Environmental Engineering Science

Environmental engineering is a dynamic and growing field that addresses some of the most important work in science and engineering—protecting the Earth’s resources, ensuring the safety of water and air, and devising strategies for humans to thrive in the face of a changing climate. Publications in this field have shifted from concerns of polluted cities and hazardous wastes in the mid-20th century to today’s challenges of provision of water supplies across the globe, innovation in sustainable energy, urban resilience to heat and storms, and informed strategies for environmental policy. Through excellence in teaching and research, members of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) are addressing these grand challenges. The official journal of AEESP is Environmental Engineering Science, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. It is an important venue for the publication of cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art educational approaches, workshop outcomes, and prevailing views about the environment in a societal and policy context. This year marks 28 years of the journal in its current configuration, since Dr. Domenico Grasso became the Editor-in-Chief. This year also marks a transition of the Editor-in-Chief from Dr. Catherine Peters to Dr. Ramana Gadhamshetty. Through a review of selected publications that highlight member contributions, this article contains Dr. Peters’ perspective on the journal’s trajectory, commitment to publication excellence, and service to the AEESP community.

Polyurethane foam equipped passive air samplers are a valuable tool for monitoring atmospheric semivolatile organic pollutants, but are often complicated due to the need for an accurate sampling rate (R_s). Here, we describe the development and implementation of a web-based R_s interface that allows for a user-friendly way of determining and visualizing accurate modeled R_s values. The web interface provides access to the previously published model without the need for proprietary software (MATLAB) or coding experience. The precalculated R_s avoids unnecessary computation time, providing the user with fast results and visualizations of the sampler behavior during deployment. Supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications meteorological data at both 2 and 10 m heights above ground level, users can determine R_s for any location on the globe. Users can select prepopulated compounds (e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls) or manually enter compounds, enter sample information individually or upload them batch-wise, run the model, and export data to a CSV to further integrate with the data analysis workflow. Additionally, an implementation of the same model is available in R, along with scripts to process meteorological data.

Due to widespread of various epidemics, a great deal of antiviral drugs including chloroquine phosphate (CQP) were widely used in therapy. A new biochar-doping TiO₂ (BIC-Ti) was prepared by the sol–gel method and applied for efficient photocatalytic removal of CQP in aqueous solutions. The removal capacity of CQP on the composed material was up to 164.2 mg/g after 20 min UV irradiation (0.05 g/L BIC-Ti, pH = 6.6, CQP concentration = 20 mg/L). The results showed that BIC-Ti was stable with a high recovery rate (>90%) after six recycling experiments, and had much potential in practical application. According to the trapping tests, superoxide radicals (•O₂−) were crucial in CQP photodegradation. Photolytic dehalogenation and hydrolytic substitution reactions were the main reactions for CQP degradation under light conditions, and CQP was degraded to small molecular substances with low toxicity. An analysis of morphology and structure characterizations illustrated that biochar was successfully introduced onto BIC-Ti and effectively improved the product’s pore size and volume. There is an obvious increase in the specific surface area of BIC-Ti along with the formation of a larger mesoporous structure and more developed porous structure. BIC-Ti showed a typical anatase-TiO₂ structure with a relatively narrow bandgap and low PL intensity, which was helpful in absorbing a wider range of light wavelengths and reducing electron–hole recombination. This newly composed material has much potential in CQP degradation and is feasible for an innovative modification of TiO₂ photocatalyst in pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.

Reactive blue 19 (RB19) is a toxic anionic dye with an anthraquinone moiety, characterized by its intense color and resistance to degradation. In this article, a three-dimensional electrochemical system was constructed, using Ti/RuO₂ as anode and steel plate as cathode, combining electrochemical degradation and activated carbon adsorption. RB19 was partially degraded on the surface of the Ti/RuO₂ plate eventually. Simultaneously, the granular activated carbon was polarized under the influence of the electric field during the degradation process, the generation of hydroxyl radical in the system and enhancing the mass transfer capacity and current density was catalyzed. Under the optimal conditions, the three-dimensional system filled with granular activated carbon treated RB19 for 1 h with a removal rate far exceeding that of the two-dimensional system, reaching 82.9%, while its synergistic efficiency reached 39%. Furthermore, the removal rate remained 64.9% after 5 cycles. The results suggested that electrochemical oxidation and adsorption can synergistically treat RB19 in the system. Electrochemical tests verified that the mass transfer rate and current density of the three-dimensional system were significantly enhanced compared to the two-dimensional system. Specially, the mass transfer rate (k) of the three-dimensional system was improved by 10.7% compared to the two-dimensional system, reaching 0.031. Finally, hydroxyl radical was detected through electron paramagnetic resonance test, and the possible degradation pathway of dye was inferred by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detection of the intermediates. This method provides a more efficient, eco-friendly, and cost-effective approach for treating dye wastewater.