Water Pollution Monitoring Research Articles

Reusable System for Phenol Detection in an Aqueous Medium Based on Nanodiamonds and Extracellular Oxidase from Basidiomycete Neonothopanus nambi.

A reusable system for phenol determination in an aqueous medium was obtained by adsorption of extracellular oxidase from fungus Neonothopanus nambi onto modified nanodiamonds (MND) synthesized by detonation. It was found that the enzyme strongly binds to MND and exhibits catalytic activity in the reaction of co-oxidation of phenol with 4-aminoantipyrine without the addition of hydrogen peroxide. In the presence of the MND-oxidase complex, a significantly (by an order of magnitude) higher yield of the reaction product is recorded as compared to the yield in the presence of a free enzyme; the mechanism of the revealed effect is discussed. Model experiments have demonstrated the multiple use of the MND-oxidase complex for testing phenol in aqueous samples. The immobilized enzyme exhibits functional activity during long-term (2 months) storage of the MND-oxidase complex at 4°C. The data obtained create the prerequisites for using the created system in environmental monitoring of water pollution with phenol.

Measurement performance quality of services (QoS) to optimizing on wireless sensor network topology for water pollution monitoring system

The problem of the need for clean water is very important. The several diseases triggered by poor water quality reach more than 200 cases each year and cause more than 5 million deaths worldwide. Thus, monitoring water quality becomes important for the availability of safe and clean water. Wireless sensor networks have become a promising alternative to adopted for supplementing the conventional monitoring process. This network allows measurements from the remote location in real-time and with little human intervention. Wireless sensor network topology performance will support the stability of real-time data transmission. The difference in network topology between each router-node station affects the disruption of data distribution. Quality of Services (QoS) measurement is based on wireless sensor connectivity in transmit sensor data from several parameters, including temperature, total dissolved solids, and pH in the node station to the website service. The delay in transmitting data affects the performance of the measurement of the water pollution monitoring system.

Evaluation of efficiency and environmental safety of leaching metals from ore: ways of development and prospects

The object of research is traditional mining technologies and technical means in combination with underground block leaching (UBL) of metals from rock ores with their preliminary crushing with explosives in installations mounted in mine workings. One of the most problematic areas is the difficulty of achieving a given crushing quality, as well as the required height of ore storage in the chamber for the subsequent leaching of metals and a loosening factor, taking into account the control of the energy of explosive destruction of rock ores. The study used: – data from literary sources and patent documentation in the field of technologies and technical means for UBL of metals from ores in energy disturbed massifs, substantiation of technological parameters of operational blocks; – laboratory and production experiments; – physical modeling of metal extraction from ores from the average linear size of a piece of blasted ore. Analytical studies, comparative analysis of theoretical and practical results using standard and new methods were carried out with the participation of the authors. It was found that the most intensive infiltration leaching occurs when the size class of ore lumps is –100+0 mm. Metals are extracted from fractions –200+100 mm less intensively and for a longer time. To neutralize and flush the spent ore mass, it is recommended to treat it with lime solution and mine water through wells for supplying leaching solutions (irrigation system). The protection of the hydrogeological environment is carried out by silting the bottom of the chamber for collecting productive solutions with clay solution and by constant monitoring of mine water pollution in the zone of UBL influence. On the basis of the positive results obtained from the study and implementation of technologies for UBL of metals from rock ores during the development of block 5–86, in accordance with the recommendations issued, the same approach was used for blocks 5–84–86 and 5–88–90, as well as industrial experimental block 1–75–79. Due to the involvement in the production of substandard ores, the raw material base for the extraction of metals, at the operating mines, can be increased by 1.4–1.6 times. The research results can be used in underground mining of ore deposits of complex structure in Ukraine, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Kazakhstan and other developed mining countries of the world.

