A comprehensive review of saline effluent disposal and treatment: conventional practices, emerging technologies, and future potential

An ever-increasing volume of saline effluents from industries, oil–gas fields, and desalination plants has resulted in an enormous amount of pollutants with undesirable effects on the environment and human health. Adequate disposal and treatment of these effluents remains a persistent problem and poses significant technical as well as economic challenges. Saline effluents can have considerable environmental impacts, depending upon the sensitivity of the surrounding ecosystems. Conventional disposal techniques mostly suffer from direct or indirect contamination of water/soil and are no longer preferred. As a result, several advanced treatment methods are being considered for sustainable saline effluent management in recent times. In this context, a comprehensive and updated review of conventional methods, along with emerging technologies for disposal and treatment of saline effluent, is presented. Existing treatment approaches, including membrane operation, thermal processes, chemical techniques, and biological methods, are discussed. The application of innovative hybrid processes (combining two or more treatment methods) aiming at lower energy demand and higher treatment efficiency has also been evaluated. Subsequently, emerging sustainable strategies like waste minimization & water recovery, zero liquid discharge, and resource recovery for saline effluents have been examined. The prospect of integrating the renewable energy sources with energy-intensive saline treatment methods towards energy–water–environment nexus is also explored.

Chemical-bromatological characteristics of forage sorghum varieties irrigated with saline effluents from fish farming

The objective of this work was to evaluate the chemical and bromatological characteristics of forage sorghum varieties subjected to different leaching fractions of saline effluents from fish farming in the Semiarid region of Brazil. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design, in a 3×4 factorial arrangement with four replications, consisting of three forage sorghum varieties (Volumax, F305, and Sudão) and four leaching fractions (0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%) of saline (electrical conductivity of 2.5 dS m-1) effluent from fish farming. The organic matter, dry matter, mineral matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber, lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose contents of the plants were evaluated. The crude protein contents of the plant components, and mineral matter content of leaves and panicles increased, and the NDF of leaves decreased in treatments with the highest leaching fractions. The F305 variety presented better chemical-bromatological characteristics compared to the other sorghum varieties evaluated.