Extracting, delivering, and disposing water requires energy, and similarly, many processes for extracting and refining various fuel sources and producing electricity use water. This so-called ...‘water–energy nexus’, is important to understand due to increasing energy demands and decreasing freshwater supplies in many areas. This paper performs a country-level quantitative assessment of this nexus in the MENA region. The results show a highly skewed coupling with a relatively weak dependence of energy systems on fresh water, but a strong dependence of water abstraction and production systems on energy. In case of Saudi Arabia it is estimated that up to 9% of the total annual electrical energy consumption may be attributed to ground water pumping and desalination. Other countries in the Arabian Gulf may be consuming 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption for desalination. The results suggest that policy makers should explicitly consider energy implications in water intensive food imports and future restructuring of water demand. This will help in making more integrated decisions on water and energy infrastructure systems. An integrated assessment may in some cases favor water reuse and changes in the agricultural sector as opposed to the expansion of energy intensive and financially expensive desalination systems.
► The water–energy nexus in MENA has a highly skewed coupling. ► Energy production systems are weakly dependent on fresh water. ► Water abstraction and production is strongly dependent on energy. ► In Arabian Gulf countries, 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption is for desalination. ► Energy implications in water intensive food imports should be included in policy considerations.
Recycling water from municipal wastewater offers a reliable and sustainable solution to cities and regions facing shortage of water supply. Places including California and Singapore have developed ...advanced water reuse programs as an integral part of their water management strategy. Membrane technology, particularly reverse osmosis, has been playing a key role in producing high quality recycled water. This feature paper highlights the current status and future perspectives of advanced membrane processes to meet potable water reuse. Recent advances in membrane materials and process configurations are presented and opportunities and challenges are identified in the context of water reuse.
This study examined water quality, naturally-occurring radioactive materials (NORM), major ions, trace metals, and well flow data for water used and produced from start-up to operation of an oil and ...gas producing hydraulically-fractured well (horizontal) in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in northeastern Colorado. Analysis was conducted on the groundwater used to make the fracturing fluid, the fracturing fluid itself, and nine flowback/produced water samples over 220days of operation. The chemical oxygen demand of the wastewater produced during operation decreased from 8200 to 2500mg/L, while the total dissolved solids (TDS) increased in this same period from 14,200 to roughly 19,000mg/L. NORM, trace metals, and major ion levels were generally correlated with TDS, and were lower than other shale basins (e.g. Marcellus and Bakken). Although at lower levels, the salinity and its origin appear to be the result of a similar mechanism to that of other shale basins when comparing Cl/Br, Na/Br, and Mg/Br ratios. Volumes of returned wastewater were low, with only 3% of the volume injected (11millionliters) returning as flowback by day 15 and 30% returning by day 220. Low levels of TDS indicate a potentially treatment-amenable wastewater, but low volumes of flowback could limit onsite reuse in the DJ Basin. These results offer insight into the temporal water quality changes in the days and months following flowback, along with considerations and implications for water reuse in future hydraulic fracturing or for environmental discharge.
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•Comparison of ground water, fracturing fluid, flowback, and produced water over time•TDS, metals, and anion data minimally changed over time in this DJ-Basin well.•COD declined overtime and only ~30% of the volume injected returned over the study.•Changing water quality impacts upon treatment and management were described.
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a global environmental issue. Conventionally, a number of active and passive remediation approaches are applied to treat and manage AMD. Case studies on remediation ...approaches applied in actual mining sites such as lime neutralization, bioremediation, wetlands and permeable reactive barriers provide an outlook on actual long-term implications of AMD remediation. Hence, in spite of available remediation approaches, AMD treatment remains a challenge. The need for sustainable AMD treatment approaches has led to much focus on water reuse and resource recovery. This review underscores (i) characteristics and implication of AMD, (ii) remediation approaches in mining sites, (iii) alternative treatment technologies for water reuse, and (iv) resource recovery. Specifically, the role of membrane processes and alternative treatment technologies to produce water for reuse from AMD is highlighted. Although membrane processes are favorable for water reuse, they cannot achieve resource recovery, specifically selective valuable metal recovery. The approach of integrated membrane and conventional treatment processes are especially promising for attaining both water reuse and recovery of resources such as sulfuric acid, metals and rare earth elements. Overall, this review provides insights in establishing reuse and resource recovery as the holistic approach towards sustainable AMD treatment. Finally, integrated technologies that deserve in depth future exploration is highlighted.
