Aims
The Journal of Water Process Engineering (JWPE) aims to be the premier international forum for the publication of world leading, high impact research on the sustainable engineering of water and wastewater treatment processes. It publishes selected peer-reviewed articles from researchers and practitioners actively engaged in discovering and developing costs-effective water/wastewater treatment technologies and engineering solutions. JWPE is fully aligned and committed to supporting the UN Sustainability Development Goals, particularly ?SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation".
Scope
Water process engineering is defined as the understanding and application of the fundamental laws and principles of nature allowing the transformation of raw or waste water sources into valuable products that are useful to society, while operating at laboratory, pilot or full industrial scale. These valuable products include clean water, energy and useful materials. The scope of JWPE is focused on the design, operation, control, modelling, optimization and intensification of various applicable processes relevant to water/wastewater treatment.
Process engineering aspects of water/wastewater treatment processes, for which the focus of the study is on the engineered application and practice rather than the fundamental and underlying science or materials development, are particularly valued. The submission of outstanding research articles and state-of-the-art reviews are actively encouraged from academic and industrial researchers and technologists, with topics which can be categorized into the following areas of interest:
Physicochemical Process Engineering
- Enhancement of conventional physicochemical processes, such as physical separation (excluding membrane separation), coagulation/flocculation and precipitation, and flotation
- Advanced adsorption using novel adsorbents
- Advanced oxidation (including disinfection) using novel oxidizing agents
- Photocatalysis mediated by novel catalysts and light sources
- Electrochemical processes (including electrocatalysis, electro-crystallization etc.)
- Physicochemical processes associated with the application of acoustic, microwave, plasma etc.
- Hybrid physicochemical processes for energy and material recovery from wastewater
- Innovative and non-conventional water production, such as atmospheric water generation
- Energetics and life cycle assessments of physicochemical processes
- Other emerging physicochemical processes and process hybridization
Biological and Ecological Process Engineering
- Enhancement of conventional biological processes, such as aerobic, anaerobic processes, and biofiltration
- Advanced biological processes (including the combination with physicochemical methods) for enhancing nutrients removal
- Anaerobic digestion for energy/resource recovery
- Advanced biotechnologies (including novel utilization of microbial, fungal, molecular genetics etc.) for water/wastewater processing
- Constructed wetlands for water/wastewater processing
- Bioremediation for water quality improvement
- Energetics and life cycle assessments of biological/ecological processes
- Other emerging biological/ecological processes and process hybridization
Membrane Process Engineering
- Enhancement of pressure driven membrane processes (including MF UF, NF, RO)
- Osmotically driven membrane processes (including forward osmosis, pressure-retarded osmosis etc.)
- Thermal membrane-based processes (including pervaporation and membrane distillation)
- Water/wastewater processing using novel and scalable membrane materials (such as ceramic membranes, liquid membranes, mixed matrix membranes and 2D nanomembranes)
- Electrically driven membrane processes (including ion-permeable membranes combining with electro-dialysis and/or electro-dialysis reversal, capacitive deionisation etc.)
- Membrane reactors/contactors (including aerobic/anaerobic membrane bioreactors, photo and electro catalytic membrane reactors etc.)
- Energetics and life cycle assessments of membrane processes
- Other novel membrane processes and hybrid configurations (including combination of various membrane, physicochemical and biological methods)
Process Control, Modelling and Optimization
- Water/wastewater process monitoring, automation, and control
- Water/wastewater process modelling, simulation and optimisation
- Advanced sensing technologies for chemical and biological agents in water
- Water digitization, data analytics, and water informatics
- Design and operation of smart water systems, including case/pilot studies, policy and strategic analyses
- Advanced methods for industrial benchmarking and reporting related to water systems
- Application of artificial intelligence (such as machine learning, deep learning and evolutionary computing) in water processing
- Other novel technologies/methods and their applications for process control, modelling and optimization
Within each of the above four categories, submissions on the development and application of novel materials for water/wastewater treatment, aiming at the enhancement of refractory pollutants removal and energy/resource recovery, are particularly welcome. Processes include those for drinking water purification, domestic wastewater treatment, industrial wastewater treatment and resource recovery and selective extraction, for either large-scale or community-scale application. Studies of novel and developing technologies in water process engineering which are not covered under the above categories are also welcome. In this case, please pay attention to the topics which are specifically excluded by JWPE, such as desalination (i.e., water desalting by thermal or membrane processes).
Submissions on process engineering aspects of water sustainability, focusing on issues related to the reclamation, reuse and recycling of water, materials and energy from alternative sources, including fit-for-purpose treatment processes and technologies with reduced energy and chemical consumption, lower environmental/carbon footprint, and greater social benefit are particularly welcome. JWPE also periodically publishes ?Virtual Special Issues? on hot-topics relating to exploring emerging areas of research and application focus.
We are also interested in the submissions which explore emerging areas of research and application focus, and will periodically publish special issues on specific topics. Please look out for the related "Calls for Papers".
Please note that, due to the aims set for JWPE, submissions which involve fundamental batch studies without a focus on engineering application are not acceptable. Common examples of this include studies of batch/static adsorption of model contaminants on adsorbents without dynamic flow studies, batch studies of photo-catalysts modified to operate in visible light for model contaminant degradation, microbiological studies without a strong link to biological processing, membrane fabrication without an application study, and so on. Submissions to JWPE are also required to offer a strong and clear benchmarking of data with controls and literature comparison, and to provide a thorough and ethical data analysis framework.
