Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management

This chapter presents the background, current development and future opportunities of green technologies and issues to facilitate strategic planning of sustainable water management systems. It describes the fundamental concepts and current and future applications of green technologies for sustainable improvement in water management. The chapter discusses the appropriate approaches and policies in achieving sustainable objectives and promoting green design and supplies for water utilization. Sustainable water management has received great attention over recent years because of its substantial benefits to the environment, society, and economy. Improvements in water management are likely to come from green technologies fueled by individual curiosity, dedicated effort, and opportunities within a strategic program supported by national and international agencies, universities, and industries. These innovations can significantly contribute to less nonrenewable resource requirement, reduced carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and costs, minimized water losses, and enhanced removal of contaminants.

In Australia, recent droughts and concerns about climate change have highlighted the need to manage water resources more sustainably. Rainwater harvesting has emerged as a new field of sustainable water management, which offers an alternative water supply for at least nonpotable uses. This chapter illustrates a detailed sampling on the concentration of pollutants in metropolitan rainwater tanks located at different parts of Sydney. Some rainwater tanks incorporate simple sand filtration devices to improve water quality for potable uses. Concentrated pollutants remaining after treatment and sludge can be discharged to the sewer, alleviating sludge disposal problems, and is attractive in creating a low maintenance system. It is possible to create a sustainable development with a low demand for town water and low storm water pollution export, as well as reduce storm water discharges. Some of the rainwater treatment technologies discussed include adsorption, pilot scale application, and membrane filtration.

The most common application of stormwater reuse in Australia is for outdoor irrigation, but treated stormwater also can be used to supplement other nonpotable uses, such as flushing toilets, washing clothes, firefighting, and in cooling towers. More recently, instances have emerged where stormwater has been harvested for indirect potable reuse. The water quality criteria depend on the applications, and the treatment required to meet these standards will be affected by the source of the stormwater. The conventional technologies for treating stormwater are traditionally incorporated into a management strategy to meet stormwater quality objectives aiming to protect estuaries and streams. Conventional stormwater treatment systems commonly utilized in harvesting schemes include gross pollutant traps (GPTs), vegetated swales, sediment ponds, constructed wetlands, and biofiltration systems. Some of the high-rate stormwater treatment technologies are fiber filter, deep bed filter, membrane filtration, and membrane hybrid systems.

This chapter summarizes the critical policy for its sustainable management in a changing climate and modern satellite technologies allowing the measurement of groundwater volumes available for water supply, irrigation, and environment. The changing availability of groundwater for food security and ecosystems is examined within the framework of risk management. The chapter provides an overview of these issues and concepts such as the sustainable yield of aquifers and groundwater depletion from the overexploitation of aquifers. The risk assessment framework applies a holistic approach to the assessment of risks, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative assessment of risk. Groundwater modeling is an essential component of risk assessment. Finally, the chapter outlines the themes of groundwater management and mineral resource extraction together in case studies of the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia.

This chapter discusses the concepts of water cycle management with attention paid to the relationships between natural hydrological cycle and artificial water cycle of water uses for various purposes that need a water supply from freshwater sources as well as water reclamation. The worldwide problem of water shortage has stimulated the requirement for wastewater reuse, because many of the water uses may not be necessarily supplied by freshwater resources, and the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant can be used either straightforwardly for irrigation or for other nonpotable purposes after further treatment. The chapter presents a series of conceptual models to describe the urban/district water cycle without or with water reuse. Water temperature, turbidity, and suspended solids are typical physical water quality parameters. The strategic countermeasure for preventing water quality deterioration in open storage reservoirs is to use aeration for providing oxygen and eliminating stratification.

This chapter focuses on the concepts and major categories of green and sustainable wastewater treatment and disposal technologies (GSNWWTDTs). It also focuses on few selected GSNWWTDTs. The chapter explores the principles, advantages, applications, and considerations of GSNWWTDTs. It describes the strategies to implement these GSNWWTDTs along with future trends. Some of the selected GSNWWTDTs described in the chapter include lagoon treatment systems, wetlands and aquatic treatment systems, anaerobic digestion, and geopurification systems. Management strategies for sustainable GSNWWTDTS and decentralized wastewater management (DWM) systems should be site-specific, considering the local social, cultural, environmental, and economic conditions. Choice of the most appropriate technology for the local conditions is an important management strategy. Effective programs for wastewater management and reclamation, including education and information programs, laws and standards, wastewater reclamation and reuse programs, coupled with public involvement in decision making, would ensure sustainable urban wastewater management for communities.

