Fate of COVID-19 Occurrences in Wastewater Systems: Emerging Detection and Treatment Technologies—A Review

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is currently posing a significant threat to the world’s public health and social-economic growth. Despite the rigorous international lockdown and quarantine efforts, the rate of COVID-19 infectious cases remains exceptionally high. Notwithstanding, the end route of COVID-19, together with emerging contaminants’ (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, nanoplastics, pesticide, etc.) occurrence in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), poses a great challenge in wastewater settings. Therefore, this paper seeks to review an inter-disciplinary and technological approach as a roadmap for the water and wastewater settings to help fight COVID-19 and future waves of pandemics. This study explored wastewater–based epidemiology (WBE) potential for detecting SARS-CoV-2 and its metabolites in wastewater settings. Furthermore, the prospects of integrating innovative and robust technologies such as magnetic nanotechnology, advanced oxidation process, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors into the WWTPs to augment the risk of COVID-19’s environmental impacts and improve water quality are discussed. In terms of the diagnostics of COVID-19, potential biosensors such as sample–answer chip-, paper- and nanomaterials-based biosensors are highlighted. In conclusion, sewage treatment systems, together with magnetic biosensor diagnostics and WBE, could be a possible way to keep a surveillance on the outbreak of COVID-19 in communities around the globe, thereby identifying hotspots and curbing the diagnostic costs of testing. Photocatalysis prospects are high to inactivate coronavirus, and therefore a focus on safe nanotechnology and bioengineering should be encouraged.

COVID-19 epidemiologic surveillance using wastewater

“…The main transmission pathway of SARS-CoV-2 includes person-to-person contact and inhalation of droplets and aerosols (Dinnon et al 2020 ; Li et al 2020 ). Infected persons shed both viable SARS-CoV-2 and viral RNA through bodily excretion such as sputum, saliva, urine and feces (Arnaud 2020 ; Daughton 2020 ; Foladori et al 2020 ; Kitajima et al 2020 ; Kweinor Tetteh et al 2020 ; Peccia et al 2020 ; Randazzo et al 2020 ). Accordingly, SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in urine, anal and rectal swabs and human feces (Ahmed et al 2020 ; Hart and Halden 2020 ; Jones et al 2020 ; Medema et al 2020 ; Peccia et al 2020 ).…”

“…1 , Kitajima et al 2020 ). As a consequence, SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in wastewater worldwide (Adelodun et al 2020 ; Al Huraimel et al 2020 ; Bivins et al 2020 ; Daughton 2020 ; Foladori et al 2020 ; Hart and Halden 2020 ; Kweinor Tetteh et al 2020 ; Mallapaty, 2020 ; Peccia et al 2020 ; Randazzo et al 2020 ).

Fig.

…”

Prospects of Synthesized Magnetic TiO2-Based Membranes for Wastewater Treatment: A Review

“…In a growing economy, clean and drinkable water, free from toxic chemicals, carcinogenic substances and harmful microorganisms are essential for human health and sustainability [1,2]. However, the fast population growth associated with urbanization, irrigated agriculture and industrialization have driven the environmental concern of wastewater and demand for fresh water globally [3,4].…”

“…In recent years, advances in nanoengineering and nanotechnology to develop nanosorbents, nanocatalysts, bioactive nanoparticles, and filtration systems coupled with nanoparticles have been seen to be very promising in wastewater treatment settings [1,9,[11][12][13][14][15].…”

Adsorption and Photocatalytic Mineralization of Bromophenol Blue Dye with TiO2 Modified with Clinoptilolite/Activated Carbon

“…South Africa, like many African countries, continues to suffer from the fresh water supply, which is declining in quality because of an increase in the pollution index and impeding of river catchments being caused by urbanization, deforestation, industrial and agricultural activities [4][5][6]. Furthermore, dyes and pigments produced by various industries such as cosmetics, textile, paper, leather, pharmaceutical, nutrition, and plastics are the foremost common contaminants in wastewater [7]. Distinctively, with a yearly estimation of over 70,000 tons of dyes produced, during the dyeing processes, 15% are being misapplied [8,9].…”