Advanced Wastewater Treatment and Mathematical Modeling

The special collection on Advanced Wastewater Treatment and Mathematical Modeling is available in the ASCE Library (https://ascelibrary.org/page/joeedu/wastewater_treatment_mathematical_modeling).

Over the past years, the knowledge and understanding of biological wastewater treatment has advanced extensively and moved away from empirically based approaches to a fundamentally based first principles approach that embraces biochemistry, microbiology, mathematics, and physical, chemical, and bioprocess engineering. Also, the wastewater treatment plant of the future will be a water resource recovery facility (WRRF), implying attention for quite different aspects of these large-scale technologies.

This special collection of eight papers highlights recent advances in wastewater treatment and modeling. Specifically, the paper by Ganora et al. (2017) focuses on modeling pump stations in sewer systems to reduce energy and economic costs. A real case study with an application of the proposed procedure is shown. Both quantity (flow volume) and quality (total suspended solids) variables are considered by employing the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM).

Achouri et al. (2017) discuss the benefits resulting from coagulation when this process is used to pretreat tannery wastewater prior to the anaerobic digestion process. A biogas production increase was derived as the effect of the combination of coagulation and anaerobic digestion. The derived results allow optimization and hopefully reduction of the volume of the bioreactors for tannery wastewater treatment.

Ren et al. (2017) present results related to granular systems for wastewater treatment. Specifically, they present an experimental study on the treatment of landfill leachate by aerobic granular systems cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Leachate was gradually fed into the aerobic granular sludge SBR (GSBR) by mixing it with primary effluent at ratios varying from 10% to 90%. Results show that different ratios hold for chemical oxygen demand (COD), phosphorus and nitrogen.

Giustra and Di Bella (2017) report results related to batch tests carried out on granular activated carbon for industrial wastewater derived from a floating tank of an oil coastal deposit in Augusta Harbor (Sicily, Italy). Experimental results show that the application of the adsorption process was effective in the treatment of the slop. In fact, the percentages of removal, although rarely exceeding 65% in terms of COD, reduced the overall organic load resulting from recalcitrant or poorly biodegradable substances.

Campo et al. (2017b) report an experimental study on extracellular polymeric substances and membrane fouling of a moving bed-membrane bioreactor (MR-MBR) treating shipboard slops. In particular, the paper presents the simultaneous effects of salinity and hydrocarbons on the biological activity and membrane fouling of an MB-MBR fed with real high-salinity oily wastewater generated from the washing of oil tankers (slops). Correlations were found between the irreversible cake resistance and extracellular polymeric substances in bound polysaccharides form (${\mathrm{EPS}}_{\mathrm{bound}}$), and between pore blocking resistance and soluble microbial products (SMP).

Campo et al. (2017a) report focused on pretreatments and intermediate hybrid treatments for the improvement of the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge. In particular, batch mesophilic digestion tests were used to assess the methane-specific production of samples of waste activated sludge (WAS) and digestate before and after lysis treatment. The production of methane for the WAS sample increased by 40% and 66% when it was treated at 70°C and 90°C. Intermediate treatments carried out under the same operating conditions caused increases in the specific production of methane of 31% (70°C) and 54% (90°C).

Pontoni et al. (2018) report an experimental study on the comparison of sludge from conventional activated systems and membrane bioreactors. In particular, different sludge samples from conventional activated sludge (CAS) and MBR treatment systems were analyzed in terms of EPS contents and dewaterability properties. The results provide insights on the advantages and disadvantages of the two treatment systems.

Finally, Caniani et al. (2019) present the main results related to a research project on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants at a plantwide scale. Specifically, both experimental and modeling results are presented related to the main source of greenhouse gas emissions of the water and sludge line. Useful insights are derived that can be very useful for future plantwide applications.

The editors wish that the special issue may contribute to widen the knowledge and provide inspiration in the field of advanced wastewater treatment and modeling.