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Improve water quality through meaningful, not just any, citizen science

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Rathenau Instituut, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands

Affiliation HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

• Anne-Floor M. Schölvinck, 
• Wout Scholten, 
• Paul J. M. Diederen

Published: December 7, 2022

• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000065
• Reader Comments

Citation: Schölvinck A-FM, Scholten W, Diederen PJM (2022) Improve water quality through meaningful, not just any, citizen science. PLOS Water 1(12): e0000065. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pwat.0000065

Editor: Debora Walker, PLOS: Public Library of Science, UNITED STATES

Copyright: © 2022 Schölvinck et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Water pollution is an urgent and complex problem worldwide, with many dire consequences for ecosystems, human health and economic development. Although policy measures in OECD countries have helped to reduce point source pollution, the situation is set to worsen: population growth and climate change are placing increasing pressures on the ability of water bodies to process wastewater, nutrients and contaminants [ 1 ].

For future generations to maintain a sufficient supply of clean drinking water and to retain a vital level of biodiversity, it is critical to involve the general public in dealing with the problems of water quality and water pollution. One specifically important and increasingly prominent way for the general public to get acquainted with water quality issues is through participation in research projects. All around the world numerous citizen science (CS) projects take place in the field of (drinking) water quality, hydrology, groundwater levels, and water biology [ 2 ]. In most cases these projects are motivated by the enormous potential volunteering citizens have to increase the temporal and spatial data availability. We argue that the value of many CS projects lies beyond data availability, in the broader societal benefits that these projects aspire or claim to achieve. In turn, these benefits could improve the way we approach water quality issues. The list of claimed and potential benefits is long: raising awareness, democratisation of science, development of mutual trust, confidence, and respect between scientists, authorities and the public, increased knowledge and scientific literacy, social learning, incorporation of local, traditional and indigenous knowledge, increased social capital, citizen empowerment, behavioural change, improved environment, health and livelihoods, and finally motivational benefits [ 3 ].

Many of these broader societal benefits of public engagement with water research are especially important to battle water related issues worldwide. Increased ‘water awareness’ among the public is needed to encourage a general sense of urgency and hence support for research investments and policy measures. In the Netherlands, like in many other countries, many citizens take safe and clean (drinking) water for granted [ 4 ]. Therefore, people are not sufficiently aware what investments are needed to provide safe tap water and what they themselves should do to reduce domestic water pollution. To truly counter the dangers of deteriorating water quality, water science and policy must be organised more inclusively and democratically.

The potential societal effect of CS in the water quality sector is substantial. In the Netherlands alone, more than 100,000 citizens volunteer as ‘sensors’ or observers in the numerous nature oriented research projects, in which they, for example, count aquatic animals or measure the chemical composition of river water. These projects are generally low-threshold, because the research tasks are relatively simple and adapted to the limited expertise and research skills of the participants. The large-scale and long-term monitoring done by volunteers would be unaffordable if carried out by professionals [ 5 ]. In other CS projects, though smaller in quantity, citizens have a larger degree of control. This is a gradual difference, typically divided in four categories, ranging from contributory (lowest level of control) to collaborative, co-creative and finally collegial [ 6 ]. Alternatively, these levels have been designated crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, participatory science and extreme citizen science [ 7 ]. We consider all these levels of control as participating in research, even when the volunteers merely function as observers.

Although the potential benefits of citizen involvement with research projects are numerous and the potential societal impact is high, there are two main obstacles that must be overcome. First, the actual effects of these types of projects, other than the well-reported scientific benefits, remain largely unknown [ 3 , 8 , 9 ]. Do participants have an increased understanding of the concerns of water quality researchers? Do they flush fewer medicines down the toilet? Do they avoid using pesticides in their gardens? Moreover, in order to truly raise public awareness and support for policies addressing water quality, it is important to not only get people involved who are already interested in nature, water quality and/or scientific research. The challenge is to have a diverse group of participants and to involve hard-to-reach groups [ 10 ].

Second, the dominant picture of CS projects, in our own Dutch based study as well as all across the world [ 3 ], is that most citizens participate in the collection of research data. Recalling Shirk et al.’s typology of involvement [ 6 ], this can be considered the lowest level of control and participation. Researchers, policy makers and interest groups hope that this type of involvement will generate public support for more scientific research and more effective policy measures to improve water quality, but citizens performing more significant roles in the research process is still uncommon.