Anaerobic granular sludge technology is now perceived to be the most promising and favorable wastewater treatment process, as it fulfills the desired criteria for future technology in sustainable green development. Achieving an effective prevention and control of pollution requires an integrated management of emissions to air, water, and land, as well as the efficient use of energy and raw materials. This chapter explores the merits and limitations of anaerobic granulation. In comparison with aerobic processes, the chapter discusses the outstanding advantages of industrial wastewater treatment by anaerobic granular sludge systems. Energy production and assessment associated with anaerobic granulation are delineated in the perspective of the water-energy nexus. The chapter outlines the prospects of anaerobic granulation and anaerobic reactor systems integrating granular sludge for waste degradation. An emerging application of anaerobic granular systems is associated with certified emission reduction or carbon credit set under the Kyoto Protocol.

The composition of sewage sludge makes it a potential source for the recovery or production of value-added products. This chapter explains recent advances in the use of activated sludge for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) based biopesticides production/formulations, vermicomposting biotechnology, and production of different enzymes. PHAs are one of the relatively newer families of biodegradable polymers that have great potential in the future due to their properties. The key success of biopesticides lies in their impact on the target pest, market size, and variability of field performance, cost effectiveness, and end-user feedback. Bt is commercially used to control forests and agriculture insects. Wastewater sludge could be used as a potential source for isolation of microorganisms and can be a very good carbon source of many microbial possesses that could add value to sludge by producing valuable metabolic products.

This chapter provides an overview of the fundamentals and applications of anaerobic wastewater treatment processes. It discusses the fundamentals of anaerobic wastewater treatment processes and the effects of various environmental/physicochemical parameters on anaerobic wastewater treatment processes. The chapter describes the classifications of different types of anaerobic treatment processes based on mode of microbial growth. It demonstrates different types of reactors associated with anaerobic treatment processes and describes the anaerobic wastewater treatment process kinetics using different kinetic models. Anaerobic treatment technology has emerged as one of the best treatment processes for different types of wastewater. Anaerobic lagoons are used for high strength organic wastewater, such as industrial wastewaters or a mixture of industrial and domestic wastewaters. Anaerobic hybrid reactor integrates biological degradation of waste products in an anaerobic condition with membrane filtration.

This chapter introduces constructed wetland (CWs) for wastewater treatment, with a focus on the definition, classification, structures and common removal mechanisms of pollutants. It provides an overview of the application of CWs for wastewater treatment. These technologies are useful for improving the sustainability of CW wastewater treatments, including improvement and optimization in system design, operation, and external enhancing technologies for better treatment performance and recycling methods of wetland resources. CWs are artificially engineered ecosystems designed and constructed to manipulate biological processes within a semicontrolled natural environment. The growing knowledge about wetland functions and values have caused a radical change of attitude toward CWs. Plant selection, enhancing techniques, and plant reclamation and recycling in CWs are important factors for the sustainable design, operation, and maintenance of CWs. They also prove to be an affordable alternative in sustainable CW wastewater treatments, especially for small communities and remote locations.

On-site technologies can range from compost privies in national forests to high-tech, membrane-filtration systems that recycle wastewater for toilet flushing in large buildings to sophisticated, yet elegant designs that use ecosystems, such as constructed wetlands, to treat wastewater. This chapter describes the evolution and evaluation of on-site technologies and the factors affecting their performance, as well as case studies of on-site wastewater treatment systems. On-site treatment systems are predominantly suitable for semi-arid and arid regions and for regions that require riparian groundwater recharge, restoration, an increase in surface water flow, irrigation of nearby landscapes or on-site fire control storage. The known nutrient removal approach is the use of biological treatment systems. The chapter focuses on biological nutrient removal of on-site wastewater treatment system. Some of the important factors affecting biological nutrient removal include mean cell residence time (MCRT), aeration requirements, wastewater characteristics, and hydraulic retention time.

