Today, nanotechnologies (NTs) are well established in both private households and commercial markets. NTs are fully accepted in several sectors, such as medicine and pharmacy, and in industries, such as chemistry, electricity, food production, military, and other commercial branches, due to their unique properties. With regard to the growing demands for environmental resources caused by the still-growing global population, the application of NTs is an extremely important new branch in the environmental sector, delivering several advantages. Our review provides a comprehensive overview of the current developments in environmental remediation, wastewater treatment, drinking water treatment, and agriculture. More specifically, in the section on environmental remediation, we review the application of NTs towards enhanced reductive dechlorination, removal of heavy metals and remediation of oil spills. In the section on wastewater treatment, we highlight developments in the adsorption of heavy metals and persistent substances, advanced photocatalytic degradation of common wastewater pollutants, and improvements in membrane filtration processes. In the section on drinking water treatment, we discuss applications for the enhanced disinfection of pathogens, removal of heavy metals, point-of-use treatments, and the removal of organic matter. In the final section, on agriculture, we provide an overview of precision farming and the current state of the art concerning nanofertilisers, nanopesticides, nanoherbicides, and nano(bio)sensors.

Aminophosphonates such as aminotris(methylenephosphonic acid) (ATMP) are common constituents of antiscalants. In nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) processes, ATMP prevents inorganic scaling leading to more stable membrane performance. So far, little attention has been paid to the possible permeation of aminophosphonates through NF and RO membranes. We have investigated the permeability of these membrane types for ATMP and its potential metabolites iminodi(methylenephosphonic acid) (IDMP) and amino(methylenephosphonic acid) (AMPA) with two different NF membranes (TS40 and TS80) and one RO membrane (ACM2) and three different water compositions (ultra-pure water, synthetic tap water and local tap water). We found traces of phosphonates in all investigated permeates. The highest phosphonate rejection occurred with local tap water for all three membranes investigated. Filtration experiments with a technical antiscalant formulation containing ATMP indicated similar trends of phosphonate permeability through all three membranes. We assume that the separation mechanisms of the membranes are the results of a very complex relationship between physico-chemical properties such as Donnan exclusion, feed pH, feed ionic strength and feed concentration, as well as solute–solute interactions.

Background: Sustainability of energy is key for quality life; thus, the use of clean energy at the household level warrants moving from fossil-based energy to modern forms like biogas. However, the joint interactive effect of household income, biogas usage and willingness to adopt a single-stage solar-supported hyper-thermophilic anaerobic biogas digester (SSHTABD) is not known.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out to assess the willingness of residents of Elmina to adopt the SSHTABD. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select 219 respondents fitted into a complementary log–log regression model.Results: Household willingness to adopt the SSHTABD was 86%. Among them are households not willing to use biogas but have high income and households willing to use biogas but have either low or high income are more likely to adopt the technology compared to households not willing to use biogas and have low income. Households not willing to use biogas, but have high income (OR = 1.725, confidence interval [CI] 0.803–3.706) and households willing to use biogas, but have low income (OR = 1.877, CI 1.103–3.188) compared to households willing to use biogas and have high income (OR = 1.725, CI 1.080–3.451) are more likely to adopt the technology as households not willing to use biogas and have low income. Additionally, households employed under the formal government sector, formal and informal private sectors are 40%, 136% and 103%, respectively, more likely to adopt the technology than those unemployed.Conclusion: The high willingness of households to adopt the technology calls for government to support households to own biogas digesters thus requires policy interventions and interdisciplinary research.