From our analysis, we draw three recommendations to overcome these obstacles and to move beyond CS in water research for the sake of research only, in order to make it more meaningful in a broader, societal sense. For a start, we recommend to thoroughly evaluate the effect of citizen science on the attitudes , behaviour and knowledge of participants and on the system as a whole . As mentioned above, and also pointed out by Somerwill & Wehn [ 9 ], ‘the exact impacts of citizen science are still to be fully and comprehensively understood, while up to date impact assessment methods and frameworks are not yet fully integrated in practice’. Since the potential and claimed benefits are substantial, there is a considerable responsibility to prove these effects and to improve CS project designs to stimulate the occurrence of these benefits. Recent work provides the necessary tools to guide professional researchers and citizens to build the right project designs [ 11 , 12 ], integrate working evaluations [ 9 ], and consider several factors for successful CS projects [ 2 ]. It also needs to be established how to include diverse groups of participants, including the ones with a low interest in nature and environmental issues.

Secondly, we recommend to involve participants more intensively in agenda setting and research design . Currently, the threshold to participate in CS projects tends to be fairly low, but so is the level of control and participation. Tasks of citizen scientists are typically limited and so is their sense of project ownership, although the likelihood of actual effects taking place increases with an increased degree of control for participants [ 3 ]. For instance, a number of projects report a rise or restoration of trust in local authorities and research institutions ‘due to the co-production process and the appreciation of local knowledge’ [ 3 , 13 ].

There is ample potential to increase participation to more shared decision-making on the purpose and design of the research. An important step would be to open up the drafting of research agendas to diverse groups of citizens and societal actors. This type of citizen involvement is already common practice in other fields of research. One might look at some research fields within health and healthcare studies as good practices. ‘Nothing about us without us’ has become a guiding principle, also within health research (see one of our other studies, on public engagement in psychiatry research [ 14 ]).

In the Netherlands, it is becoming common practice for experts by experience (current patients, recovered patients, patient associations) to have a seat at the table when funding decisions are made. Funding agencies increasingly demand applicants to demonstrate how they included patients or other experts by experience in the development of their research proposal. Funding agencies also include patient associations in the development of their research and funding agendas. These practices show that more shared-decision making processes are possible. We consider three conditions that are crucial for meaningful involvement: A) leadership and management of funding agencies to actively value and endorse public engagement leading to changes in their modus operandi; B) training and support for participating citizens, experts by experience and other societal stakeholders; C) researchers who do not regard public engagement as just another box to tick, but who truly integrate public engagement in their research design. This also means these researchers should be incentivised to integrate public engagement in their research, which points to necessary changes in the way they are recognised and rewarded [ 15 ].

Lastly, we recommend to employ public involvement as an extra stimulus for the practical application of knowledge . For professional scientists, the participation of volunteers in research has concrete value. They use the inputs to improve data availability, improve data quality and for their publications. For participants, the benefit is less tangible. Often, their only reward is the joy of the experience itself. However, as participants contribute more, there is a risk of exploitation. We emphasise that intrinsic motivations are most important for participants, but these motivations go beyond the joy of the experience, such as learning, environmental concern, making a difference, and social aspects of participation [ 2 , 16 ]. Rewards should fit these main drivers of participants for instance by showing how their engagement makes a difference, and by public acknowledgement for their work. A stronger incentive for participation could be provided by showing how the research contributes to the improvement of the (local) natural environment, water quality and biodiversity. Therefore, researchers should provide the volunteers with feedback about the results of the study to which they contributed. Beyond this act of courtesy, they should derive inspiration from the interaction with societal actors to focus more on the societal impact of their work. Some scholars emphasise how several motivations and effects of CS projects reinforce one another to create a desired upwards spiral (e.g. more knowledge and scientific literacy → more environmental concern → intrinsic motivation to make a difference → greater participation in CS projects → more knowledge and scientific literacy) [ 2 ], [ 3 ]. Professional scientists could and should play an active role in realising these societal effects.

In all, citizen science has great potential in water quality research. In fact, numerous projects already illustrate the value of CS to improve water quality around the world. It may help fight the dire threats of water pollution, by raising water awareness, strengthening public support for research, and ultimately for better policies and changes in behaviour. Yet, to reap success with citizen science fully, it should be purposefully designed for such broader societal goals. Therefore, efforts must be made to get a better understanding of the effects of research participation on volunteers, to involve citizen scientist in research agenda setting and the design of research projects, and to listen to them for the practical application of research results.

