Emerging Water Pollutants: Concerns and Remediation Technologies

 Emerging pollutants (EPs) in the environment have become a significant source of pollution and cause of serious concern for the ecosystem and human health. Although during the recent decades, extensive research has been performed worldwide for the detection and analysis of EPs, continuous refinement, and development of specific analytical techniques; a great number of undetected EPs still need to be investigated in different components of the ecosystem and biological tissues. Therefore, this chapter provides extensive reviews of several emerging pollutants reported around the globe along with their physiochemical properties and potential ecological impacts. Moreover, formulated legislations and policy regulations for the monitoring of EPs are also discussed in this chapter.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PCPs) are chemically modified products mostly used for beauty, cleaning, or health, such as disinfectants, fragrances, insect repellents, ultraviolet (UV) filters, and others. Due to the contamination caused by these chemically amended PCPs, water pollution has appeared as a hazardous condition for the water treatment and supply sector. A recent concern is that when these chemical compounds combine with water, they act as water pollutants and harm aquatic lives and the survival of human lives. Nowadays, the concern of water pollution by these chemicals is confined to water treatment complexities this contamination is leaving adverse effects on the environment. Most of these water pollutants borne by sewage effluents through wastewater plants develop because of the insufficient removal from treatment plants. Therefore, the emerging water pollutants caused by PCPs are responsible for environmental pollution. Hence, this chapter emphasized the state-of-the-art global application of PCPs, the mechanism of water pollution by PCPs, possible biohazards, and negative impacts on the environment. Besides that, various types of PCPs, along with the most applied chemical compounds in PCPs, have been discussed in this chapter. To minimize the contamination, suitable removal methods to enhance the removal efficacy have been discussed. The chapter also presents a future perspective for reducing the PCP contamination of surface water with cutting-edge technologies and wastewater treatment.

Rapid industrialization and continuous mechanization of the food industry have increased waste production which is a source of various kinds of contaminants especially emerging water pollutants (EWPs). The industry of food (agriculture and processed food) and packaging industry are major sources of these emerging pollutants. Agrochemicals are also a source of pollutants which are contaminating the food chain and underground water. The dairy and meat industries are source of excess antibiotics, lactating hormones, medicines (via exudates and effluents), animal fats, acids, sludge, organic compounds and persisting chemicals in meat and milk. The food processing industry can also contribute various pollutants, like dyes, preservatives, sanitizing and disinfecting agents, as well as alcoholic and phenolic residues from the beverage and wine industries.The food packaging industry is also a major source of food preservatives, dyes, glue, and non-recyclable/one-time-use materials (plastic and polystyrene), which can be broken down into micro/nano plastics leading their way to water reserves and ultimately to the human food chain. Effluents of the food and packaging industry are rich in organic material and can support the growth of various pathogenic bacteria and fungi which can become a source of EWPs and can compromise human health that’s why comprehensive information about these pollutants is needed. Keeping in mind all of these aspects present draft is compiled. This chapter covers various aspects of emerging water pollutants released from foodrelevant industries.

Nanotechnology has many advantages, and its applications are spread to every field, from engineering to medicine and space to agriculture. Owing to the immense advantages of nano-size particles, nano-based materials are widely applied in wastewater treatment. These nanomaterials are developed and utilized in different sizes, shapes, and chemical compositions. These nanomaterials are characterized by their unique physical, chemical and biological properties. Besides the immense benefits of nanomaterials, they also have few environmental implications. This chapter presents the pros and cons of nanomaterials and their implications on the environment. Further, the effect of various nanomaterials on the aquatic environment, including the behaviour and toxicity on the aquatic ecosystem, is discussed. Finally, future directions to minimize the toxic effect of nanomaterials on the aquatic ecosystem and the need for improvement in the nanomaterials are presented. 

The widespread problem of water pollution endangers human health. Every year unsafe water causes more deaths than war and integrates all other forms of violence. Industrial activities create a large source of emerging water pollutants that are highly harmful to humans and the environment. This leads to increasing concern for the possible ecological impact of these pollutants on the environment. This chapter identifies various emerging water pollutants produced from different industrial processes (e.g., petrochemical production, textile, paper and pulp, semiconductor/ electroplating, and metal production). The possible route of pollution formation is discussed in this chapter. In addition, the impact of the produced water pollutants on the environment and health has been elucidated. Furthermore, the concerns of emerging contaminants remain a moving subject as the new pollutants continuously are being produced in industrial processes. In response, an insight into the challenges of minimizing water pollution is also focused on mutual benefit.