Biosensor Chip for Monitoring of Water Pollution as Novel Test Tool in Public Health: Proof of Principle

Humans are generally exposed to a variety of pollutions present in the air they breathe, the food they eat or in the water they drink. Some of the most dangerous pollutions are metals and heavy metals. These are naturally occurring substances which are harmless when present in the environment at low levels. However, due to many pollutants such as industry processes or war activities, the heavy metal concentration can exceed the limit of tolerance and become very toxic for the natural environment and living organisms in it, including humans. Unlike organic pollutants, the heavy metals (as ions and as particulate matter) once introduced into the environment cannot be biodegraded and remain there indefinitely. By rainfall these pollutants can be partially transferred from air or soil into the rivers and drinking water sources, where they accumulate in even higher toxic levels. The high concentrations of heavy metals in contaminated natural water reservoirs have an impact on the microbial community composition which resides there. This type of water pollution can cause the changes in life cycles of natural bacterial populations, influencing their metabolic processes and proliferation. The presence of pathogens in water is normally indirectly determined by the testing for “indicator organism” such as coliform bacteria. Coliforms are usually present in larger numbers in contaminated water and at the same time they are indicators of whether other pathogenic bacteria are present, too. In crisis situations, like war or some natural disasters, where trusted sources of drinking water are not available anymore, the military and residents of affected areas are forced to use some alternative water resources that cannot be tested for their microbial or metal contamination properly. Therefore, the existence of some fast test that would detect not only dangerous bacterial pathogens in water, but also the presence of metals and heavy metals as well, would be of great help and importance for the human health. Even though the number of pathogens can be drastically reduced by the boiling of water, the heavy metals are not destroyed by high temperature. Hence the main objective of our work was to optimize the biosensor chip for microbial detection in contaminated water that would serve at the same time as an indicator for the chemical composition of the water, such as presence of metals and heavy metals, with potential to be used as a novel test tool in public health.

Threonine based electrochemical sensor for micro level sensing of mercuric ions in aqueous bodies

The presented research work is an effort for monitoring mercuric ions using electrochemical sensor developed by the immobilization of Threonine over the surface of the glassy carbon electrode. Numerous experimental parameters are optimized, including several cycles, deposition potential, accumulation time, supporting electrolytes, and pH, modifier’s concentration, and scan rate. The designed sensor demonstrates good voltammetric response in testing media with different pH and temperature, represents a good recovery rate and significant electrocatalytic activity. Accordingly, the calibration plot demonstrates the limit of detection (LOD) is equivalent to the unitary of µM. Alongside square wave voltammetry (SWV) shows a good sensitivity in doubly distilled water at considerable low accumulation time (AT) of 90 s. Besides, the performance of our designed sensor, it also get examined in presence of various interfering agents that reflected its good anti-interference ability and exhibits an remarkable response to the detection of water toxins. The results obtained at the designed electrochemical sensor holds great promise for providing useful guidelines to the environmental stakeholders to frame laws for monitoring water pollution.

Recent advances and future prospects of electrochemical processes for microalgae harvesting

Over the years, algae have found wide scope of utility in a variety of environmentally beneficial processes like biofuel production, removal of heavy metals from wastewater sources for potential bioremediation, monitoring water pollution and source of animal nutrition. However, the conventional harvesting methods pose a set-back in terms of energy, cost and operational complications due to the small size of microalgae. Of all the processes, harvesting alone corresponds to approximately 30% of the total production costs. Recent advancements in the microalgal technology have brought many efficient techniques into use for improved recovery of microalgae. This review comprehends the development, principle, influencing parameters and directions to future research of one of the state-of-the-art approaches for harvesting microalgae, electrochemical technology. Though this area was previously explored for its application in wastewater treatment, it has lately gained momentum in the field of microalgae due to its economic efficiency. This paper highlights the three prime processes used to yield microalgae namely electroflocculation, electroflotation and a combined electrocoagulation-flotation (ECF) system. Several encroachments and strategies among these techniques have also been elucidated. The review focusses on the effect of most significant process controlling parameters such as reactor and electrode design, various surface properties of microalgae, current, pH, salinity and agitation that influence harvesting. In addition, the economy and energy aspects that emphasize the welfares of this technology over others have been extensively discussed. The overall work aims to provide an insight into the electrochemical methods, their challenges and opportunities that might be beneficial for carrying out further research and scope for industrial applications.

