Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Oct 28;10(21):e39848.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39848. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.

Amended biochar in constructed wetlands: Roles, challenges, and future directions removing pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Bhesh Kumar Karki  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Amended biochar in constructed wetlands: Roles, challenges, and future directions removing pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Bhesh Kumar Karki. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in wastewater pose significant threats to both human health and aquatic ecosystems. Wastewater discharge from various sources is the primary cause of these contaminants, and proper treatment is essential for protecting the environment. Traditional treatment technologies are often too expensive and ineffective in removing PPCPs. Constructed wetlands (CWs) offer a sustainable, cost-efficient alternative for wastewater treatment, though their capability to eliminate PPCPs can vary based on multiple aspects. Recent studies highlight biochar-a carbon-rich material resultant from biomass pyrolysis-as a promising amendment to improve CW performance. However, there is a deficiency of proper literature reviews on using biochar in CWs specifically for PPCP removal. This review focuses on biochar's role in CWs and its effectiveness in removing PPCPs and enhancing microbial activity and nutrient cycling. A bibliometric analysis using Vosviewer software was used to assess the current research trends in the biochar-amended CWs to attenuate PPCPs. While biochar shows potential in eliminating PPCPs, challenges, such as optimizing its application and addressing long-term operational concerns for treating emerging pollutants like PPCPs. Future research should enhance biochar production and low-cost techniques for diverse groups of PPCPs and perform field trials to validate laboratory results under actual conditions exploring microbial-biochar and plant-biochar interactions. Addressing these challenges is crucial to advancing biochar-amended CWs and enhancing wastewater treatment on a global scale.

Keywords: Biochar; Constructed wetlands; Pharmaceuticals and personal care products; Sustainability; Wastewater treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The count of pharmaceutical substances analyzed in sewage, influents, effluents, and sludge from wastewater treatment plants for each country. Reproduced from Refs. [26,34] with permission of Elsevier and [34], Copyright 2016, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The overall process of biochar production and amended in CWs.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Probable mechanism for PPCPs and biochar interactions Reproduced from Ref. [74] with permission of Elsevier.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mechanism of PPCP removal in biochar amended CWs.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(a) Co-occurrence network of keywords, (b) Overlay visualization map of Keywords occurrence networks and (c) keywords occurrence density mapping.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(a) Co-occurrence network of keywords, (b) Overlay visualization map of Keywords occurrence networks and (c) keywords occurrence density mapping.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(a) Co-occurrence network of keywords, (b) Overlay visualization map of Keywords occurrence networks and (c) keywords occurrence density mapping.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Lu S., Wang J., Wang B., Xin M., Lin C., Gu X., Lian M., Li Y. Comprehensive profiling of the distribution, risks and priority of pharmaceuticals and personal care products: a large-scale study from rivers to coastal seas. Water Res. 2023;230 doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.119591. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Srain H.S., Beazley K.F., Walker T.R. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products and their sublethal and lethal effects in aquatic organisms. Environ. Rev. 2021;29:142–181. doi: 10.1139/er-2020-0054. - DOI
    1. Okoye C.O., Okeke E.S., Okoye K.C., Echude D., Andong F.A., Chukwudozie K.I., Okoye H.U., Ezeonyejiaku C.D. Occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and pesticides in African water systems: a need for timely intervention. Heliyon. 2022;8 doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09143. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Saxena P., Hiwrale I., Das S., Shukla V., Tyagi L., Pal S., Dafale N., Dhodapkar R. Profiling of emerging contaminants and antibiotic resistance in sewage treatment plants: an Indian perspective. J. Hazard Mater. 2021;408 doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124877. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang J., Zhang B., Shen X., Zheng H., Feng W. Ti-MOG derived TiO2 facet heterojunction rich in C/Ti3+/Ov for adsorption-photocatalytic removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from water. Chem. Eng. J. 2024;492 doi: 10.1016/J.CEJ.2024.152421. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources