New Advisory Board Member: Joel Ducoste

We are delighted to announce that Joel Ducoste (North Carolina State University) has joined the Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology Advisory Board.

Dr. Joel Ducoste is a Professor in the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Advancement.  He holds a B.S. (1988) and M.Eng. (1989) in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering (1996) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Ducoste is a board certified environmental engineering member with the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists and is a recognized expert in modeling water and wastewater treatment processes using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

His current research interests include physico-chemical processes in water treatment, computational fluid dynamics modeling, water/wastewater process optimization, wastewater sewer collection system sustainability, renewable energy, plant biosystems engineering, and solid waste process modeling.

He is a respected researcher and productive scholar with over 85 peer reviewed journal publications and another 90 peer reviewed conference proceedings and research reports. Dr. Ducoste has received a number of awards including: an NSF Career Award, a Fulbright fellowship, Visiting Professorships at Ghent University, South East University, and Yangzhou University, NC State mentoring awards, and most recently, elected Fellow of the Water Environment Federation. He has served on EPA Science Advisory Boards and 2020-2021 President of the Association of the Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. Dr. Ducoste also spent 5 years in industry at CH2M Hill as a senior process engineer and as an advance-manufacturing engineer at GE Aircraft Engines.

 

 

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Themed Issue Open for Submissions: Data-intensive water systems management and Operation

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology seeks your high-impact research for our upcoming Themed Issue on Data-intensive water systems management and Operation

Guest Edited by Branko Kerkez (University of Michigan, USA), Kris Villez (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA) and Eveline Volcke (Ghent University, Belgium)
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The water sector increasingly looks at intensified instrumentation, data collection and automation as tools for daily use. Still, a massive opportunity remains in fully embracing emerging methods and technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, machine learning, low-cost sensor hardware, and edge and cloud computing. Indeed, sensing and automation technology has already infiltrated many facets of society today. As such, the time is ripe to evaluate the role of novel technologies for systems monitoring, diagnostics, and automation of aquatic processes and large-scale water systems. When leveraged, the water sector will do more with less.

In this special issue we seek to publish articles that report a significant advance in the theory, understanding, practice or application of emerging techniques and
technologies, including:

  • Instrumentation, including state-of-the-art sensors and novel sensor concepts
  • Data analytics and machine learning
  • Low-cost and energy-efficient hardware for computation, and automation
  • Advances in decision support systems
  • Real-time monitoring and control
  • Autonomy & Automation
  • Privacy and cybersecurity
  • Integration of data-intensive techniques, such as scale, model-based tools for
    real-time operation and management

The reported studies should be rooted in applications across aquatic science and engineering, including but not limited to:

  • Chemical and microbial contaminants
  • Water distribution and wastewater collection
  • Stormwater infrastructure, green and gray
  • Potable reuse
  • Residue management
  • Watersheds

All submitted manuscripts will undergo initial assessment and peer review as per the usual standards of the journal. Please quote “EWData21” in the “Comments to the Editor” section during the submission process.

Click here to find out more

Submissions due: 10th September 2021

Submit your work now: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/esw 

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Emerging Investigator Series – Niveen Ismail

 

Niveen Ismail is currently an assistant professor in the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, an all-women’s liberal arts college. She received her MS (2011) and PhD (2015) in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She received her MS in Biology (2010) from Temple University and B.S. in Chemical Engineering (2003) from New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Ismail research lab examines the use of natural systems to improve water quality with a focus on the understanding the interaction of filter feeders with aquatic contaminants.

