Water Research最新文献

{"title":"An Innovative Application of Osmotic Microbial Fuel Cell (OsMFC) for Enhanced Activated Sludge Thickening and Stabilization with Bioelectricity Generation","authors":"Wenchao Xue, Aye Pyae Pyae Aung, Simon Guerrero-Cruz, Kang Xiao, Yifan He, Anil Kumar Anal, Allan Sriratana Tabucanon","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123199","url":null,"abstract":"Waste activated sludge (WAS) management presents significant challenges due to its complex composition and the high cost associated with conventional treatment methods. This study investigates the potential of osmotic microbial fuel cell (OsMFC) technology for WAS thickening, stabilization, and bioelectricity generation. Compared to conventional microbial fuel cells (MFCs), OsMFCs offer several advantages, including enhanced sludge thickening performance, improved organic matter degradation efficiency, and increased bioelectricity generation. The OsMFC achieved substantial sludge thickening, with the total suspended solids (TSS) increasing from 1,753, 11,650, and 3,565 mg/L in the OsMFC to 28,550, 28,500, and 20,340 mg/L, respectively, over three consecutive operating cycles with a sludge retention time of 16 days. The total chemical oxygen demand (tCOD) mass reduction in the OsMFC averaged 90.7%, outperforming the MFC, which achieved 61.3%. This indicates the superior performance of the OsMFC in organic sludge digestion. Further supporting this, the VSS/TSS ratio of treated WAS was effectively reduced from 0.64 to 0.37, with an average VSS mass reduction of 65.0% obtained in the OsMFC. Additionally, OsMFC treatment modified the physicochemical properties of the WAS, resulting in smaller floc particle size, and reduced zeta potential, potentially enhancing sludge dewaterability. Furthermore, OsMFC exhibited superior bioelectricity generation compared to MFC, with maximum power densities averaging 1,704.6 mW/m³, outperforming that of 762.3 mW/m³ observed in comparing MFC. Despite its promising potential, further research is needed to optimize OsMFC operation and fully understand its mechanisms. Overall, this study highlights the potential of OsMFC technology for sustainable and efficient management of WAS within the circular economy framework.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143031157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying, predicting, and mitigating nitrous oxide emissions in a full-scale partial nitritation/anammox reactor treating reject water.","authors":"Xavier Flores-Alsina, Anna Katrine Vangsgaard, Nerea Uri Carreno, Per H. Nielsen, Krist V. Gernaey","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123200","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, a set of mathematical tools are developed and assembled to quantify, predict and virtually assess N₂O emission migration strategies in partial nitritation (PN) / anammox (ANX) granular based reactors. The proposed approach is constructed upon a set of data pre-treatment methods, process simulation models, control tools (and algorithms) and key performance indicators to analyze, reproduce, and forecast the behavior of multiple operational variables within aerobic granular sludge systems. All these elements are tested on two full-scale data sets (#D1, #D2) collected over a period of four months (Sept-Dec 2023). Results show that data pretreatment is essential for noise reduction, filling data gaps, and ensuring smooth process simulations. The model accurately predicts (normalized RMSE< 1) multiple N oxidation states (NH_x, NO₂^-, NO₃^-, N₂O) and dissolved oxygen (DO), demonstrating its capability to describe bacterial behavior within the studied system. Special emphasis is placed on weak acid-base chemistry where pH is reliably reproduced, and it can be used for control purposes. Both biological and physico-chemical aspects are predicted at different time scales (months, days, minutes). While nitritation mainly occurred in the bulk, biofilm distribution showed inactive inner granule parts and increasing biomass (mostly ANX) towards the surface, with distinct organic concentrations. Gradients for multiple soluble compounds could also be reflected. The model revealed that the system was suffering from low ANX activity leading to NO₂^- accumulation. This in combination with low DO levels, resulted in nitrifier denitrification (ND) as the main identified N₂O production pathway and an unusually high emission factor (EF) as a result. The validation data set also yielded satisfactory results (normalized RMSE< 1). The scenario analysis revealed that modification of the aeration patterns and operational volatile suspended solids (VSS) concentration could improve the ANX activity and lead to N₂O emission rates that are in line with what is normally expected from similar systems. The study includes a discussion on transitioning from process models to digital shadows/ twins for real-time process monitoring. Additionally, it emphasizes the necessity of evaluating reject water technologies from a plant-wide perspective.