The growing demands for sanitary regulations in medical facilities, particularly operating rooms, highlight the importance of ensuring high air quality and minimizing airborne hospital-acquired infections. Improperly designed ventilation systems may lead to contamination of up to 90–95% of patients, especially in light of evolving threats, such as COVID-19. This study focuses on enhancing the energy efficiency and performance of air conditioning and ventilation systems for cleanrooms, where air recirculation is not permissible. A novel energy-efficient direct-flow air treatment scheme is proposed, integrating a heat pump system with adjustable thermal output. A computational fluid dynamics CFD model of a clean operating room was developed to assess the impact of inlet air velocity on aerosol particle removal and airflow stabilization time. The model also considers the effect of personnel movement. The results supported optimized air distribution, reducing microbial contamination risks, with less than 10 CFU/m³, and improved thermal performance. The proposed system was evaluated for energy and cost efficiency compared to conventional setups. Findings can inform the design and operation of cleanroom ventilation in surgical environments and other high-tech applications. This research contributes to improving indoor air quality and reducing infection risks while enhancing sustainability in healthcare infrastructure.

Ever-increasing global water shortages necessitate more advanced and cost-effective water purification methods. Herein, a novel slow filtration system using natural raw zeolite is proposed as an alternative to traditional quartz sand as a filter medium. The system demonstrates excellent performance in reducing turbidity and removing methylene blue (MB). The natural zeolite-based filtration system (filter bed depth of 70 cm) completely adsorbed 30 ppm MB at a filtration velocity of 0.2 m/h, maintaining its performance up to 2 months. The highest adsorption capacity (q_max) for MB of natural zeolite was 8.32 mg/g for the 0.3 mm fraction and 13.84 mg/g for the 0.1 mm fraction. The slow filtration process demonstrated high turbidity removal efficiencies, achieving 98.53% with the natural zeolite filter and 98.97% with the quartz sand filter, indicating the effectiveness of both media in improving water quality. This study highlights the potential of the natural zeolite-based slow filtration system as a versatile and effective water treatment solution.

Groundwater is becoming increasingly important as surface water is decreasing and becoming more and more polluted. In particular, rural areas in the arid region of Central Asia face problems with both water quantity and quality. In view of this, we investigated the drinking water quality in the Maysky district in the Pavlodar region, Kazakhstan. The organoleptic properties, together with microbiological indicators, as well as organic and inorganic substances of drinking water before and after treatment, and tap water were studied and compared to recommended levels. The bacteriological indicators of the drinking water, especially, showed that the water represents health risks since the presence of bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas aeruginosa was confirmed. Water treatment reduced the total microbial count (TMC) indicator by 3.6 times. However, TMC still exceeded permissible levels in the tap water, indicating that the drinking water is sanitary and epidemiologically not acceptable. Pathogenic contamination of drinking water can severely affect weaker individuals and children. It has been estimated that the infant mortality rate in Kazakhstan is six times higher as compared to the EU and less than 30% of Kazakhstan’s population have access to safe water. Also, 50% of the population drink water that does not comply with the international standards, e.g., bacteriological levels. Thus, it is important to continuously monitor the groundwater quality to minimize health risks and work towards access to safe drinking water, in line with the UN SDGs.