Nanotechnology for sustainable wastewater treatment and use for agricultural production: A comparative long-term study

• Published in: Water research (Oxford) 2017-03, Vol.110, p.66-73
• Main Authors: De La Cueva Bueno, Patricia, Gillerman, Leonid, Gehr, Ronald, Oron, Gideon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural yields; Agriculture; Effluent quality; Nanotechnology; Six treatments; Ultrafiltration; Waste Disposal, Fluid; Waste Water; Wastewater; Water Purification
• ISSN: 0043-1354; 1879-2448
• DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.11.060

Nanotechnology applications can be used for filtering low quality waters, allowing under given conditions, the removal of salts and other micropollutants from these waters. A long-term field experiment, implementing nanotechnology in the form of UltraFiltration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) for salt removal from treated wastewater, was conducted with secondary effluents, aiming to prove the sustainability of agricultural production using irrigation with treated wastewater. Six outdoor field treatments, each under four replications, were conducted for examining the salt accumulation effects on the soil and the crops. The field experiments proved that crop development is correlated with the water quality as achieved from the wastewater filtration capability of the hybrid nanotechnology system. The key goal was to maintain sustainable food production, despite the low quality of the waters. Of the six treatment methods tested, irrigation with RO-treated effluent produced the best results in terms of its effect on soil salinity and crop yield. Nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that this process is not only costly, but it also removes all organic matter content from the irrigation water, requiring the addition of fertilizers to the effluent. [Display omitted] •Agricultural sustainable production can be maintained by treating the applied wastewater by nanotechnology methods.•Reverse osmosis of wastewater improves water quality for unrestricted use and high agricultural production.•Soil salinity can be controlled by applying wastewater treated by reverse osmosis methods.