Applied Water Science最新文献

Emerging contaminants such as ceftriaxone are a significant issue in the environment. They have led to a series of ecological, environmental, and health issues, and it is urgent to find a green and secure method to remove antibiotics from water effectively. In this research, the CuCoFe₂O₄@Gum Arabic (GA)/Activated Carbon (AC) as an innovative bio-based matrix magnetic nanocatalyst was synthesized for the efficient degradation of ceftriaxone from aqueous media. The structure of CuCoFe₂O₄@GA/AC was characterized via FESEM, EDS, Mapping, XRD, FTIR, VSM, and DRS analyses. The structural analysis of the catalyst revealed its synthesis at the nanometer scale (40–50 nm), exhibiting high magnetic strength (Ms: 5.38 emu/g) and favorable optical properties with a bandgap of 3.6 eV. Under optimized conditions, including a pH of 5, 60 min of irradiation time, 0.24 g/L photocatalyst dose, and ceftriaxone concentration of 5 mg/L, the removal efficiency from synthetic and real samples was 94.43% and 62.5%, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation process of ceftriaxone followed pseudo-first-order and Langmuir–Hinshelwood kinetic models. Furthermore, analysis of the process mechanism indicated a prominent role of the superoxide radical. The catalyst had a high recovery capability and chemical stability. The photocatalytic degradation of ceftriaxone by CuCoFe₂O₄@GA/AC showcased remarkable efficiency, indicating its potential utility in the treatment of wastewater contaminated with antibiotics.

The emerging pollutant paracetamol (APAP) is one of the most prescribed drugs worldwide. In addition, APAP and its main metabolites, namely, 4-aminophenol (4-AP), hydroquinone (H2Q), benzoquinone (BQ), and 2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone (2,5-OH-BQ), among others, are frequently detected in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) influents, effluents, and the environment. Thus, continuous release into the environment, especially aquatic environments, is a source of general concern. Six APAP-degrading bacterial strains were isolated from two mine samples from the Iberian Pyrite Belt (Lousal and Poderosa mines). Mycolicibacterium aubagnense HPB1.1, which was isolated using enrichment cultures from the Poderosa mine sample in the presence of H2Q as the sole carbon source, also showed APAP biodegrading capabilities. Pure cultures of this strain degraded 34.3 mg L⁻¹ of APAP in 5 days and 9.4 mg L⁻¹ of H2Q in 4 days. Interestingly, BQ and 2,5-OH-BQ were detected as metabolites resulting from H2Q abiotic degradation, but these compounds were removed in the strain’s cultures. Furthermore, M. aubagnense HPB1.1 whole-genome was sequenced, and its encoded proteins were aligned with enzymes of APAP-degrading bacteria recovered from databases and literature aiming to identify candidate catabolic genes. Putative amidases, deaminases, hydroxylases, and dioxygenases, responsible for the degradation of APAP by the HPB1.1 strain, were identified by similarity, corroborating its ability to transform APAP and its intermediate metabolite H2Q into less toxic metabolic compounds due to their capacity to break the aromatic ring of these molecules.

In this study, the removal of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) from aqueous solutions was investigated using the Photo-Fenton like (PFL) process and CuCOFe₂O₄@AC (CAC) magnetic nanoparticles as catalysts. First, CAC nanoparticles were synthesized and their characteristics were determined by XRD, VSM and FESEM, EDS, Mapping, FTIR. The removal efficiency of CIP in each of the nanomaterial processes, including UV, H₂O₂, CAC, UV+H₂O₂, CAC+H₂O₂ (Fenton like), and UV+CAC+H₂O₂ (PFL), were 1.0%, 7.97%, 61.37%, 6.0%, 73%, and 84%, respectively. Therefore, the PFL process was optimized as a suitable process, and the optimal conditions were determined as follows: H₂O₂ concentration of 2500 mg/L, pH of five, CAC dose of 600 mg/L, CIP concentration of 15 mg/L, and contact time of 50 min. The removal efficiency of CIP was achieved at 95.99%. The kinetic studies on the PFL process for the removal of CIP shown that the first order kinetic model exhibits better compatibility with the obtained results compared to other investigated kinetic models. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of the PFL process was equivalent to 1.8 times the individual processes. The results of microbiological tests in treated wastewater samples and control sample indicate the non-toxicity of residual pharmaceuticals wastewater on E. coli and E. faecalis bacteria. Due to the non-toxicity of the wastewater and the ability to recover nanoparticles using magnetism, as well as the possibility of recycling the nanoparticles, this technique can be effectively used as a suitable process in pharmaceutical industry wastewater treatment.