Water Pollution Monitoring through Remote Sensing

Background: Water is undoubtedly a very precious resource that helps life thrive on this planet, and its pollution is a problem which is potent of erasing almost all forms of life on earth. Hence, considering the magnitude of this problem, studies and experiments have been focused (from the day water pollution was recognised as an eminent issue) on monitoring and finding possible solutions for water pollution. While the latter deals with treating and purifying water using a variety of concepts, monitoring deals with the continuous assessment of water quality of a waterbody. Methodology: There are several methods for monitoring purposes, and remote sensing is a popular choice, thanks to its wide applicability and flexibility in implementation. Remote sensing basically deals with collecting data about a place (which is to be monitored) and sending the data to another ‘remote’ location for analysis. This article aims to provide a description of some methods employed in recent times for the purpose of remote sensing and a short section which deals with the analysis of the remotely sensed data using machine learning / deep learning models, hence making the reader aware of the concept of remote sensing and its scope for monitoring water pollution (or any form of pollution) in the future. Conclusions: The detailed comparative analysis of these methods showed that sensor based water quality monitoring with Geographical Information System (GIS) will be more efficient in detection of water pollutants. The further research in this field may introduce many advancements to enable efficient water pollution detection techniques.

Water Quality Monitoring System Based on Microcontroller and LoRa

Water is essential for human and other lives such as marine and plants. However, water pollutions are a serious issue that needs to be solved. One of the actions that needs to be taken is to monitor the water quality regularly. However, many areas still used manual monitoring due to high cost of automatic monitoring system. Hence, this study aims to develop a low-cost and low-power water pollution monitoring system using a microcontroller and long-range wireless system (LoRa). The system monitors the water pollutions through pH and temperature sensor. Next, the data transmitted to a host PC wirelessly through LoRa communication. The data received will bs stored in a cloud with GUI. Moreover, the system equipped with a PV panel and Lithium-ion battery storage. This will allow the system to be deployed in remote areas with no power sources. The system performance on pollution detection and transmission distance were tested via several experiments. Several substances with different pH values were used simulate polluted water. Meanwhile, the data transmission was evaluated through several distance parameters. The results show the system successfully able to monitor polluted water with high accuracy and capable to transmit long-range data wireless. Hence, the system has efficient power usage through few numbers of sensors alongside LoRa that uses low power for communication.

Novel method for industrial sewage outfall detection: Water pollution monitoring based on web crawler and remote sensing interpretation techniques

Sewage outfalls are the ideal locations for water pollution monitoring as they are the final gate that pollutants must pass before entering rivers and oceans. Strengthening the supervision and control of industrial sewage outfalls has become the most important task in water pollution control. Most rivers in China are highly polluted, especially those flowing through cities. It is difficult to investigate, monitor, trace, and remediate sewage outfalls because information regarding the distribution of sewage outfalls into rivers is incomplete and the existing methods of monitoring sewage outfalls into rivers are outdated. This paper proposes an innovative method for feasible and efficient acquisition of sewage outfall data through a combination of web crawler and remote sensing interpretation technologies, employing data from the Luan River Basin as a testing site. We crawled industrial information and spatial location data on the Internet and obtained the locations of industrial sewage outfalls by interpreting remote sensing images. We modeled the distribution of sewage inflow from major industries into the tributaries of the Luan River Basin. We verified the accuracy and reliability of the developed method by comparing its results with actual data collected during our field investigation. Sample field tests confirmed the high accuracy (89%) of the proposed method, indicating its successful application in the Luan River Basin. We believe that the proposed method can be used to verify and supervise sewage outfalls in other locations in the future, especially owing to its improved acquisition system, which ensures feasible and efficient measurements without the need for manual investigation. This study provides a scientific basis for decision-making with regard to sustainable development.