This chapter discusses developments in the anammox process, since its discovery, including identification of responsible microbes and their physiology, potential process inhibitors, reactor types used, and application to treat different wastewater. Anammox bacteria are coccoid bacteria with an average diameter ranging between 800 and 1100 nm. Anammox bacteria are chemoautotrophic bacteria and use CO₂ as the main inorganic carbon source to oxidize ammonium to nitrogen gas using nitrite as the electron acceptor. Ammonium and nitrite are the two substrates for anammox bacteria. The absence of nitrite in wastewater limits the direct application of the anammox process. Applications of anammox or its related processes, such as SHARON-Anammox, CANON, or SNAD have been tested to treat real world wastewaters by many researchers in lab scale reactors. Anammox combined with partial nitrification has been identified as the most efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly nitrogen removal method in recent years.

This chapter presents the applications of biomass-based adsorbents for anionic pollutants removal. These renewable biomasses are used as starting materials for various biosorbents production. There is a wide variety of commercial adsorbents developed with high selectivity for various anionic pollutants. However, the high cost of commercial adsorbent and its loss during the regeneration process restrict its application. Commercial activated carbons and commercial resins are the main forms of commercial adsorbents applied for anion removal. Some adsorbents prepared from nature waste materials are widely used for the removal of anions from water/wastewaters, especially from biomass waste materials. Quaternary ammonium, amine, and amino groups are known as the most efficient functional groups for anionic pollutants removal. Natural polymers or biopolymers are biodegradable. Adsorbent recycling is necessary for cost-efficient use of these biopolymers for environmental applications.

Phosphorus (P) is a critical nutrient for plant growth. The excessive amount of P in aquatic medium may originate from natural sources and/or artificial sources. This chapter discusses P removal/recovery from wastewater due to surface water quality deterioration and P rock reserves depletion. It focuses on both fundamental and applied aspects of this practice using agricultural waste based biosorbents (AWBs). Understanding the operation principles is expected to enable the application of AWBs in the future. Because of increasing concerns relevant to water quality deterioration and depletion of global P rock reserves, P removal/recovery recently has become a matter of interest. Even though various technologies are presently available, adsorption seems to have advantages when used for P recovery. Although AWBs in both natural and modified forms can be used for P removal, the low P uptake capacity of raw AWBs hinders their widespread application.

This chapter discusses advanced technologies for the removal of emerging trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) from wastewater for reuse purposes. In particular, integrated membrane processes for TrOC removal are delineated. In the environment, TrOCs may be present as a mixture of various compounds and their transformation products. Mixtures of TrOCs may impose a more complicated effect when compared to that of a single compound. Water recycling is a pragmatic approach to mitigate or solve the problems of water supply. There is a growing interest in using nontraditional water resources by means of water reclamation and water recycling for long-term sustainability. This chapter explains the removal of TrOCs by existing and advanced treatment processes. Some of the processes include activated carbon adsorption, high-pressure membrane filtration, advanced oxidation processes, and enzymatic degradation. The biomass feature is an important factor for TrOC removal in membrane bioreactor (MBR).

This chapter discusses the occurrences and usages of heavy metals along with current regulations and disposal methods of those heavy metals. It describes four heavy metals, namely arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury. The chapter reviews environmental and health impacts, owing to heavy metal pollution, emphasizes the need to treat waters that are polluted by heavy metals. Treatment technologies, such as chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, membrane filtration, and coagulation/flocculation and their effectiveness in treating heavy metals are explored in the chapter. Eight green technologies have been evaluated for their performance in treating heavy metals. The technologies include biosorption, biostimulation, bioaugmentation, bioleaching, biosurfactants, bioprecipitation, vermicomposting, and phytoremediation. Green treatment technologies also offer a smarter option toward water sustainability and are being accepted globally. With the efficient utilization of the available water, the per capita consumption can be brought down remarkably.

Water contamination by heavy metals in the ecosystem is a major environmental problem encountered in many industrial areas. This chapter describes the application of the Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration-activated carbon fiber (MEUF-ACF) hybrid process for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater. It explains the concentration polarization (CP), micellization, critical micelle concentration (CMC), MEUF mechanism, and surfactant types, including recovery of trace permeate surfactants and metal ions. Membrane fouling in MEUF process can be minimized by using optimum initial permeate flux, retentate pressure, and initial feed concentration of pollutant and surfactant. Surfactant and heavy metal ions from the industrial and municipal wastewaters represent an important category of contaminants. Many techniques have been used and developed to remove the surfactants and metal ions from wastewaters. These include ion exchange, solvent extraction, reverse osmosis, precipitation, chemical oxidation and reduction, filtration, electrochemical treatment, floatation coagulation, biodegradation, and adsorption.