Water pollution is a pressing global concern, with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) being considered as “forever contaminants.” Among them, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) has received significant attention for its adverse effects on human health and aquatic ecosystems. This study aimed to design an innovative adsorbent for effective PFOS removal with exceptional water stability, improving its cost-performance trade-off. The current work simultaneously improved the stability of water of Cu-based metal–organic framework (CMOF) and increased its PFOS removal capacity by modifying it with amine-functionalized SiO₂ nanoparticles (AF-CMOF). AF-CMOF presented a lower specific surface area of 999 m² g⁻¹ compared to CMOF with a surface area of 1098 m² g⁻¹. AF-CMOF showed remarkable PFOS uptake performance of 670 mg/g compared to the performance of the Cu-based MOF which exhibited a PFOS uptake capacity of only 22 mg/g. The most suitable pH for PFOS removal using both adsorbents was determined to be 3. In addition, AF-CMOF demonstrated excellent water stability, retaining its structural integrity even after seven days of water contact, while CMOF structure collapsed rapidly after four days of water exposure. Moreover, the study identified the significant pH influence on the PFOS uptake process, with electrostatic interactions between protonated amine functionalities and PFOS molecules identified as the dominant mechanism. The study’s findings present the potential of synthesized adsorbent as a superior candidate for PFOS uptake and contribute to the development of effective water treatment technologies.

Accurate estimation of ET is vital for water resource management. In recent decades, researchers have focused on utilizing satellite imagery for this purpose. The use of RS data has enabled the development of new models that provide detailed spatial assessments. GeeSEBAL, an automated ET estimation tool, employs the SEBAL algorithm via GEE. The current version of GeeSEBAL utilizes Landsat images and ERA5 global reanalysis data to produce time series estimates. Landsat 8 images were processed into a 16-day time series spanning 2013–2022, specifically during the wheat growing season. To validate the GeeSEBAL model for 2013–2014, results were compared against lysimeter data. Subsequently, ET was calculated for the years 2015–2022. The evaluation of GeeSEBAL against lysimetric data, by metrics such as R², RMSE, MAE, NSE, and NRMSE, yielded values of 0.94, 0.98, 0.07, 0.86, and 0.62, respectively. Those findings underscore the importance of GeeSEBAL for estimating wheat ET in regions with limited data availability.

Analysis of bridge failures due to scouring has been extensively studied by different researchers in recent years and as a result various methods of controlling local scour cavity have been given. Since most of the research in this field has been done on straight paths and also the complexity of the flow pattern in bends, studying the scouring pattern around the bridge piers located in the bends has become a necessity. Therefore, one of the main objectives of this study is to investigate the scouring around the circular piers which are protected by collars at the river bends. The performance of the collar significantly depends on its level around the pier, which has been studied in this study. The results showed that the optimal performance of this structure, in positions 60°, 90° and 120° at the level of 0.2 pier width under the bed with 3 mm thickness (0.06 of pier width) by approximately 68, 63 and 70% of the maximum pier scour depth was reduced compared with collarless pier, respectively. By analyzing the results of this research, it was observed that the optimum level range of collar around the pier at various bend angles is the initial bed level up to 0.4 times the pier width at the bottom of the incipient level of the bed. Moreover, getting closer to the plate placement level toward the initial bed elevation enhances the collar’s function in decreasing scouring.

This study focused on the effect of silicon nanoparticles (Si-Nps) use on growth and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato in hydroponic cultivation under drought stress. Experimental treatments included full irrigation, supplying 85 and 70% of crop water requirement (I₁₀₀, I₈₅ and I₇₀) and use of Si-Nps in three levels of 0, 50 and 100 ppm (N₀, N₅₀ and N₁₀₀) which was performed in a completely randomized design with three replications. Si-Nps were applied in two ways: leaf feeding (L) and root feeding (R). Data analysis showed that different levels of irrigation, Si-Nps and the interaction effect of theirs had a significant effect on fruit weight, leaf fresh and dry weight, stem fresh weight and WUE at 1% level. Si-Nps had a significant effect on stem dry weight at 1% and fruit sugar at 5%. The interaction effect of irrigation and Si-Nps had a significant effect on stem dry weight and fruit sugar at 1%. The maximum fresh fruit weight was related to treatment I₈₅LN₁₀₀ and compared to the control treatment, it was 7.9% more. The maximum WUE was observed in I70RN50 treatment, which was 56.3% higher than control treatment. Generally, applying irrigation I₇₀RN₅₀ gives the best result for hydroponic tomato cultivation in greenhouse conditions.

