption behavior of spruce wood sawdust. In order to determine its applicability for wastewater treatment, copper removal from model solutions was studied.

SEM Evaluation of Chemically Finished Nonwoven Fabrics from Recycled Fibers

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 770-771
Author(s):  
W. R. Goynes ◽  
E. E. Graves ◽  
W. Tao ◽  
G. F. D'Anna ◽  
M. P. Day ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Textile Industry ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
Nonwoven Fabrics ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Emergency Housing ◽  
Recycled Fibers

The textile industry produces large quantities of waste and scrap materials. Most of this waste requires disposal. Both environmental and economic benefits could be derived by developing commercial products to use these materials. Environmentally acceptable textile products include those that utilize recycled materials, or materials that have not been chemically processed. Such products are often not economically profitable because of the added expense necessary for environmental protection. Development of such a cost-effective textile product requires use of low-cost materials, minimal cost production processes, and finishes that have already been developed and tested.The objective of this research was to develop a semi-disposable, economical, light-weight, comfortable thermal blanket that would be both flame-resistant and antibacterial through a limited number of laundry cycles. Targeted uses would be in medical and health care facilities, disaster relief centers, short term and emergency housing needs, recreational areas such as camping, and in military maneuvers where environmental conditions could be harmful to long-term products.

scholarly journals PtOEP–PDMS-Based Optical Oxygen Sensor

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5645
Author(s):  
Camila M. Penso ◽  
João L. Rocha ◽  
Marcos S. Martins ◽  
Paulo J. Sousa ◽  
Vânia C. Pinto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Sensor ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Luminescent Properties ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
Pdms Film ◽  
Sensing Applications ◽  
Optical Oxygen Sensor

The advanced and widespread use of microfluidic devices, which are usually fabricated in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), requires the integration of many sensors, always compatible with microfluidic fabrication processes. Moreover, current limitations of the existing optical and electrochemical oxygen sensors regarding long-term stability due to sensor degradation, biofouling, fabrication processes and cost have led to the development of new approaches. Thus, this manuscript reports the development, fabrication and characterization of a low-cost and highly sensitive dissolved oxygen optical sensor based on a membrane of PDMS doped with platinum octaethylporphyrin (PtOEP) film, fabricated using standard microfluidic materials and processes. The excellent mechanical and chemical properties (high permeability to oxygen, anti-biofouling characteristics) of PDMS result in membranes with superior sensitivity compared with other matrix materials. The wide use of PtOEP in sensing applications, due to its advantage of being easily synthesized using microtechnologies, its strong phosphorescence at room temperature with a quantum yield close to 50%, its excellent Strokes Shift as well as its relatively long lifetime (75 µs), provide the suitable conditions for the development of a miniaturized luminescence optical oxygen sensor allowing long-term applications. The influence of the PDMS film thickness (0.1–2.5 mm) and the PtOEP concentration (363, 545, 727 ppm) in luminescent properties are presented. This enables to achieve low detection levels in a gas media range from 0.5% up to 20%, and in liquid media from 0.5 mg/L up to 3.3 mg/L at 1 atm, 25 °C. As a result, we propose a simple and cost-effective system based on a LED membrane photodiode system to detect low oxygen concentrations for in situ applications.

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