15 April 2011

Call for Papers: Science, Engineering and Management in Solid Waste and Wastewater

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management

At present, our unique planet Earth is facing immense environmental problems due to ignorance, over-exploitation and excessive waste generation. All three basic components of the environment, i.e. air, water and land, are in a disturbed state. The quality of the air we inhale, the water we drink and the land we live in is deteriorating daily.

In this situation, it is of utmost importance and necessity to improve the understanding of environmental risk, and to learn how to minimize waste generation and utilise the same for useful products. Globally, many environmental technologies have been developed towards better management of solid waste and wastewater. In recent years, varieties of tools and techniques have been applied with the aid of science and engineering concepts to solve the problem of solid waste and wastewater. Hence a special issue is proposed to cover recent advances in science, engineering and management regarding solid waste and wastewater.

Integrated waste management using life cycle analysis (LCA) attempts to offer the most benign options for waste management. For mixed municipal solid waste (MSW), a number of broad studies have indicated that the favored path is waste administration, then source separation and collection followed by reuse and recycling of the non-organic fraction, and energy/compost/fertilizer production via anaerobic digestion from the organic waste fraction. Non-metallic waste resources are not destroyed by incineration, and can be reused/recycled in a resource-depleted society.

There are numerous wastewater treatment technologies. A wastewater treatment train can consist of a primary clarifier system to remove solid and floating materials; a secondary treatment system consisting of an aeration basin, followed by flocculation and sedimentation or an activated sludge system and a secondary clarifier; a tertiary biological nitrogen removal system; and a final disinfection process. The aeration basin/activated sludge system removes organic material by growing bacteria (activated sludge). The secondary clarifier removes the activated sludge from the water. The tertiary system, although not always included due to costs, is becoming more prevalent to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, and to disinfect the water before discharge to a surface water stream or ocean outfall.

This special issue invites research papers and reviews addressing global innovative research on solid waste and wastewater adopting science, engineering and management skills which will have a great impact on policy makers, technologists and academicians.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Basic and applied R&D on different aspects of solid waste and wastewater engineering and management
  • Case studies including critical reviews on different aspects of solid waste and wastewater
  • Modelling studies in solid waste and wastewater management
  • Climate change issues related to solid waste and wastewater treatment options
  • Economic analysis of technologies
Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission: 31 July, 2011
First round of paper reviews: 30 November, 2011
Second round of paper reviews: 30 March, 2012
Final paper submission: 30 April, 2012

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