Current Pollution Reports最新文献

Purpose of Review

Microplastic (MP) pollution in water environments threatens ecological safety and human health. The small size, hydrophobicity, and large surface area of MPs facilitate ingestion by marine organisms and their role as vectors for co‑occurring contaminants, thereby amplifying ecological and health risks. Existing wastewater treatment facilities can remove over 90% of large MPs (> 50 μm), but the removal and degradation of fine MPs and nanoplastics remain difficult because of their high mobility, low settling rates, and polymer backbones. Unlike prior reviews focused on standalone treatments or dissolved pollutants, this review addresses adsorption-advanced oxidation process (AOP) synergistic technologies for particulate MP abatement, emphasizing the interfacial coupling between MP enrichment and in situ oxidative degradation in adsorption-photocatalysis, adsorption-Fenton, and adsorption-electrochemical oxidation systems.

Recent Findings

Adsorption offers high enrichment efficiency, while AOPs (e.g., photocatalysis, Fenton, persulfate oxidation, ozonation, and electrochemical oxidation) generate strong reactive species. However, each standalone method has inherent limitations. Adsorption merely transfers MPs to another phase, leading to secondary pollution, whereas AOPs are constrained by poor mass transfer and low radical utilization at low MP concentrations. Integrated adsorption‑AOP synergistic systems leverage a targeted enrichment-in situ degradation mechanism to increase local MP concentration, shorten mass‑transfer paths, and achieve concurrent enrichment and oxidation. Key adsorption-catalysis interfaces include carbon‑based materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), chitin‑based materials, and conductive electrodes, which facilitate MP capture, interfacial activation, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) utilization.

Summary

Adsorption‑AOPs synergistic technologies outperform standalone approaches by enabling targeted enrichment and in situ MP degradation, thereby overcoming the low removal efficiency for small MPs. This review clarifies how interfacial enrichment, mass-transfer modulation, and localized ROS utilization underpin the synergy of adsorption-AOPs. Future work should prioritize long‑term stability, performance under real‑water matrix conditions, secondary‑risk assessment, toxicity reduction, and cost evaluation to promote standardized and practical MP pollution control in water environments.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of review

PFAS are commonly used in industrial process. Nonetheless, they are persistent in environment leading to a significant threat to organisms and human health. This perspective review traces the occurrence, extraction including separation and analysis, and removal methods of PFAS in environment to reveal their effectiveness, mechanism, and scalable, also enabling their advancement.

Recent findings

The highest PFAS accumulation was found, including PFDS (62.56 ng/g), PFOS (40237 ng/mg), 6:2 FTOH (500 pg/m3), and PFPHpA (43.20 ng/L) in sediment, soil, atmosphere, and surface water. They can accumulate in liver, intestine, muscle, spleen, renal, lung, cytoplasm, plasma, hepatocytes, and placenta. In environment, transport takes place via hydrophobic, electrostatic, ligand exchange, and hydrogen bonds. PFAS contaminate organisms via passive diffusion, active transport, transformation, accumulation, and excretion.

Summary

Integrated technique is the promising removal strategy since have better performance compared to stand alone technique, whilst temperature, humidity, carbon content, mass ratio, and time transport influence PFAS removals. In the future, these findings will guide strategies to prevent PFAS contamination.

Purpose of Review

This review examines the interactions and cascading impacts of compound climate extremes, such as concurrent droughts, heatwaves, and floods, under climate change. It highlights their growing yet often overlooked threats to water quality, food security, and ecosystem resilience, and emphasizes their systemic implications for coupled human–environment systems.

Recent Findings

Recent literature reveals that compound extremes such as concurrent droughts, floods, and heatwaves generate amplified and disproportionate impacts due to their interdependent dynamics. Urbanization intensifies these effects by disrupting hydrological processes and enhancing thermal retention through mechanisms like the urban heat island effect. Despite growing recognition of their complexity, most predictive models remain limited by inadequate feedback integration, insufficient spatiotemporal resolution, and uneven regional adaptation capacities. This review highlights mounting evidence that compound extremes significantly degrade water quality by mobilizing both geogenic and emerging contaminants such as heavy metals, nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and microplastics under shifting flow, temperature, and redox conditions. While quantile-based thresholds and hazard overlays are commonly used for characterizing these events, gaps remain in linking compound hazard typologies with contaminant pathways and water system responses across diverse climatic and infrastructural contexts.