Read her Emerging Investigator article “Emerging investigator series: interacting effects of environmental factors on Daphnia magna removal of Escherichia coli from wastewater” and read more about her in the interview below:

 

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on removal of E. colifrom wastewater with zooplankton. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

My research interests have expanded quite a bit with respect to the suite of contaminants we study in my lab, which now includes microbial pollutants, metals, microplastics, and nanoparticles. This particular area of research examining zooplankton interaction with microbial pollutants has evolved over the years to include more complex matrices and experimental designs that better mimic environmental systems.  My very first published paper looked at PCB maternal transfer in diamondback terrapins. I have been interested in aquatic contaminants since I started conducting research as an undergraduate.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

It’s hard to pick one specific topic, but I am really excited to have my undergraduate students back in lab after a long hiatus due the pandemic closures. Since I am a faculty member at a primarily undergraduate institution, my undergraduate students are the heart of my lab and are critical to the success of my research. With regards to specific research, we have restarted our work looking at various zooplankton species interactions with phages/viruses. We also are about to scale up our work examining the impact of silver nanoparticles on zooplankton to a mesocosm level. It’s always exciting to have experimental work progress from microcosm/batch scale to mesocosm scale and see how the kinetics change as we consider different variables and move closer to environmentally realistic conditions.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

Like many other scientists researching water technology, trying to improve water quality is a driving motivator behind all the research I do. Specific to my research focus, zooplankton are such critical species to natural treatment systems, but so little is known about their overall contributions to improving water quality and the effects of contaminants on their ability to filter feed. Ultimately, to effectively implement natural treatment systems, we need to be able to model and predict all the different factors that impact system performance. Often zooplankton grazing is excluded from inactivation and fate/transport models, so the mechanisms and the kinetics related to these filter feeders need to be elucidated.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

Balancing experimental specificity of working with a particular zooplankton species with broad applicability to the water treatment sector is a challenge we think about a lot. There is also the logistics of working with different biological species that can be challenging when it comes to maintaining cultures and dealing with culture crashes at the most inopportune moments.

In which upcoming conferences or events (online or in person) may our readers meet you?

I always look forward to attending AEESP and GRC Environmental Science: Water conferences. I also usually attend SETAC and ACS conferences.

How do you spend your spare time?

Right now, I have a 6-month-old so she is the focus of my time outside of work. I do still prioritize finding time to run in the woods almost every day and recently have tried to embrace New England winters by starting to cross country ski.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I always loved science so it is hard to imagine a different profession. I toyed with idea of being a veterinarian based on my love of animals so perhaps I would reconsider that option. Also, I could envision doing something related to running which I am extremely passionate about, but not sure what that would actually be.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Give yourself time to get into a rhythm in lab and do not be discouraged if progress seems to be very slow (or non-existent). Also take the time to truly connect with your students and build a positive lab culture.

 

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New Advisory Board Members for Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

We are delighted to announce new members of the Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology Advisory Board.

David Weissbrodt
David is an Assistant professor at TU Delft, the Netherlands. His research interests are in microbial systems, process engineering, water, energy and health sciences.

Read his work in the journal

Tom Bond
Tom is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Surrey, UK. His research interests are drinking water disinfection byproducts, aquatic microplastics and sustainable treatment technologies.
Read his work in the journal

Jingyun Fang
Jingyun is a Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University, China. Her research focuses on the aqueous chemistry of radicals and high-valent manganese in both natural and engineering systems.

Read her work in RSC journals

Maria José Farré
Maria is a Research Scientist at ICRA, Spain. She researches water treatment, including disinfection byproducts and novel strategies for the holistic diagnosis of water samples.

Read her work in the journal

Jochen Hack
Jochen is Leader of the Engineering Ecology department and SEE-URBAN-WATER research group at TU Darmstadt, Germany. His research interests include urbanization and water resources, green infrastructure, nature-based solutions and water management.

Yong Sik Ok
Yong is a Professor at Korea University, South Korea, and Director, APRU Sustainable Waste Management. His research focuses on strategies for waste management, including conversion to energy and value-added products.

Read his work in RSC journals

Xin Wang
Xin is a Professor at Nankai University, China. His research focuses on electroactive bacteria in the environment, and their uses to recover energy from waste, sense biotoxicity and accelerate anaerobic bio-processes.

Defeng Xing
Defeng is a Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. His research interests are in genomics and proteomics of hydrogen-producing bacteria, metagenomic analysis of activated sludge and biofilms, and bioelectrochemical systems.

Read his work in RSC journals

Long Nghiem
Long is the Director of the Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater and a Professor in Environmental Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His work focuses on technologies for improving the provision of clean water, and wastewater purification.

Read his work in the journal

Michael Templeton
Michael is a Professor at Imperial College London, UK. His research focuses on addressing public health challenges related to water supply and sanitation.

Read his work in the journal

April Gu
April is a Professor at Cornell University, USA. Her research focuses on water quality and environmental health, including biotechnology for wastewater treatment, the impact of climate change on global phosphorus cycling, and next-generation toxicogenomics-based toxicity assessment technology to enable water quality monitoring.

Read her work in RSC journals

Peng Liang
Peng is a Professor at Tsinghua University, China. His research interests are in the development of novel wastewater treatment technologies to recover water, energy, nutrients and value-added products from wastewater.

Read his work in the journal

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New Associate Editor: Wenhai Chu

We are glad to announce that Wenhai Chu (Tongji University) has joined the Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology team as an Associate Editor.

Wenhai Chu is a Professor at College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tongji University, China. His research focuses on water disinfection and disinfection by-products (DBPs). He has made achievements in identification, transformation and collaborative control of DBPs as well as other emerging contaminants. His interests also include exploring the relationship between micro pollutants such as disinfection by-products and human health, and exploring the migration, transformation and source prevention and control of new pollutants from the perspective of whole urban water systems.

He has published more than 150 papers and edited two monographs. He also authorized 20 invention patents in China and the United States, his relevant patent technology has been applied in water quality monitoring institutions and large-scale water plants in the Yangtze River Delta and Taihu Lake Basin, China.

 

 

Read his work in the journal:

Ecotoxicological effects of disinfected wastewater effluents: a short review of in vivo toxicity bioassays on aquatic organisms
Xinmiao Luan, Xiaoyu Liu, Chao Fang, Wenhai Chu* and Zuxin Xu*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020,6, 2275-2286

Emerging investigator series: formation of brominated haloacetamides from trihalomethanes during zero-valent iron reduction and subsequent booster chlorination in drinking water distribution
Pengzhou Luo, FeiFei Wang, Stuart W. Krasner, Chao Fang, Shenghua Chenab  and  Wenhai Chu*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020,6, 1244-1255

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New Editorial Board Member: Takahiro Fujioka

 

 

 

We are pleased to announce that Takahiro Fujioka (Nagasaki University, Japan) is joining the Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology team as an Editorial Board member.

Takahiro is an Associate Professor at Nagasaki University, Japan. His research interests centre on advanced wastewater treatment technologies for potable water reuse. His research team is working on the development of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membrane technologies for enhancing the removal of pathogens and trace organic chemicals, and the development of online monitoring technologies for ensuring pathogen removal.

 

 

 

Read his work in the journal:

Validation of a novel direct-injection chemiluminescence-based method for N-nitrosamine analysis in advanced-treated recycled water, drinking water, and wastewater
Shannon L. Roback, Hitoshi Kodamatani, Takahiro Fujioka and Megan H. Plumlee*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020,6, 1106-1115

Integrity of reverse osmosis membrane for removing bacteria: new insight into bacterial passage
Takahiro Fujioka,* Anh T. Hoang, Tetsuro Ueyama and Long D. Nghiem
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2019,5, 239-245

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New Associate Editor: Zhiyong “Jason” Ren

We are delighted to announce that Jason Ren (Princeton University, USA) is joining the Associate Editor team for Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. Jason has been an Editorial Board member of the journal since 2018.

Jason is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, USA. His research focuses on water-energy nexus and resource recovery. His group analyzes reaction mechanisms and develops novel environmental processes, with the goal of expanding environmental engineering from pollution control to sustainable development of resource recovery systems.