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•Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a global environmental and economic challenge.•Current AMD remediation applied at real sites and its limitations are highlighted.•AMD challenges must be addressed through sustainable treatment approaches.•Water reuse and valuable resource recovery potentially offset AMD treatment cost.•Integrated processes using membranes are prospective approaches for AMD treatment.
Challenges associated with AMD can be sustainability addressed through integrated treatment approaches that attain both water reuse and valuable resource recovery.
Irrigation with reclaimed water alleviates water supply shortages, but excess application often results in impairment of contiguous waterbodies. This project investigated the potential use of ...iohexol, an iodinated contrast media used in medical imaging, together with its bio- and phototransformation products as unique reconnaissance markers of reclaimed water irrigation intrusion at three golf courses within the state of Florida. Inter-facility iohexol concentrations measured in reclaimed waters ranged over ~2 orders of magnitude while observed intra-facility seasonal differences were ≤1 order of magnitude. A ~50 % reduction in iohexol was observed post-disinfection for reclaimed water facilities utilizing UV light while none was observed with use of chlorine. Iohexol biotransformation products were observed to decline or shift to lower molecular weight compounds when exposed to UV light but not during disinfection using chlorine. Iohexol biotransformation products were observed in most of the samples but were more prevalent in samples collected during the dry season. Much fewer iohexol phototransformation products were observed in chlorinated reclaimed water, and they were only observed in UV light irradiated reclaimed water when the pre-disinfectant iohexol concentration was ≥5000 ng/L or from solar exposure of reclaimed water spiked with 10 μM of iohexol. For the Hillsborough golf course overlaying an aquifer, the groundwater did not contain iohexol or phototransformation products but did contain biotransformation products. It is not known if these biotransformation products are from active or historical intrusion. The additional presence of sucralose in the aquifer suggests that intrusion has occurred within the past 3 years. This study demonstrates three crucial points in attempting to utilize iohexol to denote reclaimed water intrusion from irrigation overapplication: (1) interpretable results are obtained when iohexol concentrations in the reclaimed water employed for irrigation are ≥1000 ng/L, with higher concentrations in the range of ≥5000 ng/L better able to meet analytical sensitivity requirements after further dilution or degradation in the environment; (2) it is beneficial to assess iohexol transformation products in tandem with iohexol monitoring to account for environmental transformations of iohexol during storage and transport to the receiving water of concern; and (3) inclusion of monitoring for sucralose, an artificial sweetener ubiquitous in wastewater sources that is comparatively stable in the environment, can aid in interpretating whether reclaimed water intrusion based on identification of iohexol and transformation products in the receiving water is attributable to historic or ongoing irrigation overapplications.
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•Iohexol and transformation products (TPs) can detect reclaimed water intrusion.•Iohexol concentrations spanned 2 orders-of-magnitude inter- and ≤1 intra-facility.•UV light from disinfection or storage attenuated iohexol and shifted bio-TPs.•Photo-TPs rarely observed and bio-TPs easier to detect at dry season sampling.•Monitoring sucralose aids in interpretating if intrusion is recent or historic.
The IWA Publishing journals Water Reuse and Water Science and Technology have been successfully enrolled in the catalog of high-quality journals in the field of environmental science in China. The ...catalog was organized by the China Association for Science and Technology. After a rigorous procedure of selection, evaluation, publicity, and review by the expert panel led by the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, 161 journals (including 115 English journals and 46 Chinese journals) were finally enrolled in the catalog.
