Department of Environment and Planning, Center for Environmental and Marine Studies, CESAM, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal; Department of Materials and Ceramics Engineering, Aveiro Institute of Materials, CICECO, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Department of Building and Environmental Technology/Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, PO Box 118, SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Environ Int. 2019 Apr;125:261-276. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.01.055. Epub 2019 Feb 4.
Application of engineered nanomaterials for the treatment of industrial effluents and to deal with recalcitrant pollutants has been noticeably promoted in recent years. Laboratory, pilot and full-scale studies emphasize the potential of this technology to offer promising treatment options to meet the future needs for clean water resources and to comply with stringent environmental regulations. The technology is now in the stage of being transferred to the real applications. Therefore, the assessment of its performance according to sustainability criteria and their incorporation into the decision-making process is a key task to ensure that long term benefits are achieved from the nano-treatment technologies. In this study, the importance of sustainability criteria for the conventional and novel technologies for the treatment of industrial effluents was determined in a general approach assisted by a fuzzy-Delphi method. The criteria were categorized in technical, economic, environmental and social branches and the current situation of the nanotechnology regarding the criteria was critically discussed. The results indicate that the efficiency and safety are the most important parameters to make sustainable choices for the treatment of industrial effluents. Also, in addition to the need for scaling-up the nanotechnology in various stages, the study on their environmental footprint must continue in deeper scales under expected environmental conditions, in particular the synthesis of engineered nanomaterials and the development of reactors with the ability of recovery and reuse the nanomaterials. This paper will aid to select the most sustainable types of nanomaterials for the real applications and to guide the future studies in this field.
近年来，工程纳米材料在处理工业废水和难降解污染物方面的应用得到了显著推动。实验室、中试和全规模研究强调了这项技术的潜力，为满足未来对清洁水资源的需求并符合严格的环境法规提供了有前途的处理选择。该技术目前正处于向实际应用转移的阶段。因此，根据可持续性标准评估其性能并将其纳入决策过程是一项关键任务，以确保从纳米处理技术中获得长期利益。在本研究中，通过模糊德尔菲法的辅助，以一般方法确定了用于处理工业废水的常规和新型技术的可持续性标准的重要性。这些标准分为技术、经济、环境和社会分支，并对纳米技术在这些标准方面的现状进行了批判性讨论。结果表明，效率和安全性是处理工业废水时进行可持续选择的最重要参数。此外，除了需要在各个阶段扩大纳米技术的规模外，还必须在预期的环境条件下，在更深的尺度上继续研究其环境足迹，特别是工程纳米材料的合成和具有回收和再利用纳米材料能力的反应器的开发。本文将有助于选择最适合实际应用的可持续纳米材料类型，并为该领域的未来研究提供指导。
