Design and principles of adsorbent-based reactors for modular wastewater treatment

Wastewater treatment has been an area of great interest for many decades due to pollutants that cause harmful effects on the water bodies. However, with rapid industrialization and population growth, water quality of conventionally treated effluents is becoming progressively worse. Water quality analysis of treated water from different wastewater treatment facilities reveals that various inorganic pollutants and organic micropollutants still exist in treated streams. However, decentralized modular wastewater treatment systems are one of the best approaches to deal with this problem. The adsorbent-based reactor is considered one of the prominent technologies due to its ease of operation, simple design, high efficiency, high-quality effluent, and economic feasibility. The adsorbent-loaded reactor modulated with decentralized treatment facilities is a cost effective and promising way to remove pollutants at source. This chapter gives a general overview to adsorption process, commonly used adsorptive reactors, different adsorbent materials, and design of multifunctional adsorbents. This chapter also discusses the advantages of decentralized/modular treatment system over centralized treatment systems, recent advancements, challenges, and future perspectives of adsorption-based modular wastewater treatment systems.