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New book: Examples and exercises for biological wastewater treatment

Book cover: Biological wastewater treatment

A new open-access book on biological wastewater treatment focuses on the latest developments in the field of wastewater treatment. The book aims to help young water professionals engage with the scientific and bioprocess engineering principles of wastewater treatment science and technology.

This new book Biological Wastewater Treatment: Examples and Exercises was awarded the IWA Publishing Best Scientific Book of 2022. Each chapter corresponds to a chapter from the previous textbook Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design and deepens, expands and tests the knowledge of the reader through a set of worked out examples.

Because cleaning dirty water has become more complex and more urgent, the authors aim to deepen insight, advance knowledge and build greater confidence among water professionals -  helping them strengthen their  competence in the field.

IHE Delft Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering Carlos Lopez Vazquez initiated the book and led the editing process. Other editors included Damir Brdanovic, IHE Delft Professor of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation:

“This book is important because it complements the series of our books on biological wastewater treatment and opens the possibility to create an open access online course series on the subject,” they said.

Background of book series

The first edition of the textbook Biological Wastewater Treatment: Principles, Modelling and Design was published in 2008 and it went on to become IWA Publishing’s bestseller to date. In 2020, the 2nd updated and extended edition of the textbook was published because over the twenty years since 2008, the knowledge and understanding of wastewater treatment had advanced extensively and moved away from empirically-based approaches to a fundamental first-principles approach based on chemistry, microbiology, physical and bioprocess engineering, mathematics and modelling.

Like the first edition, for a whole new generation of young scientists and engineers entering the wastewater treatment profession, the 2nd edition of the textbook assembled and integrated the postgraduate course material of professors from research groups around the world who have made significant contributions to the advances in wastewater treatment. While all the chapters of the first edition have been updated to accommodate the latest advances and developments, some, such as granular sludge, membrane bioreactors, sulphur conversion-based bioprocesses and biofilm reactors which were new in 2008, have matured into new approaches in the industry and were also included in the 2020 2nd edition.

The updated edition has already been available for more than two years and the feedback from readers has been overwhelming. This inspired the authors to embark on a new challenge – to prepare this complementary book Biological Wastewater Treatment: Examples and Exercises.

Carlos Lopez Vazquez

Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering

Carlos Lopez Vazquez