Read his work in the journal:

Capacitive deionization and electrosorption: from desalination to ion management
Peng Liang, Zhiyong Jason Ren and Xia Huang*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2020,6, 241-242

Oily bilge water treatment using DC/AC powered electrocoagulation
Yanhong Bian, Zheng Ge, Carl Albano, Fernanda Leite Lobobd and Zhiyong Jason Ren*
Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2019,5, 1654-1660

 

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Latest HOT, Review and Open Access content from ESWRT

We are delighted to share with you a hand-picked selection of papers recently published in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (ESWRT).

HOT papers – as recommended by our Editors & Reviewers

Amyloid hybrid membranes for removal of clinical and nuclear radioactive wastewater
Bolisetty, N. M. Coray, A. Palika, G. A. Prenosil and R. Mezzenga

Emerging investigator series: bacterial opportunistic pathogen gene markers in municipal drinking water are associated with distribution system and household plumbing characteristic
Sarah Jane Haig et al

Livestock manure improved antibiotic resistance gene removal during co-treatment of domestic wastewater in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor
Esther Ge Lou, Moustapha Harb, Adam L. Smith and Lauren B. Stadler

Read more HOT papers at rsc.li/eswrt-hot

Reviews – timely and insightful overviews of water research and technologies

Microplastics removal in wastewater treatment plants: a critical review
Paul U. Iyare, Sabeha K. Ouki and Tom Bond

Biogenic nanomaterials for photocatalytic degradation and water disinfection: a review
Erick R. Bandala, Danijela Stanisic and Ljubica Tasic

Plasmonic metal nitrides for solar-driven water evaporation
Matthew J. Margeson and Mita Dasog

Read more Reviews at rsc.li/eswrt-reviews

Open Access – read for free!

Regularized regression analysis for the prediction of virus inactivation efficiency by chloramine disinfection
Syun-suke Kadoya, Osamu Nishimura, Hiroyuki Kato and Daisuke Sano

Ammonia removal from mixed dewatering liquors by three different deammonification technologies
Ochs, B. D. Martin, E. Germain, T. Stephenson, M. C. M. van Loosdrecht and A. Soares

Removal of contaminants from canal water using microwave synthesized zero valent iron nanoparticles
Shad, M.-F. A. Belinga-Desaunay-Nault, Sohail, N. Bashir and I. Lynch

Read more Open Access content at rsc.li/eswrt-oa

**************************************************

We hope you enjoy reading these papers!

Click here to return to the journal homepage

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IWIC 2020 – Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology Prize Winners

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology was delighted to sponsor prizes at the 6th International Water Industry Conference 2020, which took place both online and in Daegu, Korea from the 22nd – 23rd September 2020.

A 5-minute pitch contest was held, which was attended both virtually and in person. The winners of this contest were:

Syed Salman Ali Shah (Kyungpook National University), for their pitch: “Quorum quenching membrane bioreactors: Effects of solids retention time and stress on anti-fouling efficacy and microbial community”

Hyeona Park (Kyungpook National University), for their pitch: “Solar irradiation as a potential anti-biofouling approach for membrane bioreactors”

Eunjin Bae (Kyungpook National University) for their pitch: “Correlating mixed liquor characteristics at different solids retention times with membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors”

Jiwoo Lee (Inha University), for their pitch: “Biogas sparging and GAC fluidization in laboratory-scaled anaerobic fluidized bed membrane bioreactor treating synthetic wastewater to compare fouling, organic removal and energy consumption”

Woorim Lee (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology), for their pitch: “Elimination efficiency of halogenated methylparabens during ozonation and UV/H2O2 treatment of drinking waters”

Congratulations to all the winners!

