Urban and Industrial Wastewater Disinfection and Decontamination by Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs): Current Issues and Future Trends

Resumen

Without any doubt, the 21st century has kick-started a great evolution in all aspects of our everyday life. The tremendous advances in medicine, production of goods (such as chemicals, plastics), etc. have all contributed to an increase in the standards and the comforts of the modern society. However, combined with the growing demands in water due to the uneven population increase and product manufacturing needs, the rapid change has impacted the wastewater flows and composition of both urban and industrial origin. Environmental engineers have been facing a constantly changing landscape, where new problems seem to emerge in an alarming, “whack-a-mole”-like situation. From antibiotic resistance to microplastics, from the ever-growing list of contaminants of emerging concern to their transformation products, the need for proper, advanced wastewater treatment methods are dominating environmental engineering research to alleviate the shift of urgent needs of the water sector. Nonetheless, the multidisciplinary nature of this huge environmental problem spans a number of research topics, namely environmental, chemical and process engineering, water and sanitary engineering, environmental science, chemistry, biology and related disciplines, material science, toxicology, risk assessment, economy, social sciences, ecology and environmental policy, among others. Therefore, in order to develop efficient solution tools to tackle the urban and industrial wastewater challenges, it is of utmost importance to promote the knowledge exchange between all expertise fields involved, thus promoting a scientific, technological, and societal cooperation for a more sustainable environment and society.