An Energy-Efficient River Water Pollution Monitoring System in Internet of Things

An important research issue in river water pollution monitoring is to correctly estimate and transfer the pollution data from a river to the base station by consuming minimum energy. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient river water pollution monitoring system by using deep neural network and long-range communication technology. Firstly, we design a compressed deep neural network for monitoring the river water pollution. Next, we use a knowledge distillation technique to train the compressed deep neural network. The compressed network can be successfully deployed on a limited resources Internet of Things device and achieves an acceptable accuracy. Further, we propose a game theory-based approach to estimate the time duration for using the suitable spreading factor of the long-range network to transmit the river water data. Such game theory-based approach helps in reducing energy consumption and ensures the successful transmission of the data to the base station. Finally, we present experimental and real-world evaluations that demonstrate the effectiveness of the propose system.

A Portable Water Pollution Monitoring Device for Smart City based on Internet of Things (IoT)

It has been observed that by 2050 more than 5 billion people could be affected by water crises due to increases in demand and water pollution. Potentially unhealthy conditions will need monitoring. This arising problem can be controlled or overcome by sharing the awareness of water acidity, temperature, salinity/conductivity, turbidity, contaminants etc. of surrounding water sources and then taking appropriate action. The purpose of this study is to design a sensor node and a sensor network strategy to monitor water pollution of a water source. The system is intended to cover a larger water area by implementing multiple portable sensor nodes on same network.

IoT and ICT based Smart Water Management, Monitoring and Controlling System: A Review

Water is a basic human need in all economic operations. Farmland, renewable energy, the industrial industry, and mining are all critical economic areas. Water supplies are under severe strain. With the population increase, the requirement for water from competing economic sectors is increased. So, there is not enough water left to meet human needs and maintain environmental flows that maintain the integrity of our ecosystems. Underground water is becoming depleted in many sectors, making now and future generations near the point of being deprived of protection from the increasing climate variability. Therefore, the critical role that information technology methods and internet communication technologies (ICT) play in water resources managing to limit the excessive waste of fresh water and to control and monitor water pollution. In this paper, we have to review research that uses the internet of things (IoT) as a communication technology that controls the preservation of the available amount of water and not wastes it by homeowners and farmers. In contrast, they use water, and we have also reviewed some researches that preserve water quality and reduce its pollution.

Optical nanosensors based on fluorescent carbon dots for the detection of water contaminants: a review

The increasing contamination of environmental media is a serious health issue requiring advanced methods to detect actual and emerging pollutants. In particular, high-sensitivity sensors for monitoring water pollutants are under deep investigation. Here, we review the synthesis, optical properties and applications of carbon dots for sensing contaminants in water samples. Fluorescence-based sensors have achieved ultrasensitive detection at nanomolar to picomolar concentrations. Carbon dot sensors have unique advantages such as biocompatibility, easy preparation, optical activity and wide applicability.

An Accelerometer-Based Sensing System to Study the Valve-Gaping Behavior of Bivalves

Bivalves are extremely sensitive to environmental conditions. The movement of their shells and the gap in-between the valves can serve as indicators of water pollutants entering surface water bodies. This letter proposes a novel sensing system to accurately calculate the valve-gaping angle in bivalves. The sensor unit is comprised of two inertial measurement units for each bivalve to estimate the angle between the two valves. Monitoring of multiple bivalves is possible with several water-insulated sensor units tethered with flexible cables to a central base station housing the processing unit. Miniaturization of the sensor packaging and flexibility of the wires ensured minimum hindrance to the animals’ natural behavior. The precision and accuracy of the angle measurement were tested with a benchtop servo motor setup simulating the gaping behavior. The standard deviation of measurements at a steady state was 0.78 $^\circ$ , and the average change in measurement during a 10 $^\circ$ step was 9.98 $^\circ$ . Over 250 h of in vivo validation experiments demonstrated the consistency of the angle measurements using the presented method alongside a magnetic alternative, which had an average correlation coefficient of $-$ 0.89. The sensor system provides an accurate study of bivalve gaping behavior and facilitates the potential use of bivalves as environmental sentinels due to their valve-gaping being a biomarker for monitoring water pollution.

