Emerging Contaminants in Water and Wastewater: Sources and Substances

This present book serves as a comprehensive compilation of various emerging contaminants in the ecosystem, their contamination risk as well as the applicable remediation techniques. Exploding urbanization and industrialization often combined with improved standards of living have resulted in deleterious effects on the quality of the environment. Due to rapid growth of industrialization in the past few decades, large amounts of undesirable wastes are being discharged into the environment threatening the survival of living beings on the earth. In the recent years, the problems regarding pollution have become more global, and awareness about the environmental problems is increasing continuously. Environmental awakening has led many scientists to focus on the assessment of environmental impact of various emerging contaminants. The first victims of the environmental pollution are the terrestrial plants and aquatic bodies in the vicinity of urban areas that experience heavy pollution due to industrial effluents, toxic chemicals, hospital waste, radioactive waste, industrial fumes, vehicular traffic, etc. The increasing industrialization and use of hazardous chemicals are responsible for the lack of access to clean water in many parts of the world. In view of the widespread occurrence, persistence, and harmful effects of environmental pollutants on human population, the present book is proposed.

Emerging contaminants due to ubiquitous distribution, persistence, and toxic effects have necessitated the development of efficient methods for remediation of contamination. Reports appearing from time to time reveal that the number and concentration of contaminants in the environment are continuously increasing. Thus, development as well as dissemination of new and eco-friendly methods for the removal of these pollutants has become a challenging task.

Dr. Himanshu Gupta is Former Head, Department of Chemistry, School of Sciences, IFTM University, Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. Dr. Gupta received his Ph.D. degree in the field of Environmental-Analytical Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) in 2016. Dr. Gupta's research is focused on determination, degradation and removal of various environmental pollutants from water as well as wastewater. Dr. Gupta has rich experience in handling advanced techniques including UV, IR, GC-MS, LC-MS/MS, AAS, ICP-MS, flame photometry, etc. He has published several refereed book chapters/articles in professional books/journals of international repute such as Chemosphere, Environmental Technology & Innovation, RSC Advances and Applied Water Science. Dr. Gupta has organized various conferences/workshops sponsored by different agencies such as DRDO and DST. 

Dr. Sughosh Madhav is presently working as Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Civil Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He has obtained his master’s degree from the Department of Environmental Science Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He earned his doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The area of his doctoral research is the environmental impact of textile effluents on groundwater and soil quality. He has published various research papers and book chapters in the field of environmental geochemistry, water pollution and wastewater remediation. He has edited 4 books in Elsevier, Springer and Wiley publications.

Dr. Soniya Dhiman is currently working as Marie-Curie Post-doctoral researcher at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Dresden, Germany. She also worked as Sr. Project Scientist in the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), New Delhi, India.  She has received her Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Prof. Bina Gupta, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee), India in 2021. Currently, she is working on the recovery of critical metals from mining waste. Her area of research interest is related to Nanomaterials, Solvent Extraction, Separation, Recovery, E-waste/Mining Management, Wastewater Treatment, Dye Degradation using NPs, Environment Protection and Green Chemistry. Dr. Dhiman has rich experience in various instrumental and analytical techniques used for a chemical or environmental laboratory. She has published several research publications in the journals of international repute with impact factors >5. She has presented papers in various national as well as international conferences and received 03 best paper awards.

Dr. Ritu Mishra is currently working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India. She has obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Virology and Neuropathogenesis from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India. She pursued her postdoctoral studies at Max Plank Institute of Molecular Biomedicine, Muenster, Germany. She investigated the molecular mechanisms of vascular pathologies during metastasis. She completed her research award of DST INSPIRE Faculty while studying the mechanisms of cytokine storm during viral infections at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi. She has published multiple research papers, review papers and book chapters on viral neuropathogenesis and soil microbial contamination.