Abstract
The “spotlight” column draws attention to selected articles in Environmental Engineering Science (EES), the official journal of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). Spotlight articles appear three times per year in the journal as well as in the AEESP newsletter. Through the publication of high-quality peer-reviewed research, EES helps AEESP achieve its mission of developing and disseminating knowledge in environmental engineering and science. In this entry, we shine the spotlight on selected articles from the December 2023 issue through the March 2024 issue of EES. Congratulations to all whose work is highlighted.
Fahrenfeld et al. (2024) summarize the benefits and potential for improvements of a faculty mentoring program developed by AEESP. Mentor-–mentee pairs were created and met a few times with the goal of supporting junior faculty in environmental engineering and science and helping build a strong and inclusive community. In decreasing order, the following aspects were important to mentees in being paired with a mentor: university type, personality, research area, parental status, marital status, and race/ethnicity. Both mentors and mentees overall agreed that the program was very successful: mentees reported multiple benefits from meeting with their mentors, such as initiating new ideas, getting feedback on articles and proposals, increasing their network, and learning to balance work and life. The article further highlights the potential for improvements, including the need for more structure and recognition of mentors. The authors suggest that this would encourage more mentors to participate and help mentees get the most of out the program.
Growing crops in urban areas is difficult due to limited land access. Resource recovery, including water and nutrients, combined with vertical hydroponic cultivation systems has exciting potential to bring crops to urban areas. In their article, Calabria et al. (2023) demonstrate that lettuce can grow efficiently in vertical hydroponic systems irrigated and fertilized using effluents from anaerobic membrane bioreactors. The authors showed that ammonium from anaerobic membrane bioreactors can be nitrified to nitrate in hydroponic systems while supporting lettuce growth. Good light conditions were essential, with increased crop yields as photon flux increased. The article shows promising results in combining wastewater treatment and hydroponic cultivation and highlights the need for proper lighting and knowledge of input nutrient concentration to ensure efficient lettuce growth.
Reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF), both pressure-driven processes, are increasingly used for the desalination of brackish and seawater and the treatment of wastewater. Hou and Mayer (2024) investigated the role of membrane thickness and porosity on sodium chloride removal and relative ion flux using two commercial RO and eight commercial NF membranes. They found strong relationships between pore size, thickness, and surface charge and membrane porosity as well as performance (ion flux and NaCl removal), regardless of membrane material. Greater sodium chloride removals and lower permeabilities were observed with thicker, more porous membranes with smaller pores. Based on the results of this study, treatment goals (permeate water flux and ion removal) can be achieved by controlling membrane porosity through pore size and thickness.
Green et al (2024) evaluated sampling strategies for SARS-CoV-2 at wastewater treatment plants. A key driver of the research was to know the most efficient methods for using wastewater surveillance to identify community spread of COVID-19. To understand temporal variability within a wastewater collections network, grab samples are needed, as one might expect; however, to capture the overall conditions of a community, composite sampling was more effective. Data were more indicative of community spread when sampled from large wastewater plants, rather than smaller ones. The benefit of sampling smaller plants is found when seeking to identify specific locations of outbreaks. The information here will be useful as investment in wastewater surveillance decreases over time and more efficiency is needed. It will be further useful as additional diseases and indicators are evaluated (e.g., flu, respiratory syncytial virus, and enterovirus).