Portable Capillary Sensor Integrated with Plasmonic Platform for Monitoring Water Pollutants

In this work, a label-free and inexpensive method for the monitoring of water pollutants is demonstrated. We introduce a localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) based plasmonic capillary optical biosensor to detect microalgae cells. Here, the plasmonic capillary biosensor was prepared by decorating the inner walls of a glass capillary with gold nanoparticles that were employed for investigations. Since the gold nanoparticle has the potential to sense pollutants in water rapidly with high sensitivity and they are expected to perform a significant role in environmental monitoring. Our proposed plasmonic capillary sensor has a detection limit of 25 algal cells (Chlorella sp. CB4). Furthermore, the plasmonic capillary sensing platform significantly simplifies sensor fabrication and reduces the cost of the device. We believe that the presented plasmonic sensor could stand as a potential candidate for developing a cost-effective, label-free, and rapid sensing platform to detect microalgae pollutants present in the water at very low concentrations.

Water pollution monitoring method after flood disaster based on big data technology

In order to solve the problem of poor pollution load reduction performance of traditional monitoring models, with the support of big data analysis technology, a water pollution monitoring model after flood disasters was constructed. Using big data analysis methods to obtain water pollution data after flood disasters, calculate the “best point,” “worst point,” and “expected point” data corresponding to each pollution index based on the collected data, and obtain the corresponding data of each pollution index material element analysis reference value, calculate the comprehensive correlation function value of the monitoring points, realize the optimization of monitoring points, and construct the monitoring model according to the basic equation of the model and the generalized result to realize the monitoring of water pollution information and water body conditions. The experimental results show that the load reduction rate of the designed model for different types of pollution is higher than 0.10%, which is significantly higher than that of the traditional model, indicating that the pollution load reduction performance of the designed model is better than that of the traditional model, and it is more suitable for water pollution monitoring after flood disaster.

A Wide Dynamic Range Multi-Sensor ROIC for Portable Environmental Monitoring Systems With Two-Step Self-Optimization Schemes

This article presents a wide-dynamic-range multi-sensor readout interface for portable environmental monitoring systems with two-step self-optimization schemes. It proposes two-step self-optimization methods of adaptive range detection and coarse self-cancelation (CSC) for current-type sensor interfaces, and range-based path control and current DAC-based correlated double sampling (CDS) for resistive sensing interfaces. Their digital conversions are provided by two kinds of high-resolution ADCs, namely, an incremental ΔΣ current detector and a two-step SAR- ΔΣ ADC. The proposed ROIC prototype is fabricated in a 180-nm CMOS process, achieving a dynamic range (DR) of 136.5 dB and 160.9 dB, and a maximum SNR of 109.8 dB and 108.6 dB for current and resistance detection, respectively. For system-level feasibility, an environmental monitoring system prototype based on the ROIC is also manufactured and functionally verified by integrating two kinds of in-house micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) sensor devices, the MCU, and the Bluetooth module, supporting wireless air quality and water pollution monitoring capabilities.

Development of ion-selective electrodes for antipyrine and its derivatives as potential tool for environmental water monitoring