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Emerging Investigator Series – Changseok Han

Dr. Changseok Han is currently an Assistant Professor in Department of Environmental Engineering at the INHA University, Korea. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Department of Environmental Engineering at Yeungnam University, Korea, in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Dr. Han achieved his Ph.D in Environmental Science and Engineering program, Department of Biomedical, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cincinnati, USA in 2014. He received the ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from 2014 to 2018 to work at The Office of Research and Development at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Cincinnati, OH, USA (Now, it is the Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response (CESER)). Dr. Han has published more than 70 scientific papers (H-index of 31) in high impact journals, including Environmental Science & Technology, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, Chemical Engineering Journal, Chemical Communications, Environmental Science: Nano, and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.

His research interests are (i) Water treatment using advanced oxidation processes, (ii) Environmental nanotechnologies, (iii) Environmental chemistry, (iv) Treatment/sensing of algal toxins in surface waters, (v) Green chemistry, (vi) Nutrient recovery using nanotechnology in surface water and wastewater, (vii) Fate and transport of nanomaterials from commercial products in the environment and (viii) Formation and release of microplastics from polymer-nanomaterial composites by environmental aging. Currently, he is focusing on the development of innovative technologies for monitoring and removal of microplastics in the environment.

Read his Emerging Investigator article “Emerging investigator series: Quaternary treatment with algae-assisted oxidation for antibiotics removal and refractory organics degradation in livestock wastewater effluent” and read more about him in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on Quaternary treatment with algae-assisted oxidation for antibiotics removal and refractory organics degradation in livestock wastewater effluent. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

I have been extensively studied “Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs) for Environmental Remediation” since I entered into “Research World” to pursue my Master degree. Even though my knowledge and experience of AOPs are still being updated and expanded, most of them were obtained during my Ph.D. However, most of my research focused on very fundamental and scientific aspects of environmental engineering and science so I was eager to use them for solving real environmental problems, in particular, regional issues.

For this paper, my expertise in AOPs was used to take care of regional environmental issues of the presence of antibiotics in surface waterbodies. As known, an ample amount of antibiotics is commonly used to control livestock diseases but treated livestock wastewater by conventional wastewater treatment processes still contains significant amounts of antibiotics. Therefore, antibiotics in the treated wastewater directly enter into surface water, which can cause not only adverse effects on the health of humans, animals and ecosystems but also, an explosion of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. To discharge safe treated wastewater to surface waterbodies, further treatment, known as “Quaternary treatment”, is extensively required. An AOP is successfully used as the combination of algal treatment and subsequent oxidation for the improvement of antibiotics removal and refractory organics degradation in the effluent of livestock wastewater treatment processes. I am very excited to practically start applying AOPs to solve new real environmental problems in Korea as well as in the world.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

Currently, we are facing “Microplastics problems” over the world even though their toxicity is still controversial. At the moment, I am interested in developing reliable technologies for decomposing microplastics in the environment. I believe that AOPs could be promising technologies to degrade them in the environment.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The investigation of degradation mechanism of antibiotics by the combination of algal treatment with AOPs and subsequent oxidation will be important but very challenging. Due to the presence of many antibiotics with different trace levels in livestock wastewater effluents, not all reaction intermediates produced during the treatment could effectively identified. Much effort to understand the degradation mechanisms and pathways must be put for the development of reliable treatment technologies to protect the health of humans, animals and the ecosystem.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

Among AOPs, I am extensively developing highly effective catalysts to decompose water contaminants of emerging concern in wastewater and sources of drinking water supplies. Therefore, their practical applicability in treatments processes is the most challenging since additional treatment processes may be required. Also, for practical, the scalability of AOPs and the mass production of catalysts at industrial level are significant challenging at all times.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

Hopefully, I would like to attend ACS meetings when we are free from COVID-19.

How do you spend your spare time?

I usually spend my spare time with my family. I also like listening to music and playing soccer.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

I might be a soccer player. I was a soccer-crazy boy when I was a child.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Keep exploring black boxes, be patient and be yourself.

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