This article is based on the Dutch report Scholten W, Schölvinck AFM, Van Ewijk S, Diederen PJM. Open science op de oever–Publieke betrokkenheid bij onderzoek naar waterkwaliteit. The Hague: Rathenau Instituut; 2020. Available from: https://www.rathenau.nl/nl/vitale-kennisecosystemen/open-science-op-de-oever [ 17 ].

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• 15. Felt U. “Response-able practices” or “new bureaucracies of virtue”: The challenges of making RRI work in academic environments. In: Asveld L, Van Dam-Mieras R, Swierstra T, Lavrijssen S, Linse K, Van den Hoven J, editors. Responsible Innovation 3: A European Agenda? Cham: Springer; 2017. pp. 49–68.

Discharge from a Chinese fertilizer factory winds its way toward the Yellow River. Like many of the world's rivers, pollution remains an ongoing problem.

Water pollution is a rising global crisis. Here’s what you need to know.

The world's freshwater sources receive contaminants from a wide range of sectors, threatening human and wildlife health.

From big pieces of garbage to invisible chemicals, a wide range of pollutants ends up in our planet's lakes, rivers, streams, groundwater, and eventually the oceans. Water pollution—along with drought, inefficiency, and an exploding population—has contributed to a freshwater crisis , threatening the sources we rely on for drinking water and other critical needs.

Research has revealed that one pollutant in particular is more common in our tap water than anyone had previously thought: PFAS, short for poly and perfluoroalkyl substances. PFAS is used to make everyday items resistant to moisture, heat, and stains; some of these chemicals have such long half-lives that they are known as "the forever chemical."

Safeguarding water supplies is important because even though nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. And just one percent of freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in remote glaciers and snowfields.

Water pollution causes

Water pollution can come from a variety of sources. Pollution can enter water directly, through both legal and illegal discharges from factories, for example, or imperfect water treatment plants. Spills and leaks from oil pipelines or hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations can degrade water supplies. Wind, storms, and littering—especially of plastic waste —can also send debris into waterways.

Thanks largely to decades of regulation and legal action against big polluters, the main cause of U.S. water quality problems is now " nonpoint source pollution ," when pollutants are carried across or through the ground by rain or melted snow. Such runoff can contain fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides from farms and homes; oil and toxic chemicals from roads and industry; sediment; bacteria from livestock; pet waste; and other pollutants .

Finally, drinking water pollution can happen via the pipes themselves if the water is not properly treated, as happened in the case of lead contamination in Flint, Michigan , and other towns. Another drinking water contaminant, arsenic , can come from naturally occurring deposits but also from industrial waste.

Freshwater pollution effects

Water pollution can result in human health problems, poisoned wildlife, and long-term ecosystem damage. When agricultural and industrial runoff floods waterways with excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, these nutrients often fuel algae blooms that then create dead zones , or low-oxygen areas where fish and other aquatic life can no longer thrive.

Algae blooms can create health and economic effects for humans, causing rashes and other ailments, while eroding tourism revenue for popular lake destinations thanks to their unpleasant looks and odors. High levels of nitrates in water from nutrient pollution can also be particularly harmful to infants , interfering with their ability to deliver oxygen to tissues and potentially causing " blue baby syndrome ." The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 38 percent of the European Union's water bodies are under pressure from agricultural pollution.

Globally, unsanitary water supplies also exact a health toll in the form of disease. At least 2 billion people drink water from sources contaminated by feces, according to the World Health Organization , and that water may transmit dangerous diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Freshwater pollution solutions

In many countries, regulations have restricted industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, and rivers, while treatment plants make our drinking water safe to consume. Researchers are working on a variety of other ways to prevent and clean up pollution. National Geographic grantee Africa Flores , for example, has created an artificial intelligence algorithm to better predict when algae blooms will happen. A number of scientists are looking at ways to reduce and cleanup plastic pollution .

There have been setbacks, however. Regulation of pollutants is subject to changing political winds, as has been the case in the United States with the loosening of environmental protections that prevented landowners from polluting the country’s waterways.

Anyone can help protect watersheds by disposing of motor oil, paints, and other toxic products properly , keeping them off pavement and out of the drain. Be careful about what you flush or pour down the sink, as it may find its way into the water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends using phosphate-free detergents and washing your car at a commercial car wash, which is required to properly dispose of wastewater. Green roofs and rain gardens can be another way for people in built environments to help restore some of the natural filtering that forests and plants usually provide.

