Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-28DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00347-x
Wen-Wei Li, Han-Qing Yu
{"title":"Electro-driven residual-free approach for removal of antibiotic resistance genes","authors":"Wen-Wei Li, Han-Qing Yu","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00347-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00347-x","url":null,"abstract":"Current water disinfection practices still face unpredictable health risks associated with carcinogenic byproducts and bacterial resistance. Rationally synergizing electroporation and electrochemical oxidation approaches offers a promising solution.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 12","pages":"1151-1152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-27DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00340-4
Luoxing Xiang, Xingtao Xu, Yijie Liu, Han Zhang, Ruibo Xu, Chen Li, Fugui Xu, Yusuke Yamauchi, Yiyong Mai
{"title":"Curvature-induced ion docking effect in capacitive deionization","authors":"Luoxing Xiang, Xingtao Xu, Yijie Liu, Han Zhang, Ruibo Xu, Chen Li, Fugui Xu, Yusuke Yamauchi, Yiyong Mai","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00340-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00340-4","url":null,"abstract":"Traditional capacitive deionization (CDI) materials usually exhibit low salt adsorption capacities due to the limitations in optimizing their specific surface area and chemical composition. Here we introduced the curvature parameter as a new variable for designing high-performance CDI electrodes. On the basis of a comprehensive surface curvature/electric field model, we found that smaller surface curvature radii may result in higher-concentration ion distributions. As a typical experimental example, bicontinuous mesoporous polypyrrole with saddle-shaped high-curvature surfaces demonstrated an enhanced ion docking effect, which provided high salt adsorption capacity values of 262.7 mg g−1 at 1.2 V and 312.5 mg g−1 at 100 mA g−1, along with an ultra-long cycling life of over 2,000 cycles. This CDI performance surpassed those of all previously reported CDI electrodes. This study provides a new design paradigm based on curvature structural engineering for next-generation CDI materials and demonstrates a promising approach for developing large-scale and sustainable high-performance CDI devices. A design principle based on the curvature parameter provides important guidance for the design of capacitive deionization electrodes.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 12","pages":"1195-1206"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-27DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00339-x
Xiaochen Zhang, Fei Yu, Jie Ma
{"title":"Ion docking with a twist","authors":"Xiaochen Zhang, Fei Yu, Jie Ma","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00339-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00339-x","url":null,"abstract":"A curvature-induced ion docking effect can be used to enhance the ion storage capacity in capacitive deionization processes, leading to unprecedented water purification efficiency.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 12","pages":"1147-1148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-18DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00341-3
Vasilis Fthenakis, Zhuoran Zhang
{"title":"Making production of water with desalination more sustainable","authors":"Vasilis Fthenakis, Zhuoran Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00341-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00341-3","url":null,"abstract":"Challenges with brine management often result in the abandonment of desalination project plans. Minimizing or eliminating brine discharges from desalination plants can enable a wider adoption of a technology that is needed as climate change stretches fresh water supplies.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1057-1058"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-18DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00350-2
{"title":"Co-existing sanitation systems in dense urban areas","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00350-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00350-2","url":null,"abstract":"A range of co-existing and integrated sanitation systems, from onsite to sewered and centralized to decentralized, is needed to improve sanitation access in rapidly expanding cities around the globe.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1041-1041"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00350-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-18DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00327-1
Margaret G. O’Connell, Neha Rajendran, Menachem Elimelech, Jack Gilron, Jennifer B. Dunn
{"title":"Analysis of energy, water, land and cost implications of zero and minimal liquid discharge desalination technologies","authors":"Margaret G. O’Connell, Neha Rajendran, Menachem Elimelech, Jack Gilron, Jennifer B. Dunn","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00327-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00327-1","url":null,"abstract":"Desalination is increasingly essential to ensure access to water as climate change and population growth stress fresh water supplies. Already in use in water-stressed regions around the world, desalination generates fresh water from salty sources, and in doing so forms a concentrated brine that requires disposal. There is a growing push for the adoption of zero/minimal liquid discharge (ZLD/MLD) technologies that recover additional water from this brine, thereby reducing the liquid volumes requiring disposal. In this analysis, we evaluated the cost, energy and sustainability impacts of 7 overarching treatment trains with 75 different configurations. We found ZLD/MLD water recoveries ranging from 32.6% to 98.6%, but with steep energy and cost trade-offs that underscore the crucial roles of ion-specific separations, heat integration and clean energy sources. We explored the key trade-offs between cost, energy and water recovery, elucidating the increasingly tight connections that are central to the energy–water nexus and desalination. Desalination brine remains a challenge that zero/minimal liquid discharge aims to solve. Spanning 75 treatment scenarios, this analysis evaluates the trade-offs that underscore the crucial roles of ion specificity, heat integration and clean energy.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1116-1127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00327-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A portfolio approach to achieving universal sanitation","authors":"Abishek Sankara Narayan, Caetano Dorea, Juliet Willetts, Liron Friedman, Pradip Kalbar, Kartik Chandran","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00336-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00336-0","url":null,"abstract":"Sanitation could evolve beyond its traditional focus on public health and environmental protection to address broader challenges. A portfolio approach is proposed, integrating diverse systems at various scales to optimize benefits including economic value, resource efficiency, climate resilience and human dignity.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1044-1047"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-08DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00332-4
Nan Wu, Stuart W. D. Grieve, Andrew J. Manning, Kate L. Spencer
{"title":"Flocs as vectors for microplastics in the aquatic environment","authors":"Nan Wu, Stuart W. D. Grieve, Andrew J. Manning, Kate L. Spencer","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00332-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00332-4","url":null,"abstract":"Microplastics (MPs) are an important component of suspended particulate matter in aquatic environments with two main transport modes, that is, as individual entities or in flocs. Despite its importance to MP pollution management, understanding and predicting MP flocculation remains a challenge. In this Article, we combined a meta-analysis of published data (>2,000 measurements) with new experimental data (>4,000 measurements) to investigate which size fraction of MPs can be incorporated into and transported by flocs in the aquatic environment. The size relationship between MPs and flocs can be used to predict the flocculation of MPs in various aquatic environments, and we have proposed a mathematical model to show that small MPs (<162 µm) are predominantly transported as flocs, regardless of the physicochemical characteristics of the MPs or water body. This provides valuable information to predict the transport modes of MPs, presenting a critical insight for multiple environmental settings and future pollution control strategies. Microplastics dispersed in the environment can be transported as single entities or in flocs. Analysis of existing and new data shows that microplastic transport can be modelled in a way that is consistent with a predominance of floc movement.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1082-1090"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-024-00332-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature waterPub Date : 2024-11-05DOI: 10.1038/s44221-024-00337-z
Ligy Philip
{"title":"Overlooking the critical nexus between water, sanitation, and health","authors":"Ligy Philip","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00337-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00337-z","url":null,"abstract":"Water, sanitation, and health are inseparable — poor planning risks contaminating water sources and sowing the seeds of long-term health crises.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1042-1043"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Water infrastructure of all, by all, for all","authors":"Taikan Oki, Junji Hashimoto, Michio Murakami, Michiru Sasagawa, Shinichiro Nakamura","doi":"10.1038/s44221-024-00338-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-024-00338-y","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable water management relies on water infrastructure that encompasses artificial structures and natural ecosystems, along with the cooperation of people and various organizations.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"2 11","pages":"1048-1050"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672780","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}