Summary

This review synthesizes global literature on compound climate extremes to identify event patterns, vulnerabilities, and modeling gaps. It underscores the need for integrated planning, early warning systems, and adaptive governance to manage escalating multi-hazard risks. Particular focus is placed on emerging contaminant mobilization, urban stressors, and scalable resilience strategies, offering actionable insights for climate-informed decision-making.

Purpose of review

Non-oxidizing antimicrobials (NOAMs) are extensively used in domestic and industrial applications due to their excellent chemical stability and broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficacy. These compounds are frequently detected in surface waters globally, raising significant ecological concerns. This review aims to clarify the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of NOAMs in global surface waters and the key factors influencing their occurrence. Furthermore, it evaluates the toxicity, mobility, and biodegradability of NOAMs and their transformation products.

Recent findings

Global monitoring indicates that the concentrations of NOAMs in surface waters vary significantly across regions. While regulatory measures correlate with reduced loads in wastewater, pandemic-driven use, non-point sources, and sediment release also influence surface water levels. Carbendazim poses high ecological risk; azoles, triclosan, and isothiazolinones show moderate risk; quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are low risk. Most NOAMs form more mobile transformation products during photolysis or oxidation. Although isothiazolinone and climbazole products are generally less toxic, nearly 50% of fluconazole’s products exceed parental toxicity. Biodegradability varies: isothiazolinone products degrade readily, QAC products persist longer than the parent compound, and azole-related products often endure for months.

Summary

Ecological risk assessments of NOAMs must extend beyond parent compounds to fully account for the toxicity, mobility, and biodegradability of their transformation products. Future chemical management should adopt a life-cycle risk assessment framework that incorporates the environmental fate of transformation products into monitoring programs. Although many NOAMs are functionally interchangeable as antimicrobials, they differ substantially in ecological risk and treatability. Therefore, regulatory strategies should shift from end-of-pipe treatment toward source-oriented design, prioritizing low-toxicity, readily treatable green alternatives.

Purpose of Review

This review looks at how the chemical forms, movement, and availability of metal and metalloid contaminants affect food safety and public health. It brings together recent developments in detecting these contaminants in soil, water, and food, and points out the move from traditional lab methods to newer diagnostic tools.

Recent Findings

In the past five years, research has focused on creating electrochemical and spectroscopic sensors for real-time monitoring. The review also points out that more nanomaterials are being used to improve sensitivity. It compares contamination levels in farming systems to international standards and finds important gaps in regulations for new types of metalloids.

Summary

The findings show that diagnostic techniques have improved a lot, but they are not widely used in the field yet. The review suggests new directions, like portable sensors and better models for identifying chemical forms. These tools are important for solving global farming challenges and keeping the food supply safe over time.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of the Review

Microwave disinfection technology is rapidly evolving from traditional thermal treatment to controllable physical field-driven methods. Its disinfection effects in water, solid, and air media can rival or even surpass those of chemical disinfection. By re-examining the long-standing debate around thermal and non-thermal effects, this review systematically summarizes the progress in microwave disinfection research. It aims to provide a theoretical basis and forward-looking directions for the development of precise, efficient, and energy-saving microwave disinfection strategies.

Abstract

This review addresses the ambiguity between thermal and non-thermal effects in microwave disinfection, as well as the lack of quantification regarding their synergistic mechanisms, and proposes a comprehensive conceptual framework. Thermal effects achieve rapid inactivation through volumetric heating of dielectric materials; efficient disinfection can be attained within one minute when temperatures reach or exceed 80°C. When electric field strength exceeds 1.5 kV·m⁻¹ and specific absorption rate (SAR) surpasses 5 kW·kg⁻¹, non-thermal effects can act independently of overall temperature, inducing microbial inactivation via electroporation and intracellular reactive oxygen species generation. Compared to a thermal effect baseline of 0.7-1.4 log reduction, non-thermal effects contribute an additional 1.1-1.8 log inactivation, increasing total inactivation efficiency by 2 to 4 times. Under typical low ionic strength aqueous conditions, the transition between dominant thermal and non-thermal effects is determined by a power density threshold of approximately 60 W·L⁻¹. In microwave-assisted advanced oxidation processes (MW-AOPs), confining radical reactions to the catalyst surface reduces energy consumption to 0.08 kWh·log⁻¹. Furthermore, a classification strategy based on microbial structure has been established: Gram-negative (G⁻) bacteria with high-dielectric-loss outer membranes are best suited for continuous-wave treatment, whereas Gram-positive (G⁺) bacteria require pulsed microwave modulation to penetrate their thick peptidoglycan barrier. This review provides a scientific foundation for the rational design of efficient, low-energy microwave disinfection systems.