The UV treatment of 6:2 FTAB involves the mitigation of this persistent chemical by the impact of ultraviolet radiation, which is known for its resistance to environmental breakdown. UV treatment of PFOA and/or 6:2 FTAB, and the role of responsible species and their mechanism have been presented. Our investigation focused on the degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonamide alkyl betaine (6:2 FTAB, Capstone B), using UV photolysis under various pH conditions. Initially, we used PFOA as a reference, finding a 90% decomposition after 360 min at the original (unadjusted) pH 5.6, with a decomposition rate constant of (1.08 ± 0.30) × 10⁻⁴ sec⁻¹ and a half-life of 107 ± 2 min. At pH 4 and 7, degradation averaged 85% and 80%, respectively, while at pH 10, it reduced to 57%. For 6:2 FTAB at its natural pH 6.5, almost complete decomposition occurred. The primary UV transformation product was identified as 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonic acid (6:2 FTSA), occasionally accompanied by shorter-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) including PFHpA, PFHxA, and PFPeA. Interestingly, the overall decomposition percentages were unaffected by pH for 6:2 FTAB, though pH influenced rate constants and half-lives. In PFOA degradation, direct photolysis and reaction with hydrated electrons were presumed mechanisms, excluding the involvement of hydroxyl radicals. The role of superoxide radicals remains uncertain. For 6:2 FTAB, both direct and indirect photolysis were observed, with potential involvement of hydroxyl, superoxide radicals, and/or other reactive oxygen species (ROS). Clarification is needed regarding the role of $e_{aq}^{-}$ in the degradation of 6:2 FTAB.

Aminophosphonate diethylenetriamine penta(methylenephosphonic acid) (DTPMP) is a scale inhibitor commonly used in several industries. DTPMP is suspected to cause anthropogenic pollution through discharge into the aquatic environment. DTPMP is assumed to be degraded by sunlight radiation. We recently predicted a preliminary degradation pathway of DTPMP applying UV treatment. Currently, we have not yet evidenced that DTPMP shows the same degradation pattern with natural sunlight. One major reason leads to the fact that the light spectrum emitted by UV lamps does not completely represent the natural sunlight spectrum, and the emitted UVB and UVA irradiation flux is much higher than for solar light. For that reason, the degradation pattern and kinetics might be different between artificial UV treatment and natural sunlight treatment. Here, we investigated whether DTPMP is degradable under natural sunlight radiation, and whether the degradation mechanisms determined through UV treatment are transferable to sunlight. We investigated five different treatment conditions, i.e., DTPMP degradation in direct or diffuse sunlight, in diffuse sunlight with addition of Ca²⁺ or Mg²⁺, and in diffuse sunlight with local TW. Our experiment was carried out from March 2021 to October 2021. We performed LC/MS analyses and measured the release of o-PO₄³⁻. DTPMP was degraded with all five treatment conditions. The fastest DTPMP degradation occurred in direct and diffuse sunlight without addition of bivalent cations. The addition of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ resulted in inhibited degradation. Similar effects occurred for sunlight treatment with local TW. We evidenced different degradation mechanisms for DTPMP depending on the presence of alkaline earth metals as we previously proposed for UV-treated DTPMP. However, both degradation mechanisms of DTPMP belong to the same degradation pathway determined with UV treatment. Therefore, we conclude that DTPMP undergoes a similar degradation pathway in sunlight as compared to UV light.

Ghana spends over $4000 (US dollars) annually managing municipal solid waste (MSW) with little improvement in regional sanitation. Energy demand in the country is also on the rise. Therefore, addressing waste problems via the waste-to-energy valorization approach is necessary for dual benefits. This paper thus seeks to comprehensively review Ghana's MSW's proximate and ultimate compositions for biological and thermochemical conversions. Studies between 2011 and 2024 were analyzed. The findings revealed that the organic fraction of Ghana’s MSW is currently about 10.47Kt per day. The proximate analysis reveals a moisture content from 13.55 – 61.9 %, volatile matter ranges from 6.24 - 80.25%, and the calorific value ranges from 14.96-21.46MJ/Kg. The ultimate analysis revealed that the carbon-to-nitrogen ratios range from 24.3-32.2, and the hydrogen content ranges from 5.53-22.8%. The sulphur and nitrogen contents were below 0.6 and 1.7% respectively. Approximately 2,534.65 GWh of electricity is estimated from the organic fraction. Ghana’s MSW is more suited for biochemical conversions.