• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• 6. Clean water close
• 15. Life on land close
• IN close
• SA close

Most of the world’s mountain glaciers have been retreating for more than a century in response to climate change. Glacier retreat is evident on all continents, and the rate of retreat has accelerated during recent decades. Accurate, spatially explicit information on the position of glacier margins over time is useful for analyzing patterns of glacier retreat and measuring reductions in glacier surface area. This information is also essential for evaluating how mountain ecosystems are evolving due to climate warming and the attendant glacier retreat. Here, we present a non-comprehensive spatially explicit dataset showing multiple positions of glacier fronts since the Little Ice Age (LIA) maxima, including many data from the pre-satellite era. The dataset is based on multiple historical archival records including topographical maps; repeated photographs, paintings, and aerial or satellite images with a supplement of geochronology; and own field data. We provide ESRI shapefiles showing 728 past positions of 94 glacier fronts from all continents, except Antarctica, covering the period between the Little Ice Age maxima and the present. On average, the time series span the past 190 years. From 2 to 46 past positions per glacier are depicted (on average: 7.8).

Considerable interest is being shown in using biochar production from waste biomass with a variety of disciplines to address the most pressing environmental challenges. Biochar produced by the thermal decomposition of biomass under oxygen-limited conditions is gaining popularity as a low-cost amendment for agro-ecosystems. The efficiency of biochar formation is affected by temperature, heating rate, feedstock type, particle size and reactor conditions. Properties such as pH, surface area and ash content of produced biochar increases with increasing temperatures. Biochar produced at lower heating rates may have high porosity and be beneficial for morphological changes in the soil. Biochar can help to enhance soil health and fertility as well as improve agricultural yield. As a result, biochar can assist in increasing food security by promoting sustainable agricultural systems and preserving an eco-friendly environment. Biochar is also widely being used as a sorbent for organic and inorganic pollutants, owing to its large surface area, allowing it to be immobilized from soil with ease. The functional groups and charges present on the surface of biochar play an important role in pollutants removal. This review focuses on the mechanisms of biochar production using different waste materials as a feed stock, factors that influence biochar quality as well as application of biochar in agricultural soil and their reclamation as well. This article also discusses knowledge gaps and future perspectives in the field of biochar-based toxic-pollution remediation.

The growing population and increasing urbanization have led to a surge in domestic wastewater generation, posing significant challenges for effective and sustainable treatment. The present study demonstrates a novel and sustainable approach for the onsite treatment of domestic wastewater using an integrated settler-based biofilm reactor (ISBR) with efficient biogas generation. The ISBR provides an optimized environment for the growth of biofilm, facilitating the removal of organic pollutants and pathogens. Moreover, the ISBR enables the recovery of a valuable resource in the form of biogas, thus enhancing the overall utility of the treatment process. The performance of the ISBR was comprehensively evaluated at laboratory scale through treating the actual domestic wastewater generated from the hostel of Manipal University Jaipur. The ISBR system was operated under an ambient environment at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24 h. The results demonstrated remarkable efficiency in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and coliforms removal, with average removal efficiency being more than 90%. According to the COD mass balance analysis, 48.2% of the influent COD was recovered as bioenergy. The chromatogram revealed a high percentage of methane gas in the collected biogas sample. The field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) analysis of the accumulated sludge in the ISBR system depicted the morphology of methanogenic bacteria. Both the experimental and theoretical results confirmed the feasibility and sustainability of the ISBR system at the onsite level.

The study aims to comprehensively assess the energy and water consumption pattern in the seafood industries and suggest measures for the sustainable development of the sector. The unscrupulous usage of water and higher consumption of energy resulted in an uncontrolled generation of wastewater and enormous usage of fossil fuels. In the seafood industry, energy is primarily used for machinery and equipment handling processes such as freezing, refrigeration, heating, cooling, and drying. Similarly, a huge amount of clean water is used for cleaning machinery and plant, and for operations like washing of raw material, de-icing, defrosting, and salt splashing. As a consequence, in the energy-water nexus, additional energy is required for drawing fresh water and further processing of wastewater demands energy that results in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and incurring additional costs to the plant. Hence, this review mainly focuses on the significance of energy and water use optimization in the seafood industry, the existing trend of energy and water use pattern and management practices, optimization strategies, and the seafood-energy-water nexus and its environmental implications.