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143031158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synergistic effects of quaternary ammonium compounds and antibiotics on the evolution of antibiotic resistance","authors":"Peiliang Wang, Hanqing Wang, Shengchun Qi, Wei Wang, Huijie Lu","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123206","url":null,"abstract":"The usage of quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) as disinfectants has surged dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic and thereafter. QACs can promote antimicrobial resistance, but the combined effects of QACs and antibiotics in driving resistance evolution were yet revealed. This study aimed to evaluate antibiotic resistance of wastewater microorganisms under coexposure to typical antibiotics and the most widely used QAC, dodecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (DDBAC). DDBAC exhibited synergistic effects with multiple antibiotics (ampicillin, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin, kanamycin, polymyxin B) in enhancing activated sludge resistance by 1.53-6.67 folds, compared with antibiotics exposure alone. DDBAC-ampicillin coexposure enriched multidrug and aminoglycoside ARGs with relatively high horizontal gene transfer potential. The synergistic mechanism was further explored using sludge-isolated pathogenic <em>E. coli</em>. DDBAC at 1-10 mg/L alone did not induce notable resistance, but synergized with ampicillin on enhancing resistance by 6.56-22.90 folds. Based on mutation analysis and transcriptomics, DDBAC-enhanced resistance evolution was attributable to efflux pump upregulation, target modification, and inhibition of ATP synthesis (a less reported mechanism). Five DDBAC-induced, resistance-conferring mutant genes were highly enriched in globally collected <em>E. coli</em> strains from wastewater outflow (n=537) than soil/sediments (n=714, p&lt;0.05). Considering the strong adsorption and persistence of QACs, their coexistence with antibiotics poses elevated antimicrobial resistance risks, particularly in wastewater treatment systems with long solid retention time and sewage sludge applied farmland.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143035161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biological VFAs production from proteinaceous wastewater varied with protein type: the role of protein exposed enzyme cleavage sites and hydrolysates biotransformation capacity","authors":"Jing Zhou, Dapeng Li, Xu Duan, Xuemeng Zhang, Chuang Chen, Yinguang Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123201","url":null,"abstract":"Proteinaceous wastewater contains various proteins, which can be valorized to biobased volatile fatty acids (VFAs), important substrates for the synthesis of biodegradable plastics, biodiesel, bioelectricity, etc, but the influence of protein type on VFAs has never been documented. It was found that among the five proteinaceous wastewater proteins investigated, ovalbumin and casein produced the most and the least VFAs, respectively. The mechanism investigation shows that proteins with higher VFAs production had higher functional microorganism abundance and key enzyme activity in the reaction system due to their more enzyme cleavage sites and looser secondary structure, which made it easier for more hydrolase to bind, causing more protein hydrolysis. Also, metaproteomics and amino acid composition analyses revealed that the hydrolysates of proteins with higher VFAs had more isoleucine and proline, which were needed for the synthesis of recognizing and binding proteins (oligopeptide permease subunit A (OppA) and dipeptide permease (Dpp)) of acidogens and beneficial for transporters (Dpp subunit F/Opp subunit F), more hydrolysates (amino acids) were therefore transported into the cell. Further investigation indicates that more electron acceptor and electron donor paired amino acids were in the hydrolysates, facilitating the Stickland reaction and promoting intracellular amino acids bio-transformation to VFAs.