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• WATER POLLUTION
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New 'forever chemical' cleanup strategy discovered

Method deals with pollution from fire suppressant foams.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cracks down on insidious "forever chemical" pollution in the environment, military and commercial aviation officials are seeking ways to clean up such pollution from decades of use of fire suppressant foams at military air bases and commercial airports.

Fire-suppression foams contain hundreds unhealthful forever chemicals, known by chemists as PFAS or poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances. These compounds have stubbornly strong fluorine-to-carbon bonds, which allow them to persist indefinitely in the environment, hence the moniker "forever chemicals." Also found many other products, PFAS compounds now contaminate groundwater supplies tapped by municipal water suppliers at many locations throughout the nation.

Because they are linked to higher risks for certain cancers and other maladies, the EPA imposed a new rule last month requiring water utilities to reduce contamination if levels exceeded 4 parts per trillion for certain PFAS compounds.

Fortunately, a collaborative discovery by scientists at UC Riverside and Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., provides a new strategy to clean up these pollutants.

The method was detailed this month in the journal Nature Water . It involves treating heavily contaminated water with ultra-violet (UV) light, sulfite, and a process called electrochemical oxidation, explained UCR associate professor Jinyong Liu.

"In this work, we continued our research on the UV-based treatment, but this time, we had a collaboration with an electrochemical oxidation expert at Clarkson University," said Liu, who has published nearly 20 papers on treating PFAS pollutants in contaminated water.. "We put these two steps together and we achieved near-complete destruction of PFAS in various water samples contaminated by the foams."

Liu said the collaboration with a team led by assistant professor Yang Yang at Clarkson solved major technical problems. For instance, the foams contain various other concentrated organic compounds that hinder the breakup of the strong fluorine-to-carbon bonds in the PFAS compounds.

Liu and Yang, however, found that electrochemical oxidation also breaks up these organics. Their process also allows these reactions to occur at room temperature without a need for additional heat or high pressure to stimulate the reaction.

"In the real world, the contaminated water can be very complicated," Liu said. "It contains a lot of things that might potentially slow down the reaction."

PFAS compounds have been used in thousands of products ranging from potato chip bags to non-stick cookware, but fire-suppressing foams are a major source of PFAS pollution in groundwater because have been used for for decades to extinguish aviation fuel fires at hundreds of military sites and commercial airports. These foams were also routinely applied to minor fuel spills as a precautionary measure to prevent fires.

Invented by the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, the foams form an aqueous film around burning gasoline and other flammable liquids, which quickly deprives the fire of oxygen and extinguishes it. Because of widespread use, the Department of Defense ordered assessments of 715 military sites nationally for PFAS releases and, by the end of last year, found that 574 of these sites need further investigations or cleanups as required by federal law.

PFAS cleanups became more urgent last month when the EPA imposed a new rule requiring water utilities to reduce contamination if levels exceeded 4 parts per trillion for certain PFAS compounds.

Liu said the method he developed with Yang is well suited for cleansing heavily contaminated water used to flush out tanks, hoses, and other firefighting equipment. The method also can be used to treat leftover containers of PFAS-containing foams.

Their method can also help water utilities deal with groundwater pollution. Contaminated groundwater is often treated through ion exchange technologies in which the PFAS molecules glob onto resin beads in large treatment tanks. The UV light and electrochemical oxidation method developed by Liu and Yang also can assist the regeneration of beads so they can be recycled, Liu said.

"We want to have sustainable management of the resin," Liu said. "We want to reuse it."

The study's title is "Near-complete destruction of PFAS in aqueous film-forming foam by integrated photo-electrochemical processes." In addition to Liu and Yang, its authors are Yunqiao Guan, Zekun Liu, Nanyang Yang, Shasha Yang, and Luz Estefanny Quispe-Cardenas, who are current or former graduate students at UCR and Clarkson.

This research was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.

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Materials provided by University of California - Riverside . Original written by David Danelski. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Yunqiao Guan, Zekun Liu, Nanyang Yang, Shasha Yang, Luz Estefanny Quispe-Cardenas, Jinyong Liu, Yang Yang. Near-complete destruction of PFAS in aqueous film-forming foam by integrated photo-electrochemical processes . Nature Water , 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00232-7

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Water pollution in rivers: A long pathway to a better tomorrow

The Ganga, perhaps the most revered river globally, is also unfortunately one of the most polluted today

By Vijay Rana, Kishore Kumar Thakur

Published: monday 06 may 2024.

