Publications related to Sewage

Monitoring an Emergent Pathogen at Low Incidence in Wastewater Using qPCR: Mpox in Switzerland

Wastewater-based epidemiology offers a complementary approach to clinical case-based surveillance of emergent diseases and can help identify regions with infected people to prioritize clinical surveillance strategies. However, tracking emergent diseases in ...

2024

Role of Carbonyl Compounds for N-Nitrosamine Formation during Nitrosation: Kinetics and Mechanisms

Urs von Gunten, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Yishuai Pan

N-Nitrosamines are potential human carcinogens frequently detected in natural and engineered aquatic systems. This study sheds light on the role of carbonyl compounds in the formation of N-nitrosamines by nitrosation of five secondary amines via different ...

2024

Oxidation processes and me

Urs von Gunten

This publication summarizes my journey in the field of chemical oxidation processes for water treatment over the last 30+ years. Initially, the efficiency of the application of chemical oxidants for micropollutant abatement was assessed by the abatement of ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Comparison of Three Viral Nucleic Acid Preamplification Pipelines for Sewage Viral Metagenomics

Tamar Kohn, Xavier Fernandez Cassi

Viral metagenomics is a useful tool for detecting multiple human viruses in urban sewage. However, more refined protocols are required for its effective use in disease surveillance. In this study, we investigated the performance of three different preampli ...

2024

Selective elimination of enterovirus genotypes by activated sludge and chlorination

Tamar Kohn, Shotaro Torii

Enteroviruses, which are commonly circulating viruses shed in the stool, are released into the sewage system and only partially removed or inactivated, resulting in the discharge of infectious enteroviruses into the environment. Activated sludge and chlori ...

2023

Mechanistic insights on interactions of dissolved organic matter with chemical oxidants: quantification of reactive sites and identification of oxidation byproducts

Joanna Maria Houska

Chemical oxidants including ozone (O3), chlorine (HOCl/OCl-) and chlorine dioxide (ClO2) are applied for disinfection of drinking water. To cope with water scarcity and the increased risks associated with the presence of micropollutants, water treatment sy ...

EPFL2023

Ozonation of lake water and wastewater: Identification of carbonous and nitrogenous carbonyl-containing oxidation byproducts by non-target screening

Urs von Gunten, Joanna Maria Houska

Ozonation of drinking water and wastewater is accompanied by the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) such as low molecular weight aldehydes and ketones from the reactions of ozone with dissolved organic matter (DOM). By applying a recently develope ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

A Survey of Industrial N-nitrosamine Discharges in Switzerland

Urs von Gunten, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Caroline Gachet Aquillon

N-nitrosamines are formed during different industrial processes and are of significant concern due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. This study reports concentrations of N-nitrosamines in eight different industrial wastewater treatment plants ...

2023

Inactivation of coxsackievirus B5 by free chlorine under conditions relevant to drinking water treatment

Shotaro Torii

Chlorine disinfection is commonly applied to inactivate pathogenic viruses in drinking water treatment plants. However, the role of water quality in chlorine disinfection of viruses has not been investigated thoughtfully. In this study, we investigated the ...

IWA PUBLISHING2023

Sunshine and a pinch of tropical soils: A natural, low-cost photo-Fenton variation for safer water, assisted by H2O2 or percabonate

César Pulgarin, Michaël Bensimon, Stefanos Giannakis, Thomas Guillaume, Jérémie Decker

Clean water is essential for human survival, but access to safe drinking water remains a challenge in resource -limited regions. Herein, we explored a low-cost but effective solution for water potabilization using natural iron sources from soils along with ...

ELSEVIER2023

Waterborne virus transport and the associated risks in a large lake

Tamar Kohn, Xavier Fernandez Cassi, Chaojie Li, Timothy R. Julian

Waterborne enteric viruses in lakes, especially at recreational water sites, may have a negative impact on human health. However, their fate and transport in lakes are poorly understood. In this study, we propose a coupled water quality and quantitative mi ...

2022

Effect of wastewater treatment and environmental exposure on an enterovirus population

Odile Marie Clotilde Hervás de Nalda-Larivé

The presence of viruses in recreational water can present a risk for human health and wastewater effluent is a source of virus in the environment. Their persistence in the environment influences their probability to find a new host. Studies have shown that ...

EPFL2022

Wastewater microorganisms impact microbial diversity and important ecological functions of stream periphyton

Kristin Schirmer, Ahmed Tlili

Effluents of wastewater treatment plants can impact microbial communities in the receiving streams. However, little is known about the role of microorganisms in wastewater as opposed to other wastewater constituents, such as nutrients and micropollutants. ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2022

Effect of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride on various Escherichia coli strains and their inactivation kinetics by ozone and monochloramine

Urs von Gunten, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Margaux Océane Voumard

Cethyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTMA) is one of the most used quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) in consumer products. CTMA and other QACs are only partially eliminated in municipal wastewater treatment and they can interact with bacteria in biological ...

2022

Advancements in heavy metals removal from effluents employing nano-adsorbents: Way towards cleaner production

Edgard Gnansounou, Baskar Gurunathan

Due to the development in science field which gives not only benefit but also introducesundesirable pollution to the environment. This pollution is due to poor discharge activities of industrial effluents into the soil and water bodies, surface run off fro ...

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2022

The capture technology matters: Composition of municipal wastewater solids drives complexity of microbial community structure and volatile fatty acid profile during anaerobic fermentation

Pierre Rossi, Arnaud Michel Gelb

The production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) represents a relevant option to valorize municipal wastewater (MWW). In this context, different capture technologies can be used to recover organic carbon from wastewater in form of solids, while pre-treatment ...

2022

Application of UV absorbance and electron-donating capacity as surrogates for micropollutant abatement during full-scale ozonation of secondary-treated wastewater

Urs von Gunten

Ozonation of secondary-treated wastewater for the abatement of micropollutants requires a reliable control of ozone doses. Changes in the UV absorbance of dissolved organic matter (DOM) during ozonation allow to estimate micropollutant abatement on-line an ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2022

Quantified Effects of Multiple Parameters on Inputs and Potential Sources of Microplastics from a Typical River Flowing into the Sea

Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Yang Liu, Wenxin Liu

As an important connection of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, rivers input multitudinous (micro)plastics into the oceans. However, comparisons of field and estimated riverine inputs of (micro)plastics and contributions of multiple parameters are limited ...

2022

Wastewater monitoring outperforms case numbers as a tool to track COVID-19 incidence dynamics when test positivity rates are high

Tamar Kohn, Xavier Fernandez Cassi, Joseph Chadi Benoit Lemaitre, Federica Cariti, Alex Tunas Corzon, Timothy R. Julian, Carola Bänziger

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been shown to coincide with, or anticipate, confirmed COVID-19 case numbers. During periods with high test positivity rates, however, case numbers may be underreported, whereas wastewater does not suffer from this li ...

2021

Participatory research to monitor lake water pollution

Luc Patiny, Carlos Vivar Rios, Rachel Aronoff

A participatory research team, concerned about water quality around Lake Geneva, particularly in the Montreux Bay region where some were lifeguards, ran sampling campaigns to determine summertime levels of lake water pollution. The participants were brough ...

WILEY2021