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143035037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sources and risk factors for nitrate, pathogens, and fecal contamination of private wells in rural southwestern Wisconsin, USA","authors":"Joel Stokdyk, Aaron Firnstahl, Kenneth Bradbury, Maureen Muldoon, Burney Kieke, Mark A. Borchardt","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123202","url":null,"abstract":"Household well water can be degraded by contaminants from the land's surface, but private well owners lack means to protect the source water from neighboring disturbances. Rural residents of southwestern Wisconsin, USA, rely on private well water, and the combination of land use and fractured carbonate bedrock makes groundwater vulnerable to contamination. To identify the extent, sources, and risk factors of private well contamination, randomly selected wells sampled during two-day periods in fall (n = 301) and spring (n = 529) were analyzed for nitrate and indicator bacteria, and a subset (n = 138) was sampled across four seasonal events for analysis of pathogens and microbial source tracking markers by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Risk factors representing land use, hydrology, geology, and well construction were analyzed for associations with contamination in multivariable models. The importance of risk factors varied by contaminant, illustrating the multifaceted nature of rural groundwater quality. Nitrate contamination was associated with agricultural land use, and wells with casings that extended below a shale aquitard accessed less contaminated water than those drawing water from above it. Human fecal microbes were detected in 64 wells (46%), and rainfall was the key risk factor for contamination, indicating that wastewater from septic systems was available to contaminate wells when transport conditions were favorable. Manure microbes from cattle/ruminants and pigs were detected in 33 and 13 wells, respectively, and concentrations increased with the hectarage of cultivated land near wells. Pathogen genes for viruses, bacteria, and protozoa were detected in 66 wells (48%), including more detections of zoonotic than human-specific pathogens, and human <em>Bacteroides</em>, an indicator of wastewater, was an equivocal predictor of pathogen presence in private wells. Characterizing important elements of the setting, like geology, and identifying sources and risk factors for contaminants can inform landscape-level policies to protect groundwater quality.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143031156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How far do we still need to go with antibiotics in aquatic environments? Antibiotic occurrence, chemical-free or chemical-limited strategies, key challenges, and future perspectives","authors":"Yijia Lu, Xiaoqin Zhou, Ye Zheng, Haolin Yang, Wenbin Cao","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123179","url":null,"abstract":"Global consumption and progressive migration of antibiotics through aquatic systems have contributed to their rapid spread, posing significant threats to environmental and human health, and antibiotics have been recognized as emerging pollutants. Hence, extensive approaches have been proposed for antibiotic treatment in water, yielding great achievements. This review systematically summarized current knowledge from contamination characteristics to treatment strategies. First, the prevalence and characteristics of antibiotics in aquatic environments were discussed and chemical-free or chemical-limited strategies were subsequently reviewed, i.e. adsorption, membrane separation, electrochemistry, and photocatalysis. Thereafter, gaps were identified between conditions for treatment in aquatic environments and lab-scale experiments, emphasizing that simulated antibiotic concentrations in laboratory studies were often hundreds of times higher than those found in natural settings and lack consideration of complex water matrices. Additionally, concerns regarding health risks arose due to unexpectedly low mineralization rates. For future advancements, hybrid or combined technologies were recommended, along with the integration of smart tools such as machine learning for deeper insights into degradation processes and cross-risk assessments. This review offers valuable guidance for establishing effective strategies to control antibiotics in aquatic environments.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143019993","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unlocking phosphorus recovery from microalgae biomass: the enhanced transformation and release of phosphorus species","authors":"Liling Zhou, Jiabin Chen, Yajie Qian, Yalei Zhang, Egshiglen Batjargal, Baigal-Amar Tuulaikhuu, Xuefei Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123196","url":null,"abstract":"The intertwined challenges of harmful algae blooms and the phosphorus (P) resource crisis have necessitated the recovery of P from algae biomass. For the first time, a co-pyrolysis strategy that incorporates NaHCO₃ into the pyrolysis process of chlorella to efficiently recover P in the form of vivianite was proposed. The findings