Industrial wastewater has become a global issue because of its high concentration of pollutants, especially refractory organic compounds. This chapter focuses on the application of the electrocatalytic membrane reactor (ECMR) in wastewater treatment. It explains the concept and types of electrocatalytic membrane materials applied in wastewater treatment. The chapter discusses design optimization of ECMR for wastewater treatments, such as oil water treatment, phenolic wastewater, and dyeing wastewater treatment. It explores the mechanism of ECMR for wastewater treatment. Refractory wastewater is mainly discharged from coking plants, pharmaceutical factories, refineries, and dye factories, among others, and is of a high density of pollutants, poor biodegradability, and high toxicity. The mechanism of ECMR for wastewater treatment suggests that the organic pollutants in wastewater would be decomposed into CO₂ and H₂O or biodegradable products through the generation of physically adsorbed active oxygen.

This chapter presents the fundamentals and basic principles of water reclamation by heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP). The effects of important operational parameters on the overall treatment efficiency of photocatalytic system are addressed in the chapter in terms of photocatalyst loading, pollutant concentration, pH and temperature of water, dissolved oxygen, and light intensity. The most popular semiconductor used in HP is Titanium dioxide (TiO2) for being relatively inexpensive, chemically stable, and nontoxic. Most water remediation technologies generate a significant amount of wastewater that requires costly retreatment or discharge to evaporation ponds, rivers, and oceans. HP processes that decompose aqueous contaminants are highly dependent on the reaction conditions and the setup of photocatalytic reactors. Visible-light responsive photocatalysts promise a more effective utilization of solar energy. Doping and co-doping of titania is a practical approach toward obtaining improved visible-light active photocatalysts.

Sewage sludge is an inevitable by-product in the process of wastewater treatment. Its increasingly huge quantity and persistently environmental contamination makes the disposal and recycling of it an issue of great importance. The common disposal methods of sewage sludge include ocean disposal, landfill, composting, and land application. This chapter describes the application of sewage sludge in the production of sludge-based ceramic particles (SBCP) and sludge-based activated carbon (SBAC). SBAC can be widely used as an adsorbent for the removal of various pollutants in the liquid phase. The main constituents of sewage sludge are proteins, fats, urea, cellulose, silica, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, iron, calcium oxide, alumina, magnesium oxide, and potash. Commercial ceramic particles (CCP) generally are used as materials in building industries and the filter media in water treatment units. Sewage sludge is a highly promising feedstock for the production of water treatment materials, as well as for some novel materials.

Impacts of climate change and climatic variability are evident in many parts of the world and will result in significant effects on water resources. Climate change studies inherently have to consider the significance of natural variability, future emissions, and downscaling methodology. Climate change threatens water management through changes in precipitation patterns and agricultural production through variable temperatures, and increased occurrences of extreme events, such as droughts and floods. This chapter presents a case study of Pichola Lake Basin. The objective of the case study is to assess the impact of climate change on a lake basin in an arid region in India for the various Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) SRES scenarios. Adaptation and mitigation techniques are of immense importance when tackling and eliminating or reducing the adverse effects of climate change to life and property.

This chapter describes a resource economic approach to evaluate the economic value of the wastewater borne resources, as well as a model to determine the pollution dependent treatment costs for single wastewater parameters. Such a model can be used as an economic steering instrument for strengthening the implementation of green technologies. Wastewater is seen primarily as a source of potentially usable resources rather than a compound of substances that require disposal. The fundamental conditions for a material-specific and partial-stream-specific quantification of wastewater treatment costs are considered as the starting point for the determination of degrees of economic freedom in respect of the future realization of material flow separation concepts. A new approach to evaluation of economic potential of resources contained in the different partial wastewater streams indicates an economic margin, which can be used for a successive introduction of stream separating concepts with subsequent recycling.

