Biowaste coffee grounds have been recognized as an effective and relatively low-cost adsorbent to complement conventional treatment techniques for removing emerging contaminants (ECs) from the waste stream through modification to useful biochar. The purpose of this study was to make biochar from biowaste coffee grounds through the pyrolysis process and investigate its potential capacity for the removal of pharmaceuticals from water. The biochar was prepared by pyrolysis process under argon gas conditions, and its adsorption capacity for pharmaceuticals was evaluated. The as-prepared biochar shows a surface area of 232 m² g⁻¹. The adsorption of salicylic acid, diclofenac, and caffeine onto the biochar show adsorption capacities of 40.47 mg g⁻¹, 38.52 mg g⁻¹, and 75.46 mg g⁻¹, respectively. The morphology, functional groups, crystallinity, and specific surface area were determined by SEM, FTIR, XRD, and BET techniques, respectively. Kinetic results reveal that the experimental data fit the pseudo-second-order model and the Temkin isotherm model. In conclusion, these results illustrate the potential of biochar produced from biowaste coffee grounds could play an important role in environmental pollution mitigation by enhancing removal of pharmaceuticals from conventional wastewater treatment effluent, thereby minimizing their potential risks in the environment.

Nanomaterials (NMs) are nanoscale materials of different shapes that are made of a variety of materials such as carbon, silicon, and transition metals. Wastewater treatment plants and nano-enabled consumer products have been identified as major sources of nanomaterials in the environment. Findings from many research studies revealed nanomaterials to be toxic to non-targeted species. Despite presenting an ecological risk to the environment and human health, little is known about the occurrence, formation, transport, and environmental impacts, owing to limited regulated quantitative and sensitive techniques for their assessment. More also, the realisation of nanomaterials' impact on the environment depends on emerging analytical methods. Therefore, it is paramount to continuously develop and optimise analytical methods that are promising to sensitively detect and quantify the nanomaterials in trace and ultra-trace levels in the environment. In this review, we discuss engineered metal/carbonaceous nanomaterials; production, pathways, fate, impact, toxicity, and their analytical methods of detection and quantification from the current literature.

There is growing interest in determining the unidentified peaks within a sample spectra besides the analytes of interest. Availability of reference standards and hyphenated instruments has been a key and limiting factor in the rapid determination of emerging pollutants in the environment. In this work, polar compounds were silylated and analyzed with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to determine the abundant fragments within the single ion monitoring (SIM) mode and methodology. Detection limits and recoveries of the compounds were established in river water, wastewater, biosolid and sediment matrices. Then, specific types of polar compounds that are classified as emerging contaminants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, in the environment were targeted in the Mgeni and Msunduzi Rivers. We also performed suspect and non-target analysis screening to identify several other polar compounds in these rivers. A total of 12 compounds were quantified out of approximately 50 detected emerging contaminants in the Mgeni and Msunduzi Rivers. This study is significant for Africa, where the studies of emerging contaminants are limited and not usually prioritized.