demonstrated that the addition of 20 wt% NaHCO₃ during pyrolysis significantly enhanced P extraction from biochar, increasing the extraction efficiency from 2.8% to 94.37%. A complementary array of techniques including chemical extraction, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), as well as two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS), was employed to elucidate the transformation of hard-to-extract P in chlorella to easy-to-extract P during pyrolysis. It was observed that organophosphorus (OP), pyrophosphate (pyro-P), and polyphosphates (poly-P) reacted with NaHCO₃ at 700°C, undergoing depolymerization and hydrolysis, which led to the formation of orthophosphate (ortho-P) species (e.g., Na₃PO₄, NaCa(PO₄)₃, (Fe₂(PO₄)₃), accounting for 98.88% of the P species in biochar product. High-purity vivianite (∼98.13%) was subsequently obtained without the need for impurity removal, as indicated by chemical equilibrium simulations, due to the minimal ions and dissolved organic matter (DOM) present in the leaching solution, a consequence of the simple and pure structure of microalgae biomass. The estimated economic profit of this strategy is $1.51 per kilogram of dry chlorella. Additionally, the resulting biochar exhibited a high surface area (518.40 m²/g) and a well-developed pore structure, make it a promising material for adsorption and catalytic applications. This study provides a novel perspective for addressing the P crisis while effectively mitigating harmful algal blooms.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143027100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transport model-based method for estimating micropollutant removal efficiency in riverbank filtration","authors":"Norbert Erdélyi, Dóra Gere, Eszter Fekete, Gábor Nyiri, Attila Engloner, Andrea Tóth, Tamás Madarász, Péter Szűcs, Zsuzsanna Ágnes Nagy-Kovács, Tamás Pándics, Márta Vargha","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123194","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123194","url":null,"abstract":"Riverbank filtration is a cost-effective and efficient method for drinking water production, using the natural filtration capacity of the river gravelbed. Removal efficiency for organic micropollutants (OMP) in field studies is generally calculated by comparing the concentrations measured in surface water and in the wells either on the same day or with a shift of fixed time interval, neither of which can account for the variability of surface water quality and travel time in the aquifer. The present study proposes a novel method based on travel time distribution determined by a numerical transport model with a hypothesis that it will provide more reliable estimate for OMP removal. The model was developed for two production sites of Budapest Waterworks, Hungary on Danube River. River water and riverbank filtered well water were sampled regularly for one year (158 samples each) and analysed for 41 OMPs (pesticides, pharmaceutical residues and industrial pollutants). Nineteen pollutants were detected in &gt;50% of the well water samples. Median removal rates were 4-97%, while the concentration of five compounds increased in some wells. Removal rates of telmisartan, tramadol, sulfamethoxazole, 4-methyl-benzotriazole, 5-methyl-benzotriazole and desethyl-terbuthylazine correlated negatively to redox potential (|r|=0.456-0.805). Median travel time increased after high flow events resulting in reduced removal of telmisartan, tramadol, 4-methyl-benzotriazole and desethyl-terbuthylazine (|r|= 0.435-0.661). Removal of diatrizoate, iopamidol, tramadol and benzotriazole increased with distance from the shore (148 vs 395 m) by 25%, 28%, 8%, 16%, respectively. Background groundwater contamination increased pesticide concentration in the wells located in agricultural areas 1.5-5-fold compared to river water. The model-based method gave more consistent results compared to traditional calculations for OMP removal efficiency during the sampling campaign and allowed for estimating the impact of various environmental factors.