Growing concerns regarding the presence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater necessitate their removal. Membrane filtration offers a promising approach. This study explores the development of biochar incorporated mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) for ciprofloxacin removal from water. Biochar, derived from the pyrolysis of agricultural waste, was blended with polyether sulfone (PES) and polyvinylpyrrolidone in varying ratios. The resulting MMMs exhibited progressively improved properties with increasing biochar content. Notably, membrane M₁₁, comprising equal parts PES and biochar, displayed the highest porosity, lowest surface roughness (12.0), and lowest contact angle (31.05°), indicating enhanced hydrophilicity (increased by 58.19% compared to the biochar-free membrane). M₁₁ effectively removed ciprofloxacin along with three additional antibiotics from different classes. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses corroborated the removal of ciprofloxacin. Furthermore, M₁₁ demonstrated excellent regenerability, retaining over 57% removal efficiency after four cycles. These findings highlight the potential of M₁₁ as a sustainable and cost-effective membrane for pharmaceutical removal from wastewater.

Sediment phenomenon is very important in hydraulic and water resources issues. The existence of this phenomenon causes many problems in water storage. Sediment simulation in rivers helps in controlling sediment as well as reducing damages. In this study, an attempt was made to estimate the suspended sediment load using the corresponding river flow rate in the Zohreh River, Iran using the newest intelligent simulation methods. This study seeks to couple the nonlinear support vector regression (SVR) with crowd intelligence optimization algorithms. For this purpose, support vector regression was optimized using four new crowd optimization algorithms including the ant colony optimizer (ACO), the ant lion optimizer (ALO), the dragonfly algorithm (DA), and the salp swarm algorithm (SSA). Simulation was done in the two phases of train and test. Due to the integration of the nonlinear support vector regression with the optimization algorithms, the model train phase requires more time than usual situations. Therefore, in the current study, taking into account the number of different iterations including 25, 50, 100 and 200 iterations to perform the optimization of the model and tried to find the best optimizer by considering the calculated error and the run time. It was generally found that the SVR model is accurate in estimating the suspended sediment load. Finally, according to the calculated error as well as the run time, the support vector regression model optimized with the salp swarm algorithm with 25 iterations was chosen as the best model. Also, the values of R², NSE, and RMSE for the best model in the test phase were calculated as 1, 1, and 10.2 tons per day, respectively, and the algorithm run time was 252 s.

Due to the pressure on South Africa’s irrigated agriculture to improve efficiency and optimal water use, irrigators must consider alternative water sources, such as root-accessible shallow groundwater tables, to supply the crop evapotranspiration requirement. Devising irrigation scheduling strategies that will optimize conjunctive water use is difficult because the contribution of shallow groundwater tables is not directly observed and is a function of irrigation management decisions; as a result, very few irrigators use these strategies. This paper aims to evaluate the profitability of using shallow groundwater tables as a source of irrigation water to satisfy crop evapotranspiration requirements. A bio-economic simulation model consisting of the soil–water–atmosphere–plant model and an economic accounting module was developed to calculate the profitability of conjunctive irrigation practices under different states of nature. The bio-economic simulation model was linked to a differential evolutionary algorithm to optimize the irrigation scheduling decisions. The results showed that irrigators could substantially increase profitability and water use efficiency if they consider the shallow groundwater table in their irrigation decision. About 51% of crop evapotranspiration could originate from shallow groundwater tables, reducing the irrigation requirements substantially without impacting crop yields. Sequential adaptive irrigation decision-making does not improve the bio-economic indicators much since using the shallow groundwater table mitigates the risk of undersupplying water. Therefore, conjunctive water use strategies using shallow groundwater tables economically benefit irrigators. However, a complex interplay exists between irrigation adjustments, crop yields and economic performance in different states, emphasizing the careful consideration of context-specific factors in irrigation management decisions.