Use of Low Cost Materials to Remove Chemicals of Emerging Concern From Wastewater Effluents

The use and production of synthetic organic chemicals for use in households and various industries has led to an increase in the occurrence and concentration of chemicals of emerging concern (CEC) in wastewater effluents and consequently the environment. Due to the refractory nature of some CECs, conventional physicochemical and biological treatments are not able to provide adequate elimination of these compounds. It is beneficial that these pollutants are removed by other methods before they are discharged to the environment or before the effluent can be recycled for reuse. The use of low-cost materials for the removal of CECs is an unexploited opportunity in developing countries, as these compounds possess the necessary functionalities to make them an ideal choice for water and water treatment in countries with limited economic and technical resources. This chapter reviews the various treatment processes that has been used for the removal of CECs in literature with a particular emphasis on low-cost materials.

The environmental fate of synthetic organic chemicals

This article focuses on the routes of transport and abiotic processes involved in the environmental transformation of synthetic organic chemicals and how molecular structure controls the products and lifetimes of several important classes of organic chemicals. The chapter also discusses the current methods to reliably determine the rates and products of degradation of new chemicals based on combinations of chemical structure and environmental processes as well as use of laboratory and field measurements. Methods are also discussed for use of structure activity relations for this purpose.