This article has been updated

Around 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, mostly in the form of oceans. More than 68 per cent of Earth’s freshwater is stored in ice caps and glaciers, with just over 30 per cent found in groundwater. Only about 0.3 per cent of our freshwater is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers and swamps. 

The rest of all the water on Earth, more than 99 per cent, is unusable by humans and many other living things. It’s remarkable that the water sustaining all terrestrial and aquatic life on our planet is actually quite scarce. This realisation emphasises the need to use this resource wisely. 

Educating ourselves and future generations is a crucial first step in achieving this goal. So, the lesson teaches us that rivers are not just sources of water, but rather the backbone of human civilisation. Rivers are vital to life because all life forms depend on them. Rivers provide us with freshwater, which is essential for farming, drinking, transportation, electricity generation and recreational activities.

According to a study conducted by UNICEF and WHO, approximately one in four individuals worldwide lacks access to safe drinking water. Similarly, the World Bank highlighted that the health costs attributed to water pollution in India constitute around 3 per cent of the nation’s GDP, totalling nearly $6.7-8.7 billion on an annual basis. 

The overall cost of environmental degradation in India is estimated to be approximately $80 billion. Furthermore, an estimated 37.7 million people in India suffer from waterborne illnesses annually, encompassing gastrointestinal diseases, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid. Beyond its economic impact, the inadequate provision of water, sanitation and hygiene contributes to the loss of millions of lives each year in India and globally.

In India, rivers are worshipped and since ancient times, River Ganga has been revered as the most sacred and spiritual river. It holds a distinct place culturally, spiritually and environmentally. It is often referred to as Mother Ganga out of profound reverence. The water of Ganga ( Gangajal ) is not solely intended for human use, irrigation and fishing but also for the purification of sins and devotion to God, according to Hindu beliefs. 

The Ganga, perhaps the most revered river globally, is also unfortunately one of the most polluted today. The river is being used to carry untreated waste, disposed idols as well as human and animal remains, sewage, chemical waste and wastewater and other garbage. This situation is not unique to the Ganges but extends to other rivers like the Sabarmati and Yamuna as well. 

Some factors primarily contribute to the condition of rivers, including unethical behaviour by individuals, uncontrolled industrial activities, discharge of untreated sewage effluents into rivers by municipalities and improper waste disposal in small cities and towns.

The central and state governments have indeed made efforts to conserve rivers. The Indian Government has launched several programmes and policies aimed at the conservation and rejuvenation of rivers across the country. Some notable initiatives include: Namami Gange (National Mission for Clean Ganga), National River Conservation Plan, National Mission for Clean Chambal, National Mission for Clean Narmada and National River Linking Project. 

Also, the Central Pollution Control Board, along with various state pollution control boards, undertake initiatives aimed at cleaning and conserving rivers in India. These initiatives typically involve monitoring and regulation, enforcement of environmental laws, capacity building and awareness, implementation of river rejuvenation projects, and research and development. But even after so many efforts by the central and state governments, this problem remains unresolved.

The main reason for these issues lies within ourselves, as the garbage thrown into the rivers is discarded by us. Therefore, it is imperative for us to take the initiative to keep rivers clean. Only then can we raise awareness among society and individuals and we must pledge that the river, which selflessly sacrifices everything for human civilisation, deserves to be kept clean in return. 

In this context, government organisations and society will need to play an active role in implementing measures such as banning plastic, ensuring proper waste disposal in cities, towns, and even small towns, wastewater treatment, promoting awareness, organising river cleanup campaigns, monitoring water quality regularly and collaborating with non-profits. Otherwise, every household may have access to tap and water, but no one will be healthy. Because you will reap what you sow. 

Rivers not only provide water, but also give life. In the Hindu religion, the final journey of human life culminates in the embrace of a river such as the Ganga. Therefore, it is not only significant to worship rivers but also imperative to keep them clean. Only then can the last voyage of life achieve salvation in pure water.

Vijay Rana and Kishore Kumar Thakur are assistant professors at Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India.  Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Comprehensive analysis and evaluation of water quality in the northwest coastal waters of liaodong bay.