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143020033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stable and Affordable Phosphonates Removal by Iron Scrap Packed-bed Anode Electrocoagulation under Realistic Conditions: Mechanism and Passivation Mitigation over Long-term Operation","authors":"Haiyang Hu, Jiayu Luo, Linyu He, Yang Lei","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123195","url":null,"abstract":"Iron electrocoagulation (Fe-EC) exhibits broad application in water remediation towards various pollutants, including emerging organic phosphorus compounds (i.e., phosphonates). However, it suffers relatively high costs due to the frequent replacement of iron anode <span><span>consumables</span><svg aria-label=\"Opens in new window\" focusable=\"false\" height=\"20\" viewbox=\"0 0 8 8\"><path d=\"M1.12949 2.1072V1H7V6.85795H5.89111V2.90281L0.784057 8L0 7.21635L5.11902 2.1072H1.12949Z\"></path></svg></span>, particularly electrode fouling. Here we report an iron scrap packed-bed (ISPB) anode electrocoagulation (EC) system for efficiently removing phosphonate. In Na₂SO₄, NaCl and NaHCO₃ electrolytes, the ISPB-EC system effectively removed 39-99% of nitrilotrimethylene triphosphonic acid (NTMP) with 0.1 mM total soluble phosphorus (TSP) concentration at a coulombic dosage of 144 C/L. In contrast, only 2-23% NTMP was eliminated with conventional Fe-EC under identical conditions. We also found the partial conversion of NTMP to inorganic phosphate, primarily attributed to the formation of HO· and Fe(IV)O²⁺ during the oxidation of Fe²⁺ in the ISPB-EC system. We further validated the adaptability and robust efficacy of ISPB-EC in realistic conditions, including actual cooling water (ACW). Our cost calculation suggests that the new system achieves a lower cost (€0.0067/m³) in treating NTMP-loaded ACW than the traditional Fe-EC system (€0.009/m³). Moreover, we addressed the scaling issue in the newly developed ISPB-EC system. We did not notice apparent cathode scaling over short-term batch tests. However, orange-red scales gradually formed on the cathode in the continuous flow experiment, accompanied by an increased cell voltage. To this end, we proposed and validated the strategy of periodic polarity reversal in alleviating the cathode scaling. Notably, the voltage can be reduced to the initial level by refilling the iron scrap after eliminating cathode fouling through polarity reversal, realizing the long-term stable operation of the ISPB-EC system over 336 hours. Our work established an affordable, highly efficient electrocoagulation system using cheap waste iron scrap electrodes to treat phosphonates-contained wastewater.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"125 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143020235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attention-based Deep learning Models for Predicting Anomalous Shock of Wastewater Treatment Plants","authors":"Yituo Zhang, Jihong Wang, Chaolin Li, Hengpan Duan, Wenhui Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.watres.2025.123192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2025.123192","url":null,"abstract":"Quickly grasping the time-consuming water quality indicators (WQIs) such as total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) of influent is an essential prerequisite for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to prompt respond to sudden shock loads. Soft detection methods based on machine learning models, especially deep learning models, perform well in predicting the normal fluctuations of these time-consuming WQIs but hardly predict their sudden fluctuations mainly due to the lack of extreme fluctuation data for model training. This work employs attention mechanisms to aid deep learning models in learning patterns of anomalous water quality. The lack of interpretability has always hindered deep learning models from optimizing for different application scenarios. Therefore, the local and global sensitivity analyses are performed based on the best-performing attention-based deep learning and ordinary machine learning models, respectively, allowing for reliable feature importance quantification with a small computational burden. In the case study, three types of attention-based deep learning models were developed, including attention-based multilayer perceptron (A-MLP), Transformer composed of stacked A-MLP encoder and A-MLP decoder, and feature-temporal attention-based long short-term memory (FTA-LSTM) neural network with encoder-decoder architecture. These developed attention-based deep learning models consistently outperform the corresponding baseline models in predicting the testing set of TN, TP, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) time series and the anomalous values therein, clearly demonstrating the positive effect of the integrated attention mechanism. Among them, the prediction performance of FTA-LSTM outperforms A-MLP and Transformer (2.01-38.48% higher R², 0-85.14% higher F1-score, 0-62.57% higher F2-score). Predicting anomalous water quality using attention-based deep learning models is a novel attempt that drives the WWTPs’ operation towards being safer, cleaner, and more cost-efficient.","PeriodicalId":443,"journal":{"name":"Water Research","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":12.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143020232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}