This paper investigates the potential of graphene-coated sand (GCS) as an advanced filtration medium for improving water quality and mitigating chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in treated ...municipal wastewater, aiming to enhance water reuse. The study utilizes three types of sand (Ottawa, masonry, and concrete) coated with graphene to assess the impact of surface morphology, particle shape, and chemical composition on coating and filtration efficiency. Additionally, sand coated with graphene and activated graphene coated sand were both tested to understand the effect of coating and activation on the filtration process. The materials were characterized using digital microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction analysis. The material's efficiency in removing turbidity, nutrients, chemical oxygen demand (COD), bacteria, and specific CECs (Aciclovir, Diatrizoic acid, Levodopa, Miconazole, Carbamazepine, Diphenhydramine, Irbesartan, Lidocaine, Losartan, and Sulfamethoxazole) was studied. Our findings indicate that GCS significantly improves water quality parameters, with notable efficiency in removing turbidity, COD (14.1 % and 69.1 % removal), and bacterial contaminants (64.9 % and 99.9 % removal). The study also highlights the material's capacity to remove challenging CECs like Sulfamethoxazole (up to 80 % removal) and Diphenhydramine (up to 90 % removal), showcasing its potential as a sustainable solution for water reuse applications. This research contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive evaluation of GCS in water treatment, suggesting its potential for removing CECs from treated municipal wastewater.
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•Graphene Coated Sand (GCS) as filtration material to enhance water reuse•Effect of particle's shape and composition on GCS coating efficiency•GCS's activation improves its treatment capabilities by at least 10 %.•GCS's ability to remove turbidity, and bacteria (∼85 %)•Improved removal of Sulfamethoxazole and Diphenhydramine (80 & 90 %)
Although granular activated carbon (GAC) has been broadly applied in ozone-biologically activated carbon filtration (O3/BAC) systems for potable reuse of municipal wastewater, the mechanisms of ...various pollutant removal remain largely unknown as the regenerated GAC develops microbial populations resulting in biofiltration but loses significant adsorption capacity as it becomes spent GAC. Therefore, pilot-scale parallel performance comparisons of spent and regenerated GAC, along with a range of pre-oxidant ozone doses, were used to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for the removal of various types of treatment byproduct precursors and trace organic compounds. It was confirmed from this pilot-study that ozone alone can effectively degrade chlorinated trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetic acid (HAA) precursors, chloramine-reactive N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) precursors, and 29 PPCPs. In contrast, biodegradation by microbial population on spent or regenerated GAC can remove NDMA and 22 PPCPs, while the adsorption by regenerated GAC can remove chlorinated THM and HAA precursors, PFAS, flame retardants, and 27 PPCPs. The results of this pilot study are intended to provide those interested in potable reuse with an example of the simultaneous removal capabilities and mechanisms that can be anticipated for treating a complex mixture of organics present in real municipal wastewater effluent.
•Roles of spent and regenerated GAC were for the first time compared.•Pathways for the removal of a wide spectrum of compounds were identified.•Biodegradation can remove NDMA and 22 PPCPs.•Adsorption can remove THM and HAA precursors, PFAS, flame retardants, and 27 PPCPs.•Ozone can remove THM, HAA, chloramine-reactive NDMA precursors, and 29 PPCPs.
Recycled water has been widely recognized in the world as an effective approach to relieve the issue of water shortage. Meanwhile, with several decades of development, the insufficiency of technology ...is no longer the primary factor that restricts the popularization of recycled water. What makes it difficult to promote the concept of reusing recycled water in China? To solve this issue, a special experiment on the public’s attitude towards the reuse of recycled water was designed based on a Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT), so as to avoid factors like social preference that can influence the survey results, and to gain the public’s negative implicit attitude towards reusing recycled water reuse, which is close to the public’s real attitude to it. From the perspective of implicit attitude, this research testifies the “spiritual contagion” phenomenon of the public, which refers to refusing recycled water reuse because recycled water is made from sewage treatment. By comparing the implicit attitude to recycled water reuse with the explicit attitude that is acquired from self-reporting questionnaires about reusing recycled water, this research finds that the implicit attitude is more positive than the explicit attitude, which accounts for the phenomenon of “best game no one played” in the promotion of the recycled water reuse, that is, the public though applauding the environment-friendly policy, will not actually use the recycled water.
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