• 1 National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian, Liaoning Province, China
• 2 Dalian University, Dalian, China

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In order to understand the pollution degree and eutrophication status of the northwest coastal waters of Liaodong Bay, this study conducted 7 Marine surveys from 2011 to 2020, collected monitoring data from 130 monitoring stations, and systematically evaluated the whole sea area by using single factor mass method, eutrophication index method, potential eutrophication evaluation model and organic pollution index method. The results showed that the main pollution factors were inorganic nitrogen (DIN), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and plumbum (Pb) by single factor index and principal component analysis (PCA). In recent years, the study area basically presents a potential eutrophication state limited by phosphorus, with N/P greater than Redfield ratio. The eutrophication and organic pollution of seawater were positively correlated with DIP and DIN, respectively. Therefore, DIP and DIN are the main factors affecting the overall water quality, which indirectly proves that the quality of seawater water quality is mainly affected by land-based pollution. The research results provide a scientific basis for environmental control in the northwest coastal waters of Liaodong Bay, and provide strong support for continuing to fight the battle of pollution control in coastal waters and accelerating the protection and restoration of water ecological environment.

Keywords: seawater quality, Eutrophication, organic pollution, Liaodong Bay, Ecological environment

Received: 08 Mar 2024; Accepted: 13 May 2024.

Copyright: © 2024 Datao, Shijie, Shuang and Nannan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ji Nannan, Dalian University, Dalian, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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• Published: 14 February 2020

Sustainable water solutions

Nature Sustainability volume  3 ,  page 73 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Engineering approaches to wastewater treatment must aim for more than improved efficiency.

Water is essential to any form of life on Earth — we need enough of it and of the right quality. This is so much at the core of sustainability that we have written about it in previous editorials ( Nat. Sustain . 1 , 151–152 (2018) and Nat. Sustain . 1 , 447 (2018)). Research has long documented the severe impacts that human activities have on both water availability and quality, including in Nature Sustainability more recently. We also know that significantly reducing those impacts is far from easy, especially against prospects of a growing population globally — our diets are based on water, a large portion of energy activities need water in various ways, most manufacturing and consumption activities require some form of water use and, all such activities ultimately produce some kind of wastewater. And it is precisely on wastewater — and how to treat it sustainably — that we want to focus our readers’ attention with this editorial. Given the different forms of water contamination, society needs to identify and implement different solutions. In this issue, we highlight three cases: treatment of wastewater from the oil industry in an Article by Park and colleagues, treatment of desalination brine in an Article by Prasher and collaborators and finally, treatment of water contaminated by glyphosate use in an Article by Halik and co-authors. Park and colleagues show how reusable surface-engineered sponges offer a sustainable solution to efficiently remove crude oil microdroplets from wastewater. Prasher and collaborators demonstrate a scalable surface-heating approach to improve solar evaporation in brine-disposal ponds, usually requiring large surface areas to passively evaporate water for the removal of brine — the solution significantly reduces the need of land to treat wastewater. Halik and co-authors present a method for the efficient remediation of the herbicide glyphosate from water by means of inexpensive, recyclable magnetite nanoparticles. All three studies have some common sustainability features. Of course, the three different solutions discussed have the potential to increase the efficiency of water treatment with respect to commonly used methods. But beyond the improved efficiency, each approach presents one or more additional advantages. Reusability, recyclability, scalability, low cost or reduced need of primary inputs (for example, land), are critical sustainability gains if we embrace an integrated view of what sustainable solutions must be. It is therefore the combination of improved efficiency with any of those gains that makes for socially desirable solutions to the water challenges of our time. We at Nature Sustainability call for more research focusing on such holistic solutions.

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Performance on adsorption of toluene by ionic liquid-modified AC in high-humidity exhaust gas

• Research Article
• Published: 11 May 2024

Cite this article

• Ji-feng Guo 1 ,
• Zhao-li Ping 1 ,
• Nan Liu 2 ,
• Xin Zhang 1 , 3 ,
• Jia-lin Lv 2 ,
• Yan-yan Yao 2 ,
• Jia-jun Hu 4 ,
• Wen-juan Wang 3 , 5 &
• Ji-xiang Li   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6852-9152 3 , 5  

