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Solar-driven reverse distillation integrated with thermal localization has shown attractive solar-to-water conversion efficiency. Solar distillation devices based on reverse-evaporating water layers of millimetre-scale thickness successfully realize simultaneous high efficiency and salt rejection during solar desalination processes.
This article tells the story of the earliest ceramic drainage system unearthed at the Pingliangtai site on the Central Plains of China, which represents an unprecedented social and environmental manipulation as societies faced surging environmental crises in the Late Holocene East Asian Monsoon region.
China’s history of large-scale water, sanitation and clean energy investments offers promising insights into the development of new interventions to reduce linear growth faltering among children and adolescents.
Solar-driven water evaporation shows great potentials for obtaining clean water. An integrated system based on clean water–energy–food with solar-desalination, power generation and crop irrigation functions is a valuable strategy consistent with sustainable development.
Water scarcity and climate change could potentially threaten energy security. This study highlights the importance of integrated power sector planning in resolving water–carbon tradeoffs by coupling unit-level dry cooling technology, alternative water supply and CO2 storage.
This research reveals a previously unrecognized yet potentially widespread biological pathway of methylmercury detoxification, which may exert important controls on the net production and bioaccumulation of the methylmercury toxin in aquatic food webs.
One of the main problems of membranes used in wastewater managements is that they are easily affected by fouling. A thin-film composite nanoporous membrane obtained by co-deposition of dopamine and polyethyleneimine shows effective electrodialytic fractionation of organics and NaCl with almost zero membrane fouling.
Surface water quality is impacted by climate change and human activities. This study identifies Sub-Saharan Africa as a major future hotspot of surface water pollution by applying a high-resolution global surface water quality model up to 2100.
Although the transformation of bacteria due to the presence of contaminants in wastewater is often attributed to geometrical aspects, studying the impact of physical and chemical stressors shows that geometry is not the only factor to be taken into account.
The combination of ultraviolet-C emitting diodes with side-emitting optical fibres can be used to effectively inhibit biofilm formation, as demonstrated within the water system of the International Space Station.
Sorbent-assisted atmospheric water harvesting is one of the technologies currently explored to produce clean water especially in dry land locations. A metal–organic framework harvester has been shown to harvest water effectively in the Death Valley.
Precipitation extremes could impact our society and ecosystems. This study investigates the historical intensification of extreme precipitation and the mechanisms by disentangling the contributions of different forcings.
Rivers are important reservoirs of plastic pollution. This study demonstrates that fluvial floods drive macroplastic transport and accumulation in rivers with unique observational evidence during the July 2021 flood along the Dutch Meuse River.
Enhancing the advanced oxidation processes used in potable reuse treatment trains represents an attractive target for reducing the energy intensity of the train. Switching the UV wavelength from 254 nm to 222 nm improves contaminant degradation by both direct photolysis and reaction with radicals, offering substantial efficiency gains.
Achieving zero liquid discharge is an essential step towards the sustainability of hypersaline brine treatment. A potential method to achieve zero liquid discharge on the basis of electrodialysis crystallization is now demonstrated.
Although we know that microplastic is a huge contaminant of water resources, a connection between its source and its fate is largely missing. Combining a high-resolution microplastic release model with a fate model in rivers and lakes allows the prediction of masses of microplastics in each river section on a country level.
The rapid urbanization in China calls for an expansion of urban wastewater treatment systems, which in turn may exacerbate climate impacts. With an extensive and integrated application of existing low-carbon technologies for wastewater treatment, sludge disposal and water reuse, it is possible to substantially decouple urban water stress mitigation from greenhouse gas emissions.
This study reveals trade-offs in freshwater savings, cost and capacity shortfalls from deploying treated brackish water for wet thermoelectric cooling, as well as its cost-effectiveness, relative to dry cooling retrofit, in saving freshwater.
Heterogeneous water disinfection is a promising way to avoid secondary pollution, but it is not very efficient. The development of nanoflakes shows that a much higher efficiency than previously achieved can be achieved through solar-driven heterogeneous disinfection.
Physicochemical defluorination is arguably the best pathway to degrade polyfluoroalkyl substances. In the case of chlorinated polyfluorocarboxylic acids, it is shown that substantial defluorination can be achieved by an anaerobic microbial community via novel pathways triggered by anaerobic hydrolytic dechlorination.