The growing presence of diverse pollutants, including heavy metals, organic compounds, pharmaceuticals, and emerging contaminants, poses significant environmental and health risks. Traditional methods for pollutant removal often face limitations in efficiency, selectivity, and sustainability. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of recent advancements in innovative adsorbents designed to address these challenges. It explores a wide array of non-conventional adsorbent materials, such as nanocellulose, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), graphene-based composites, and biochar, emphasizing their sources, structural characteristics, and unique adsorption mechanisms. The review discusses adsorption processes, including the basic principles, kinetics, isotherms, and the factors influencing adsorption efficiency. It highlights the superior performance of these materials in removing specific pollutants across various environmental settings. The practical applications of these adsorbents are further explored through case studies in industrial settings, pilot studies, and field trials, showcasing their real-world effectiveness. Additionally, the review critically examines the economic considerations, technical challenges, and environmental impacts associated with these adsorbents, offering a balanced perspective on their viability and sustainability. The conclusion emphasizes future research directions, focusing on the development of scalable production methods, enhanced material stability, and sustainable regeneration techniques. This comprehensive assessment underscores the transformative potential of innovative adsorbents in pollutant remediation and their critical role in advancing environmental protection.

Due to the rapid increase in environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, the focus of researchers is shifted from economic to socio-environmental problems. Blockchain is a disruptive technology that has the potential to restructure the entire supply chain for sustainable practices. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that provides a digital database for recording all the transactions of the supply chain. The main purpose of this research is to explore the literature relevant to blockchain for sustainable supply chain management. The focus of this review is on the sustainability of the blockchain-based supply chain concerning environmental conservation, social equality, and governance effectiveness. Using a systematic literature review, a total of 136 articles were evaluated and categorized according to the triple bottom-line aspects of sustainability. Challenges and barriers during blockchain adoption in different industrial sectors such as aviation, shipping, agriculture and food, manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceutical, and textile industries were critically examined. This study has not only explored the economic, environmental, and social impacts of blockchain but also highlighted the emerging trends in a circular supply chain with current developments of advanced technologies along with their critical success factors. Furthermore, research areas and gaps in the existing research are discussed, and future research directions are suggested. The findings of this study show that blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the entire supply chain from a sustainability perspective. Blockchain will not only improve the economic sustainability of the supply chain through effective traceability, enhanced visibility through information sharing, transparency in processes, and decentralization of the entire structure but also will help in achieving environmental and social sustainability through resource efficiency, accountability, smart contracts, trust development, and fraud prevention. The study will be helpful for managers and practitioners to understand the procedure of blockchain adoption and to increase the probability of its successful implementation to develop a sustainable supply chain network.

Microbial plant biostimulants offer a promising, sustainable solution for enhancing plant growth and resilience, particularly under abiotic stress conditions such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and heavy metal toxicity. These biostimulants, including plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, enhance plant tolerance through mechanisms such as phytohormone production, nutrient solubilization, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant enzyme activation. Advances in genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics have significantly expanded our understanding of plant–microbe molecular communication in the rhizosphere, revealing mechanisms underlying these interactions that promote stress resilience. However, challenges such as inconsistent field performance, knowledge gaps in stress-related molecular signaling, and regulatory hurdles continue to limit broader biostimulant adoption. Despite these challenges, microbial biostimulants hold significant potential for advancing agricultural sustainability, particularly amid climate change-induced stresses. Future studies and innovation, including Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and other molecular editing tools, should optimize biostimulant formulations and their application for diverse agro-ecological systems. This review aims to underscore current advances, challenges, and future directions in the field, advocating for a multidisciplinary approach to fully harness the potential of biostimulants in modern agriculture.

Plant microbiomes, composed of a diverse array of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, and microalgae, are critical to plant health and resilience, playing key roles in nutrient cycling, stress mitigation, and disease resistance. Climate change is expected to intensify various abiotic stressors, such as drought, salinity, temperature extremes, nutrient deficiencies, and heavy metal toxicity. Plant-associated microbiomes have emerged as a promising natural solution to help mitigate these stresses and enhance agricultural resilience. However, translating laboratory findings into real-world agricultural benefits remains a significant challenge due to the complexity of plant–microbe interactions under field conditions. We explore the roles of plant microbiomes in combating abiotic stress and discuss advances in microbiome engineering strategies, including synthetic biology, microbial consortia design, metagenomics, and CRISPR-Cas, with a focus on enhancing their practical application in agriculture. Integrating microbiome-based solutions into climate-smart agricultural practices may contribute to long-term sustainability. Finally, we underscore the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in overcoming existing challenges. Microbiome-based solutions hold promise for improving global food security and promoting sustainable agricultural practices in the face of climate change.

In petroleum refining, catalysts are used to efficiently convert crude oil into valuable products such as fuels and petrochemicals. These catalysts are employed in a range of processes, including catalytic cracking, hydrotreating, and reforming to meet stringent fuel quality standards. This review explores recent advancements in refining catalysts, focusing on novel materials, enhanced synthesis methods, and their industrial applications. The development of nano-, hierarchically structured, and supported metal catalysts has led to significant improvements in catalyst selectivity, yield, and longevity. These innovations are particularly important for processes such as hydrocracking, fluid catalytic cracking, and catalytic reforming, where catalysts improve conversion rates, product quality, and environmental sustainability. Advances in synthesis techniques such as sol-gel processes, microwave-assisted synthesis, and atomic layer deposition have further optimized catalyst performance. Environmental considerations have also driven the development of catalysts that reduce harmful emissions, particularly sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides while promoting green catalysis through the use of bio-based materials and recyclable catalysts. Despite these advancements, challenges remain, particularly in scaling novel materials for industrial use and integrating them with existing technologies. Future research should focus on the exploration of new catalytic materials, such as metal-organic frameworks and multi-functional catalysts, which promise to further revolutionize the refining industry. This review thus demonstrates the transformative potential of advanced catalysts in enhancing the efficiency and environmental sustainability of petroleum refining.