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) frequently pose a threat to the biosphere, impacting ecosystems, flora, fauna, and the surrounding environment. Industrial emissions of VOCs often include the presence of water vapor, which, in turn, diminishes the adsorption capacity and efficacy of adsorbents. This occurs due to the competitive adsorption of water vapor, which competes with target pollutants for adsorption sites on the adsorbent material. In this study, hydrophobic activated carbons (BMIMPF 6 -AC (L), BMIMPF 6 -AC (g), and BMIMPF 6 -AC-H) were successfully prepared using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (BMIMPF 6 ) to adsorb toluene under humidity environment. The adsorption performance and mechanism of the resulting ionic liquid-modified activated carbon for toluene in a high-humidity environment were evaluated to explore the potential application of ionic liquids as hydrophobic modifiers. The results indicated that BMIMPF 6 -AC-H exhibited superior hydrophobicity. The toluene adsorption capacity of BMIMPF 6 -AC-H was 1.53 times higher than that of original activated carbon, while the adsorption capacity for water vapor was only 37.30% of it at 27 °C and 77% RH. The Y-N model well-fitted the dynamic adsorption experiments. To elucidate the microscopic mechanism of hydrophobic modification, the Independent Gradient Model (IGM) method was employed to characterize the intermolecular interactions between BMIMPF 6 and toluene. Overall, this study introduces a new modifier for hydrophobic modification of activated carbon, which could enhance the efficiency of activated carbon in treating industrial VOCs.

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Abbreviations

The initial concentration of toluene, mg·L −1

The outlet concentration at time “t” of toluene, mg·L −1

The energy of BMIMPF 6 , kJ·mol −1

The energy of toluene, kJ·mol −1

The total energy of complex forming by BMIMPF 6 and toluene, kJ·mol −1

The rate constant, min −1

Mass of activated carbons after adsorption, g

Mass of activated carbons before adsorption, g

The gas flow rate, L·min −1

The saturated adsorption capacity for toluene, mg·g −1

The adsorption time, min

The saturation time, min

The half-penetration time at which the concentration ratio of c t / c 0 reaches 0.5, min

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This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFE0122100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22131004), the Leading Scientific Research Project from China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC-CXLM-202205), and the Key Science and Technology Program of Henan Province (242102521035).

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Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effects in Arid Region of the Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Eco-hydrology and Water Security in Arid and Semi-arid Regions of Ministry of Water Resources, School of Water and Environment, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, People’s Republic of China

Ji-feng Guo, Zhao-li Ping & Xin Zhang

Key Laboratory of Pollution Treatment and Resource, China National Light Industry; Department of Material and Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou, 450001, People’s Republic of China

Nan Liu, Jia-lin Lv & Yan-yan Yao

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200120, People’s Republic of China

Xin Zhang, Wen-juan Wang & Ji-xiang Li

Shanghai Key Laboratory of Bio-Energy Crops, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, People’s Republic of China

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

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Conceptualization: Ji-xiang Li; data curation: Ji-feng Guo, Xin Zhang, and Nan Liu; methodology: Jia-jun Hu, Wen-juan Wang, and Ji-xiang Li; formal analysis and investigation: Jia-jun Hu; investigation: Xin Zhang and Jia-lin Lv; writing—original draft preparation: Zhao-li Ping; writing—review and editing: Ji-feng Guo, Zhao-li Ping, and Nan Liu; validation: Zhao-li Ping; software: Jia-lin Lv and Yan-yan Yao; resources: Wen-juan Wang and Ji-xiang Li; supervision: Nan Liu and Wen-juan Wang. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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• Hydrophobic activated carbon was successfully synthesized to adsorb toluene in a high-humidity environment.

• The adsorption capacity of BMIMPF 6 -AC-H for toluene reached 166.71 mg·g −1 at 77% RH and 27 °C.

• The adsorption capacity had increased from 108.61 to 166.71 mg·g −1 compared to original activated carbon.

• The water contact angle and adsorption capacity of BMIMPF 6 -AC-H for water were measured at 111.2° and 30.90 mg·g −1 at 77% RH and 27 °C, respectively.

• The introduction of the hydrophobic PF 6 − group, replacing oxygen functional groups, resulted in a decrease in water adsorption capacity and a corresponding increase in the adsorption capacity for toluene.

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Guo, Jf., Ping, Zl., Liu, N. et al. Performance on adsorption of toluene by ionic liquid-modified AC in high-humidity exhaust gas. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33578-2

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Received : 02 February 2024

Accepted : 30 April 2024

Published : 11 May 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33578-2

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