An economic and environmentally friendly approach of overcoming the problem of fossil CO 2 emissions would be to reuse it through fixation into biomass. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), which is the basis for the formation of complex sugars by green plants and microalgae through photosynthesis, has been shown to significantly increase the growth rates of certain microalgal species. Microalgae possess a greater capacity to fix CO 2 compared to C 4 plants. Selection of appropriate microalgal strains is based on the CO 2 fixation and tolerance capability together with lipid potential, both of which are a function of biomass productivity. Microalgae can be propagated in open raceway ponds or closed photobioreactors. Biological CO 2 fixation also depends on the tolerance of selected strains to high temperatures and the amount of CO 2 present in flue gas, together with SO x and NO x . Potential uses of microalgal biomass after sequestration could include biodiesel production, fodder for livestock, production of colorants and vitamins. This review summarizes commonly employed microalgal species as well as the physiological pathway involved in the biochemistry of CO 2 fixation. It also presents an outlook on microalgal propagation systems for CO 2 sequestration as well as a summary on the life cycle analysis of the process.

Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97 mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of different activities that take place during the production process, as well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water usage.

This study was aimed at using the Central Composite Design (CCD) and Box-Behnken Design (BBD) to compare the efficiency and to elucidate the main interacting parameters in the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, namely: Organic Loading Rate (OLR), Hydraulic Retention Times (HRT) and pH at a constant temperature of 35°C. Optimum HRT (15 h), OLR (3.5 kg.m-3 .d-1) and pH (7) resulted in biogas production of 5,800 mL/d and COD removal of 80.8%. BBD produced a higher desirability efficiency of 94% as compared to the CCD which was 92%. The regression quadratic models developed with high R 2 values of 0.961 and 0.978 for both CCD and BBD, respectively, demonstrated that the interaction models could be used to pilot the design space. BBD model developed was more reliable with a higher prediction of biogas production (5,955.4 ± 225.3 mL/d) and COD removal (81.5 ± 1.014%), much close to the experimental results at a 95% confidence level. CCD model predictions was greater in terms of COD removal (82.6 ± 1.06% > 80.8%) and biogas production (4,636.31 mL/d ± 439.81 < 5,800 mL/d) which was less than the experimental results. Therefore, RSM can be adapted for optimizing various wastewater treatment processes.

Antibiotics and other emerging contaminants are removed by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to a certain extent. However, the removal mechanism is not well understood due to the fact that the majority of the WWTPs only focus on the occurrence of these contaminants in the influents and effluents and sometimes in the sludge. Understanding the removal pathway is therefore difficult. This study is aimed at investigating the removal pathways of selected veterinary antibiotics from wastewater. A laboratory scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was employed to treat synthetic wastewater to explore the removal efficiencies of five veterinary antibiotics with an initial concentration of 50 µg/L. In a like manner, batch reactors were further used to evaluate the removal routes of the antibiotics. The UASB reactor was operated continuously under mesophilic conditions to evaluate its performance with regards to the removal of organics and at the same time monitor biogas production. Organic loading rate (OLR) was varied from 8 to 9.2 kg.COD.m -3 .d -1 while keeping the hydraulic retention time (HRT) constant at 12 h. A COD removal efficiency higher than 75% was achieved at an OLR of 9 kg.COD.m -3 .d -1 , with a HRT of 12 hours. About 80% of the antibiotics were removed during the continuous processes, however, a distinctive pattern of removal was not observed. The kinetic studies using batch reactors showed that the removal route for the antibiotics was majorly adsorption to the sludge. Biodegradation occurred alongside adsorption but to a lesser degree. The kinetic data showed that the antibiotics followed a first order kinetic model with half-lives that ranged from 6 to 77 days.

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Wastewater treatment will always pose problems if there are no new alternative technologies in place to replace the currently available technologies. More recently, it has been estimated that developing countries will run out of water by 2050. This is a course for concern not only to the communities but also a challenge to the scientist to find new ways of wastewater recycling. Water losses can be avoided through implementation of easy and inexpensive technologies for wastewater treatment. Environmental concerns over insufficiently performing septic systems and high expenses in the construction of sewer systems as well as their operations with centralized water purification systems have spurred investigation into the appropriateness of the use of wetland technology for wastewater treatment. Constructed wetland efficiency and potential application in wastewater treatment has been reported decades ago. However, the logistics and research for their commercial applications in wastewater treatment has not been documented in details. Research has shown that wetland systems can achieve high treatment efficiencies with regards to both organic and inorganic nutrients as well as pathogen removal if properly managed and efficiently utilized. This can have a profound effect in the management and conservation of our scarce and yet depleting water resources.

Enteric viruses are common waterborne pathogens found in environmental water bodies contaminated with either raw or partially treated sewage discharge. Examples of these viruses include adenovirus, rotavirus, noroviruses, and other caliciviruses and enteroviruses like coxsackievirus and polioviruses. They have been linked with gastroenteritis, while some enteric viruses have also been implicated in more severe infections such as encephalitis, meningitis, hepatitis (hepatitis A and E viruses), cancer (polyomavirus), and myocarditis (enteroviruses). Therefore, this review presents information on the occurrence of enteric viruses of public health importance, diseases associated with human exposure to enteric viruses, assessment of their presence in contaminated water, and their removal in water and wastewater sources. In order to prevent illnesses associated with human exposure to viral contaminated water, we suggest the regular viral monitoring of treated wastewater before discharging it into the environment. Furthermore, we highlight the need for more research to focus on the development of more holistic disinfection methods that will inactivate waterborne viruses in municipal wastewater discharges, as this is highly needed to curtail the public health effects of human exposure to contaminated water. Moreover, such a method must be devoid of disinfection by-products that have mutagenic and carcinogenic potential.