This chapter discusses the energy production potential of different wastewater sources and various treatment processes with an aim of establishing sustainable energy management systems. The refractory fraction of wastewater can be converted to energy through thermal, chemical, or electrical processes. The importance of knowing the potential energy available lies in the choice of treatment methods so that most of the energy can be recovered. Some wastes that may be high in energy value, such as halogenated wastes, may be unsuitable or unattractive to some treatment methods. The chapter discusses several systems for energy recovery with simultaneous treatment of wastewater. Some of the systems include anaerobic treatment, microbial fuel cell (MFC), simultaneous algal biomass production, and wastewater treatment. The adverse environmental impacts associated with anaerobic treatment or MFC are mainly because of electricity consumption in the various process units and transportation/disposal of biosolids.

Biohydrogen can be made from water, either directly or indirectly, using solar driven photosynthesis and through anaerobic fermentative processes using hybrid biotechnologies. Among these processes, fermentative hydrogen production is a promising technology. This chapter describes both the scientific and practical implications of obtaining sustainable green energy through fermentative biohydrogen production. It discusses different biochemical pathways, the microbiology and biochemistry of hydrogen production, critical process parameters dictating the performance of batch and continuous bioprocesses, and modeling of biohydrogen production. Alternate modeling strategies followed to model and optimize the performance of batch and continuous biohydrogen processes use artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANNs are able to depict the interactive effects among different process variables in complicated bioprocesses. The kinetics describing biomass growth and hydrogen production provide valuable information for bioreactor design and scale-up.

This chapter focuses on the comprehensive overview of the recent progress in anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) applications, including the fundamental aspects and development of AnMBR processes. For a future green bioprocess, the chapter discusses the application development of AnMBRs in domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, opportunities for biogas production and waste minimization and membrane fouling researches. The anaerobic treatment processes are known to have the inherent advantages over the aerobic counterparts, such as sludge minimization and energy savings. The key competitive advantages of AnMBRs over conventional aerobic and anaerobic processes include total biomass retention, excellent effluent quality, bioenergy recovery, smaller footprint, lower energy consumption, high efficiency of wastewater treatment, and strong ability of handling fluctuation in influent quality. Biogas recovery represents one of the key green features of AnMBR technology, particularly for submerged AnMBR (SAnMBR). The compact configure of SAnMBR allows for more convenient collection of biogas.

This chapter describes several aspects on composting of human feces, which include characterization of feces, modeling of the aerobic biodegradation process, compost safety and criteria for the design of the composting toilet. Performance of the bio-toilet system, and more specifically biodegradation rates, is affected by several factors, including the substrate bioavailability that is mainly associated with the biodegradability of organic matter contained in feces. Knowledge of the amount and character of the compost produced during the aerobic biodegradation of feces allows proper design and operation of the bio-toilet system, as quantity of remaining residue is increasing with the time, and the composition of such residue determines the quality of the compost generated. Five important factors or aspects for the proper design and operation of the bio-toilet include degradation of organic matter, water balance, nutrients, pathogens inactivation, and fate of micropollutants.

This chapter discusses sustainable palm oil mill effluent (POME) management systems for different conditions of palm oil mills in Indonesia. The development of palm oil industries worldwide currently focuses on increasing the productivity of the land and efficiency of crude palm oil (CPO) processing in the mill. Improving the efficiency of power generation and its use is one important way to improve the sustainability of the palm oil industry. Wastewater treatment processes in palm oil industries usually apply conventional biological treatment. In the context of the palm oil industry, sustainability is about the long-term security of the supply chain if the palm oil business is to continue with a holistic balance between social, environmental, and economic needs of the country and people. Generating electricity from POME through biogas or methane capture has attracted considerable attention across the palm oil industry.

This chapter summarizes nanomaterials for green industry, agriculture, food industry, environmental protection, renewable energy, and health care. Nanomaterials can help resource saving, energize batteries, and reduce energy consumption by using lightweight, high-strength materials based on carbon nanotubes and metal oxide frameworks as hydrogen storage materials. Nanomaterials can be fabricated with specific properties that can detect a particular pollutant within a mixture. Nanomaterials also can be engineered to actively interact with a pollutant and decompose it to less toxic intermediates. Nanomaterials, with tailored characteristics of small size, very high surface-to-volume ratio, tolerance of structure change, and strain relaxation can play an important role in the development of renewable energy production and storage. Nanomaterials have been showing great potentials in biotechnology and health, with the important impact on the quality of health in a sustainable society.