A complex mixture of pollutants in wastewater runs down from different sources into the aquatic environment, with potential hazards to aquatic organisms, human health, and the environment. Among these water pollutants, F−, NO3 −, and heavy metals (Cd, Pb Hg, Zn, Cr, Ni, As, etc.) are considered conventional pollutants, whereas nanomaterials, pharmaceutical compounds, personal care products, pesticides, endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), artificial sweeteners, surfactants, etc. are known as emerging water pollutants. This cocktail of water pollutants in the aquatic ecosystem is a real danger, leading to detrimental effects. This chapter discussed the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of the emerging water pollutants, especially the nanomaterials. The ERA of emerging pollutants will help indicate potential risks associated with these substances, highlighting the importance of their hazard identification, dose-response and exposure assessment, and risk characterization. This information will give insights into the recent findings related to the pollutants’ effects and their assessment approach.

 Emerging pollutants reflect a major global water quality problem. When these compounds enter the environment, they cause significant environmental threats to aquatic and human health. Emerging water pollutants (EWPs) include new materials with no regulatory status butthey can adversely affect the environment and human health. Emerging water contaminants can be biological or synthetic that remain unregulated, and pose a potential threat. Major classes of such pollutants are pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), industrial wastes, livestock wastes, synthetic nanomaterials, and petroleum products. These pollutants can enter the environment through numerous sources and pose severe threats to soil organisms, agriculture, aquatic life, and humans. Pharmaceutical waste, industrial effluents, cosmetic and cleansing products, household sanitation, discharge, and synthetic NPs enter water channels, agro-ecosystem, underground water (via seepage), etc., posing a serious threat. These EWPs have different unknown and known effects on animals, plants, and human health, which must be viewed positively. This chapter summarizes the sources and classification of EWPs, their entry into the environment, and their fate. A major focus will be on the end sink of pollutants with potential threats and risk evaluation for plants and human health.

Emerging pollutants (EPs), also known as contaminants of emerging concern, include pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), surfactants, plasticizers, pesticides, etc., and the pharmaceuticals and personal care products are extensively used for therapeutic and non-therapeutic purposes in health care settings, livestock industry, and agriculture. Consumption and production of PPCPs have generated significant quantities of toxic waste in affluent entering the water streams, which poses a risk to aquatic life, public health, and the ecosystem. Given the potential toxicity impacts, continuous exposure to PPCPs is of critical concern. However, the concentrations of PPCPs in the environment are low. Efforts are being made to synergize efficient and cost-effective PPCPs removal technologies to remediate these pollutants from the environment. Still, the success rate is low because of their low concentration (ppb or ppt) and complex chemical structure. Common wastewater treatment technologies are not found efficient enough to attain their complete elimination from the aquatic matrix. Concurrently, ecological problems associated with water quality and aquatic life are aggravated in the prone areas, particularly in the developing world, owing to inadequate monitoring, data management, and treatment facilities. The lifecycle assessment (LCA) is an effective tool for efficient monitoring, quantification, and damage incurred by various stages from production to possible disposal. This chapter summarizes the LCA process of PPCPs, including the release and accumulation, to examine the impacts and associated risks to water quality, the aquatic environment, and ultimately human beings. Furthermore, the deep insight of LCA will help to understand the kinetics of pollutants in environment exchange pools and help fill the existing knowledge gaps that would be a certain better step for management and remediation.

Water is essential for life and no creature can survive without clean and usable water. Most water is unusable as it contains salts and many other organic and inorganic impurities. Without taking these impurities out, the water available to us cannot be used. Different techniques can be adapted to purify the water and make it usable. The selection of the water purification technique can be made depending upon the water contamination, its loading, and other parameters. Based on the contamination and other parameters, chemical or physical techniques for water purification can be applied. Disinfection, desalination, coagulation, and chemical precipitation are common chemical methods used for water purification. For adsorption, membrane filtration is used to filter the pollutant out physically. Various char-based materials are synthesized and used for water purification using the adsorption route. Highly porous char materials can contain the contaminants into their pores and allow the clean water to pass through. The overflow of the adsorbent with the pollutant can be solved by using magnetic biochar as the contaminants can be taken out of the magnetic charbased adsorbent and reused. Thus, the process becomes more effective and efficient. The chapter talks about these processes and their limitations, and advantages over the others. It also describes different types of materials used for the water purification processes.