Graphical Abstract

Background

Aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is a promising biological wastewater treatment technology owing to its compact footprint, low energy demand, and simultaneous removal of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus. However, despite more than 100 full-scale installations worldwide, major challenges remain in granule stability, large-scale implementation, and carbon-neutral operation.

Methods

This review critically synthesizes evidence from laboratory-, pilot-, and full-scale studies using a Multidimensional Socio-Biological (MSB) framework integrating temporal, spatial, evidence-quality, and governance perspectives. The literature is evaluated across three interconnected themes: granule stability, scalability, and pathways toward carbon-neutral AGS systems.

Results

Three key findings are identified. First, granule disintegration occurs in approximately 42% of full-scale AGS plants annually, highlighting unresolved mechanisms governing long-term stability. Second, the only available full-scale N₂O emission dataset (0.33%) differs by a factor of 5–15 from laboratory estimates (0.54–4.8%), indicating considerable uncertainty in the carbon balance of AGS. Third, no published full-scale AGS studies are available from Southeast Asia, South Asia, or sub-Saharan Africa, despite these regions representing future growth in wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Conclusions

Although AGS has substantial potential for sustainable wastewater treatment, its widespread adoption is constrained by critical evidence gaps. Future research should prioritize long-term full-scale monitoring, greenhouse gas assessment, and demonstration projects in tropical and developing regions to enable reliable and carbon-neutral AGS implementation.

Purpose of Review

Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are an emerging environmental concern, contaminating water, soil, and air and posing risks to ecosystems and human health. Conventional removal techniques, including filtration and coagulation, are often limited by their high costs, energy demands, and secondary pollution. Consequently, Biochar has gained attention as a sustainable alternative due to its high surface area, tuneable properties, and environmental compatibility. Furthermore, existing studies have predominantly focused on laboratory-scale investigations, with limited emphasis on environmental complexity and real-world applicability. This review critically evaluates the potential of engineered biochar for MNPs remediation.

Recent Findings

Recent advances demonstrate that biochar performance can be substantially improved through surface functionalization and pore structure optimization; however, the influence of these modifications on MNPs adsorption mechanisms remains insufficiently understood. This review systematically synthesizes current knowledge on biochar modification strategies, adsorption mechanisms governing MNPs removal, and applications across diverse contaminated environmental matrices. In addition, life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have been critically discussed to evaluate long-term sustainability and environmental implications of biochar-based remediation technologies.

Summary

This review provides a comprehensive perspective on engineered biochar for MNP remediation and identifies current knowledge gaps that limit large-scale implementation. The findings are expected to support the rational design of advanced biochar adsorbents and to facilitate the development of sustainable remediation technologies aligned with circular-economy principles and carbon-neutral objectives.

Graphical Abstract

Purpose of Review

Far-UVC irradiation at 222 nm (UV₂₂₂), typically emitted by krypton chloride excimer lamps, has emerged as a promising mercury-free platform for water treatment. This review evaluates recent progress in UV₂₂₂-based water treatment, with conventional 254 nm UV irradiation (UV₂₅₄) as the primary benchmark, focusing on disinfection, micropollutant degradation, and UV₂₂₂-induced dissolved organic matter (DOM) transformation in relation to post-chlorination disinfection byproduct (DBP) formation.

Recent Findings

UV₂₂₂ shows strong disinfection performance against representative bacteria and viruses, although its relative advantage over UV₂₅₄ is more variable for fungal spores. For micropollutants, compiled paired photolysis data indicate that UV₂₂₂ generally accelerates direct photolysis relative to UV₂₅₄, with the enhancement arising from stronger absorptivity, higher quantum yield, or both depending on compound structure. UV₂₂₂-based advanced processes further broaden the treatment scope beyond direct photolysis through reactive-species-mediated transformation. However, UV₂₂₂ can also reshape DOM composition and DBP precursor pools. Sole UV₂₂₂ may reshape DOM molecular composition without large DBP increases, whereas nitrate-containing systems can selectively amplify halonitromethane formation.

Summary

UV₂₂₂ should not be viewed simply as a more reactive substitute for UV₂₅₄. Its practical value depends on balancing disinfection and contaminant-removal benefits against matrix-dependent DOM transformation and downstream DBP risks. Future studies should focus on DOM molecular transformation and DBP precursor restructuring, particularly the role of nitrogen incorporation in linking these two processes, as well as realistic treatment-train evaluations.