In this work, a set of ion-selective electrodes for the detection of antipyrine and some of its structurally closely related derivatives is developed. These novel potentiometric sensors rely on metallocarborane, cobalt bis(dicarbollide) anion ([3,3′-Co(1,2-C2B9H11)2]−) complexes with the protonated antipyrine derivative as active recognition element. All complexes were characterized, embedded in a PVC membrane, and coated on top of commercial and self-fabricated electrodes. All systems were in-depth evaluated and optimized with focus on their analytical performance, leading to a set of electrodes for antipyrine, 4-aminoantipyrine and 4-(acetamido)antipyrine, which showed a near Nernstian slope (55–57 mV/dec) in the range of 10−5 to 10−2 mol/L and a limit of detection in the μM range. To lower the detection limit and to enable environmental stream water pollution monitoring, we implemented a solid-phase extraction step which could be used to achieve a pre-concentration of a factor >300 (recovery rates: 81–84%) and to lower the detection limit from the μM to the nM range. The combination of our new and highly selective electrodes with this SPE step enables the possibility to monitor antipyrine derivatives simultaneously in either an environmental surrounding or in pharmaceutical formulations. The combination of metallocarborane based ISEs with an SPE pre-concentration step and the in-depth evaluation of the closely related derivatives finally provides a set of valuable tools as well as new insights into their selectivity and real-life applicability.

Assessment of aquatic genotoxicity of the Lake Sevan basin, Armenia using natural bioindicators

Water pollution can cause genomic instability, thereby threatening aquatic wildlife and human health․ For a correct assessment of the impact of the mixture of pollutants, chemical analysis of environmental contaminants should be simultaneously applied with genotoxicity assays. The сomet assay is a sensitive, versatile and extensively used method for genotoxicity assessment in a water environment and was successfully applied in aquatic wild species, including fish and crayfish. Earlier we investigated the genotoxicity of waters of the Lake Sevan basin (Simonyan et al. 2016, Simonyan et al. 2019)․ Lake Sevan is the largest lake of the Caucasus Region, situated in the Republic of Armenia, in the Gegharkunik Province. Water pollution in the lake is a result of both anthropogenic and natural pressures. A combination of comet assay (Tice et al. 2000) and chemical analysis was applied for evaluation of water genotoxicity using gibel carp Carassius auratus gibelio and crayfish Astacus leptodactylus as sentinel organisms. Fish and water samples were collected from the south–southwest of the village Shorzha (40028′33″N and 45014′22″E), Peninsula of Lake Sevan (40033′46″N and 45001′37″E), the estuaries of the Rivers Gavaraget (40025′12″N and 45009′53″E) and Dzknaget (40036′55″N and 44058′13″E). Сrayfish and water samples were collected from the estuary of the River Masrik (40013′25″N and 45038′21″E) and near the villages of Artanish (40027′19″N and 45025′12″E) and Tsapatakh (40024′34″N and 45028′22″E). According to the chemical analysis of waters, the south–southwest of the village Shorzha and the estuary of the River Masrik were chosen as reference sites․ The content of contaminants in water was analyzed according to the standard methods in the Environmental Impact Monitoring Center, Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Armenia. The obtained results showed that the levels of DNA damage were significantly higher in both species in polluted areas than in reference sites. A significant positive correlation between DNA damage in C. auratus gibelio and contents of Al, Fe, Cu and Mn in water was shown. DNA damage in A. leptodactylus correlated with Al, Fe, Cu and Mo. C. auratus gibelio and A. leptodactylus were found to be sensitive mostly to the same pollutants, which indicate that these metals may be of primary concern as contaminants of the studied aquatic environment. Thus, the current study indicates that C. auratus gibelio and A. leptodactylus are sensitive bioindicators for monitoring of water pollution in the Lake Sevan basin.

Application of Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Green Decoration Materials in Building Construction

In recent years, ecological environment protection is a hot topic in the world. The construction industry is one of the industries with large energy consumption, accounting for more than 20% of the total social production energy consumption. Conforming to the requirements of environmental protection in the construction of green decoration materials is the development of the times. In this paper, a construction project as the research object, the construction site of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and other gas pollution, solid pollution, water pollution, light pollution and noise pollution source monitoring. The monitoring results show that the content of ammonia is the largest among the gases produced by construction, and other gases are basically below or equal to the standard limit value. The environmental problems caused by different pollution sources are analyzed. The results show that through the overall design of green building energy conservation and environmental protection, the optimization design of green building structure and the HVAC design of green building, the high quality construction of green building can be realized.