Potential applications of advanced biosensor systems for the real-time monitoring of wastewater treatment plants

The increasing presence of traditional and newly emerging contaminants in wastewater along with more than ever high regulatory standards for water quality requires robust and efficient monitoring tools and techniques. This requirement is further enhanced due to the commonly experienced problems of fluctuations in influent loading and mechanical breakdown faced at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Consequently, in contrast to the traditional discontinuous and sample-based analysis and monitoring methods, there is a pressing need for highly sensitive, selective, portable, cost-efficient, and fast methods which could provide in situ and real-time monitoring of WWTPs. Such need could be fulfilled by biosensors. Biosensors allow measurement and interpretation of biological response of enzymes, immunosystems, tissue, organelles, or whole cells to a disturbance. This biosensing provides instant specific information about the presence of contaminant(s), perturbations, and overall performance of the plant. The potential applications and developments of various types of biosensors for real-time monitoring of WWTPs are discussed in this chapter.