This chapter demonstrates the source and pathway of emerging contaminants (ECs) and their removal by advanced membrane technologies. These ECs are naturally occurring or synthetic organic pollutants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, estrogens, industrial chemicals, UV filters, pesticides, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals ubiquitously detected in wastewater and wastewaterimpacted surface waterbodies. Emerging contaminants have detrimental effects on aquatic flora and fauna and may affect human health. Due to the persistent nature of ECs, they are resistant to conventional wastewater treatments. Moreover, different physicochemical processes have shown ineffectiveness for the removal of ECs. Therefore, there is a need for robust wastewater treatment processes such as advanced membrane technologies that can effectively remove these ECs. Advanced membrane technologies use membranes that separate ECs from the solution and include forward osmosis, reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, microfiltration, catalytic membranes, and membrane bioreactors. Briefly, the focus of this chapter is to provide an overview of different membrane separation technologies and illustrate various examples of ECs removal.

Emerging pollutants (EPs) in water and wastewater are one of the global water quality challenges and have substantially adverse and serious effects on ecosystems and human health. However, the presence of these EP’s is generally in minute quantities ranging from microgram per liter to nanogram per liter in the environment. These emerging water pollutants may contain endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), personal care and pharmaceutical products, surfactants, hormones, steroids, etc. EPs can also be generated from the synthesis of new chemicals and their by-products in industries. Considering the potential impact of these EPs, an appropriate and effective wastewater treatment approach is needed, which can remove the wide variety of these EPs. Membrane technologies have gained more attention in water filtration processes as membrane technology can remove the emerging water and wastewater pollutants with different membranes. The presence of the membrane barrier is one of the main advantages of the membrane filtration process, which offers a wide variety of supplementary adsorption mechanisms for EPs. The pressure-driven membrane filtration processes include micro-filtration (MF), nano-filtration (NF), ultra-filtration (UF), and reverse osmosis (RO). In contrast, the osmotically driven membrane filtration processes (ODMFP) include pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) and forward osmosis (FO) only. This chapter will review the major characteristics, advancements, and principles of NF, RO, ODMFP, and other emerging membrane filtration technology for treating EPs in water and wastewater

 An unprecedented increase in urbanization and industrialization ignited by an upsurge in the development of consumer goods. This has been steadily destroying the environmental balance and ecosystem and diminishing the water quality. Inevitably, we are facing one of the biggest challenges of the time, which needs to be resolved with proper remediation strategies to provide clean water as one of the essential components for human beings and agriculture, livestock, and several industrial survivals. With the growing demand for water and sustainable improvement, utilizing unconventional water supplies such as contaminated fresh water, brackish water, and wastewater is required. Although some of the traditional water treatment and purification methods still retain their importance. However, there is a need to provide faster and more efficient technologies beyond conventional methods for treating various contaminated water sources, including emerging pollutants. Recently, catalytic processes such as ozonation and electrocatalysis, including electrocatalytic oxidation, electro-Fenton process, photo electro-Fenton process, photocatalysis, and reduction by hydrodehalogenation, exhibited unique features and have opened wide opportunities in the field of water treatment. This chapter describes various types of emerging contaminants, their effect on human health and the ecosystem, and analytical methods of ECs quantification. Moreover, the features, mechanisms, and potential applications of catalytic processes in treating emerging pollutants are discussed in detail.

As the world advances rapidly in technology, industries are experiencing rampant growth, and the healthcare sector is reaching new heights; however, novel challenges are emerging that threaten humanity in entirely new ways. Industrial development, large-scale urbanization, and hazardous effluent from healthcare facilities increase concentrations of emerging pollutants in our surface waters. Emerging pollutants have puzzled the researchers as they are relatively in smaller quantities than other pollutants, yet they pass through the conventional water treatment processes unscathed. Innovative integrated methods must be employed to enhance the water quality by significantly removing these persistent emerging pollutants. This chapter dives deeper into modern research to remove emerging water pollutants effectively. Integrated methods such as integrated electrocoagulation, activated sludge with membrane technology, and construction of wetlands are thoroughly presented.