Advanced Materials and Process Innovations for Sustainable Water Treatment

The field of water and wastewater treatment is experiencing a rapid evolution driven by the pressing need for sustainable solutions to global water challenges. Emerging contaminants, resilient organics, heavy metals, and salinity are all stressors that demand innovative technological approaches. There is a growing awareness that advanced materials and novel chemical engineering strategies can not only remove critical pollutants but can also help recover valuable resources and minimize energy requirements, pushing the field toward the goals of environmental sustainability and circular resource utilization.This Research Topic aims to bring together solutions built on advanced materials and process innovations addressing today’s most urgent water treatment challenges. We invite contributors to examine new functional materials such as polymeric and hybrid membranes, biochar-based adsorbents, catalytic and photocatalytic materials, and electrochemically active systems. These materials have demonstrated promise for boosting the performance, robustness, and selectivity of processes such as adsorption, membrane separations, evaporation-based and solar-driven desalination, advanced oxidation, and biologically enabled treatment. The ultimate goal is to enable water purification strategies that are both technologically effective and practically scalable, especially for treatment of troublesome pollutants and for resource and energy efficiency.The scope of this Research Topic includes studies on (but is not limited to):• Polymeric, inorganic, hybrid, or bio-inspired membrane technologies for water purification and desalination• Biochar or carbon-based, nanocomposite, or surface-engineered adsorbents for targeted pollutant removal• Catalytic, photocatalytic, and electrochemical materials and processes for advanced oxidation, disinfection, and contaminant destruction• Solar-driven, evaporation-based, and other low-carbon desalination and water treatment techniques• Biologically enabled treatment strategies, including new bioreactor configurations• Integrated or hybrid systems that combine multiple materials or processes, especially with a view toward energy/resource efficiency or circularity• Approaches for the detection and removal of persistent contaminants—such as PFAS, heavy metals, cyanotoxins, and pharmaceuticals• System analysis, modelling, process intensification, resource recovery, and pilot/full-scale demonstration studiesWe welcome all article types: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Methods, Perspectives, Policy and Practice Reviews, Case Reports, and Brief Research Reports. Topic editors: Sitaraman Krishnan, Papita Das Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79998/advanced-materials-and-process-innovations-for-sustainable-water-treatment