Engineered Nanomaterials for Emerging Contaminant Removal from Wastewater

Abstract

Emerging contaminants (ECs), mainly organic compounds, are pollutants of growing concern. Several important ones are pharmaceuticals and personal care products, wood preservatives, hormones, plasticizers, pesticides, laundry detergents, surfactants, disinfectants, food additives, and flame retardants among other organic compounds recently found in natural wastewater stream that are generated by both human and also industrial activities. Most of ECs lacks of standard regulations; nevertheless, they could drive to lethal effects on aquatic life but also in human even at small concentrations. The conventional water treatment plants are not able to efficiently remove or even degrade these pollutants, so another effective and expensive tertiary treatment method is required. It is known that adsorption is a very useful method to remove different kinds of contaminants being then a promising method for the removal of EC due to its simplicity on operating design, low initial cost for implementation, and high efficiency. The current review resumes the technological approaches regarding adsorption process used for the treatment of ECs.