Growing concerns over the use of limited fossil fuels and their negative impacts on the ecological niches have facilitated the exploration of alternative routes. The use of conventional plastic material also negatively impacts the environment. One such green alternative is polyhydroxyalkanoates, which are biodegradable, biocompatible, and environmentally friendly. Recently, researchers have focused on the utilization of waste gases particularly those belonging to C1 sources derived directly from industries and anthropogenic activities, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and methanol as the substrate for polyhydroxyalkanoates production. Consequently, several microorganisms have been exploited to utilize waste gases for their growth and biopolymer accumulation. Methylotrophs such as Methylobacterium organophilum produced highest amount of PHA up to 88% using CH4 as the sole carbon source and 52–56% with CH3OH. On the other hand Cupriavidus necator, produced 71–81% of PHA by utilizing CO and CO2 as a substrate. The present review shows the potential of waste gas valorization as a promising solution for the sustainable production of polyhydroxyalkanoates. Key bottlenecks towards the usage of gaseous substrates obstructing their realization on a large scale and the possible technological solutions were also highlighted. Several strategies for PHA production using C1 gases through fermentation and metabolic engineering approaches are discussed. Microbes such as autotrophs, acetogens, and methanotrophs can produce PHA from CO2, CO, and CH4. Therefore, this article presents a vision of C1 gas into bioplastics are prospective strategies with promising potential application, and aspects related to the sustainability of the system.

Land use and climate change always induce significant changes in various parameters of the hydrologic cycle (e.g., surface runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration). The Wadi El-Assiuti downstream area in the Eastern Desert of Egypt is one of the most promising areas for development that is suffering from insufficient water availability and inadequate water quality for different purposes. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the changes in groundwater quality, land use, and climate in association with geology and flooding during three periods within the years 1997–2019 in the downstream portion of Wadi El-Assiuti in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, using spatiotemporal variation associated with groundwater hydrochemical analysis and GIS techniques. About 133 groundwater samples were collected to examine groundwater quality changes over time. Different groundwater quality indices were calculated, and the results show that TDS levels of groundwater in the study area ranged between 1080–2780 mg/L, 672–4564 mg/L, and 811–6084 mg/L, while SAR levels varied within 6.15–15.34, 1.83–28.87, and 1.43–30.57 for the years 1997, 2007, and 2019, respectively. Both RSBC and SSP values exhibited significantly increasing trends over time. KR values were within 1.36–4.06 in 1997, 0.58–14.09 in 2007, and 0.35–14.92 in 2019; MAR values were within 6.9–45.2 in 1997, 20.79–71.5 in 2007, and 17.71–75.81 in 2019; and PI values were within 60.16–83 in 1997, 45.56–101.03 in 2007, and 42.51–148.88 in 2019. Across the entire study area, ongoing land use changes increased from 1.1% in 1997 to 4.1% in 2019. Findings pointed to the significant contribution of the deep Nubian Sandstone Aquifer to the groundwater aquifer at Wadi El-Assiuti through fractures and deep faults. Given the climatic conditions from 1997–2019, these changes may have affected water quality in shallow aquifers, especially with increasing evaporation. Realizing the spatiotemporal variation of the aquifer recharge system, land use development, and climate change clearly would help in water resource management. This study revealed that flooding events, deep-seated geologic structures, and land use development associated with human activities have the highest impact on groundwater quality.

The main target of this research work is to model the output performance of adsorption water desalination system (AWDS) in terms of switching and cycle time using artificial intelligence. The output performance of the ADC system is expressed by the specific daily water production (SDWP), the coefficient of performance (COP), and specific cooling power (SCP). A robust Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) model of SDWP, COP, and SCP was built using the measured data. To demonstrate the superiority of the suggested ANFIS model, the model results were compared with those achieved by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) based on the maximum coefficient of determination and minimum error between measured and estimated data in addition to the mean square error (MSE). Applying ANOVA, the average coefficient-of-determination values were 0.8872 and 0.8223, respectively, for training and testing. These values are increased to 1.0 and 0.9673, respectively, for training and testing thanks to ANFIS based modeling. In addition, ANFIS modelling decreased the RMSE value of all datasets by 83% compared with ANOVA. In sum, the main findings confirmed the superiority of ANFIS modeling of the output performance of adsorption water desalination system compared with ANOVA.