Themed collection Best Papers 2021 - Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

The superoxide radical (O₂˙⁻) is an important reactive oxygen species (ROS) in diverse natural aquatic systems and engineered water treatment processes.

While “avoiding stagnation” has been the mantra of building water experts, support for how this terminology is used is not overly convincing. Carefully nuanced COVID stagnation studies can improve water quality research and communication strategies.

This article has critically reviewed the story of macroscopic developments of COFs for water remediation. The various macroscopic COFs for removing toxic organic and inorganic pollutants have been systematically surveyed.

Synthesis and mechanism of action of electrically conductive membranes.

Efficient removal of nitrogen from wastewater is vital to ensure the safekeeping of waterways and their biota.

Microplastics are pollutants highly stable to complete biodegradation and require more specific separation processes for their removal. Classification and potential remediation technologies, such as membrane technology, are discussed in this review.

Biofilms can retain microorganisms with very different growth kinetics and different electron acceptor preferences, due to their natural redox zonation.

Solar-driven evaporation is an emerging process to acquire freshwater from saline water or wastewater. The current review summarizes the major factors affecting the evaporation performance, including material selection, heat management, and scaling control.

Plastic pipes are susceptible to thermal degradation which can produce volatile organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene that leach into drinking water.

Saline groundwater (SGW) from coastal aquifers possesses less boron than seawater. Using SGW as feed for desalination reduces the energy demand and thus the environmental load.

Extensive building closures due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic resulted in long-term water stagnation within the plumbing of large buildings.

We introduce a green and efficient approach for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) based on the β-lactoglobulin amyloid fibril membrane.

A simple passive sampling protocol using cheesecloth and electronegative filters coupled with a Tween®20-based elution technique provided reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at targeted locations in a region of low COVID-19 prevalence.

The electron-transfer process is the main pathway occurring in the BC800/PDS system and the singlet oxygen pathway is determined to have little contribution to the oxidation of SMX.

A Janus biomass carbon/sponge (JBCS) solar-driven desalination system is composed of carbonized original leaf particles and commercial melamine sponge seamlessly integrated with each other by a simple “soak-dip” method.

The dynamic membrane can enhance the electricity generation and improve the effluent quality in microbial electrochemical systems.

The reproducibility and sensitivity of 36 methods for quantifying the genetic signal of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater was evaluated in a nationwide interlaboratory assessment in the U.S.

This study focuses on the conversion of biosolids to biochar and its further use in adsorbing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) from contaminated water.

In this present work, we have developed the highly porous nature of cerium (Ce) based metal organic frameworks (MOFs), namely Ce@ABDC and Ce@BDC MOFs, using a hydrothermal technique for the defluoridation of water.

The NaClO-shocked sludge had a self-recovery ability, and with the gradual improvement of sludge properties, membrane fouling was reduced.

The novel liquid-infused membranes have been shown to mitigate membrane biofouling. Here, the long-term stability of these membrane have been tested and analyzed using bacterial growth curve models.