Chemical Degradation Methods for Wastes and Pollutants focuses on established and emerging chemical procedures for the management of pollutants in industrial wastewater and the environment. This reference offers an in-depth explanation of the degradation process, mechanisms, and control factors affecting each method, as well as issues crucial to the application of these approaches in real-world treatment sites. It examines ten of the most common and useful chemical technologies for environmental remediation and sanitation of industrial waste streams and offers implementation guidelines and examples of remediation strategies that are crucial to effective wastewater cleansing.

Wastewater represents an alternative to freshwater if it can be treated successfully for re-use applications. Promising techniques involve photocatalysis, adsorption, nanocomposites, and membranes. The book focusses on the following topics: Effluent detoxification and degradation kinetics of organic dyes using Fenton and photo-Fenton processes. Degradation of methylene blue using nanocomposites as a potential photocatalyst. Agricultural and agro-industries based wastes as low-cost biosorbents. Use of carbon quantum dots (CQDs) for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. Detection, determination and removal of phenolic compounds from wastewater. Decomposition of organic dyes via photocatalysis. Oxide-semiconductor nanomaterials for photocatalytic wastewater purification. Photocatalytic efficiency of various ZnO composites for degradation of organic pollutants. TiO2 based nanocomposites. Membrane filtration processes for the removal of organics from industrial wastewater.

Pollution has no borders. This popular 70’s saying from early ecologists is surprisingly still true nowadays despite overwhelming scientific evidence and public awareness of the occurrence of artificial toxic substances in water, food, air, living organisms and the environment. This book presents advanced reviews on pollutant occurrence, transfer, toxicity and remediation. The chapter on school air quality by Dambruoso et al. highlights the overlooked health issue of airborne pollutants in buildings. Children are particularly threatened because they spend 90% of their time indoors, even in summer. The chapter on industrial wastewater pollutants by Dsikowitzky and Schwarzbauer reviews pollutants from textile, petrochemical, paper, tire, chemical and pharmaceutical plants. The authors describe advanced analytical methods and ecotoxicity tests. Industrial pollutants include dioxins and furans that are also reviewed in the chapter by Mudhoo et al. The chapter on fly ash by Gianoncelli et al. presents many techniques to treat fly ash and, in turn, decrease pollutant concentrations. The authors also explain that fly ash can be recycled in agriculture, buildings and geopolymers. The chapter on antifouling paints used for ship protection, by Sousa et al., highlights the occurrence of toxic organotins in human organs such as heart, liver and breast milk. The chapter on surfactants by Rebello et al. focuses on safety concerns for humans and the ecosystems. Remediation techniques and green surfactants are presented. The chapters on toxic metals by Nava-Ruíz and Méndez-Armenta, Abarikwu and Ristić et al. describe sources, monitoring and diseases induced by lead, mercury, cadmium and thallium. The chapter on carcinogenic nitrosamines by Li et al. presents techniques and materials such as zeolites to remediate liquids and smoke containing nitrosamines.

Rapid industrialization is a serious concern in the context of a healthy environment. With the growth in the number of industries, the waste generated is also growing exponentially. The various chemical processes operating in the manufacturing industry generate a large number of by-products, which are largely harmful and toxic pollutants and are generally discharged into the natural water bodies. Once the pollutants enter the environment, they are taken up by different life forms, and because of bio-magnification, they affect the entire food chain and have severe adverse effects on all life forms, including on human health. Although, various physico-chemical and biological approaches are available for the removal of toxic pollutants, unfortunately these are often ineffective and traditional clean up practices are inefficient. Biological approaches utilizing microorganisms (bacterial/fungi/algae), green plants or their enzymes to degrade or detoxify environmental pollutants such as endocrine disruptors, toxic metals, pesticides, dyes, petroleum hydrocarbons and phenolic compounds, offer eco- friendly approaches. Such eco-friendly approaches are often more effective than traditional practices, and are safe for both industry workers as well as environment. This book provides a comprehensive overview of various toxic environmental pollutants from a variety natural and anthropogenic sources, their toxicological effects on the environment, humans, animals and plants as well as their biodegradation and bioremediation using emerging and eco-friendly approaches (e.g. Anammox technology, advanced oxidation processes, membrane bioreactors, membrane processes, GMOs), microbial degradation (e.g. bacteria, fungi, algae), phytoremediation, biotechnology and nanobiotechnology. Offering fundamental and advanced information on environmental problems, challenges and bioremediation approaches used for the remediation of contaminated sites, it is a valuable resource for students, scientists and researchers engaged in microbiology, biotechnology and environmental sciences.

Wastewater pollution is a major issue in the context of the future circular economy because all matter should be ultimately reused, calling for efficient depollution techniques. This book present timely reviews on the treatment of wastewater contaminated by organic pollutants, with focus on aerobic granulation and degradation. Organic pollutants include microplastics, phthalates, humic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pharmaceutical drugs and metabolites, plastics, oil spills, petroleum hydrocarbons, personal care products, tannery waste, dyes and pigments.

The abundance of organic pollutants found in wastewater affect urban surface waters. Traditional wastewater management technologies focus on the removal of suspended solids, nutrients and bacteria, however, new pollutants such as synthetic or naturally occurring chemicals are often not monitored in the environment despite having the potential to enter the environment and cause adverse ecological and human health effects. Collectively referred to as "emerging contaminants," they are mostly derived from domestic activities and occur in trace concentrations ranging from pico to micrograms per liter. Environmental contaminants are resistant to conventional wastewater treatment processes and most of them remain unaffected, causing contamination of receiving water. This in turn leads to the need for advanced wastewater treatment processes capable of removing environmental contaminants to ensure safe fresh water sources. This book provides an up-to-date overview of the current bioremediation strategies, including their limitations, challenges and their potential application to remove environmental pollutants. It also introduces the latest trends and advances in environmental bioremediation, and presents the state-of-the-art in biological and chemical wastewater treatment processes. As such, it will appeal to researchers and policy-makers, as well as undergraduate and graduate environmental sciences students.