ETH Zurich, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
ETH Zurich, Department of Materials, Zurich, Switzerland.
Nat Commun. 2021 May 31;12(1):3248. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23388-2.
Water scarcity is rapidly spreading across the planet, threatening the population across the five continents and calling for global sustainable solutions. Water reclamation is the most ecological approach for supplying clean drinking water. However, current water purification technologies are seldom sustainable, due to high-energy consumption and negative environmental footprint. Here, we review the cutting-edge technologies based on protein nanofibrils as water purification agents and we highlight the benefits of this green, efficient and affordable solution to alleviate the global water crisis. We discuss the different protein nanofibrils agents available and analyze them in terms of performance, range of applicability and sustainability. We underline the unique opportunity of designing protein nanofibrils for efficient water purification starting from food waste, as well as cattle, agricultural or dairy industry byproducts, allowing simultaneous environmental, economic and social benefits and we present a case analysis, including a detailed life cycle assessment, to establish their sustainable footprint against other common natural-based adsorbents, anticipating a bright future for this water purification approach.
水资源短缺正在迅速蔓延到全球各地，威胁着五大洲的人口，并呼吁全球采取可持续的解决方案。水的回收利用是提供清洁饮用水的最生态的方法。然而，由于高能耗和负面的环境足迹，当前的水净化技术很少具有可持续性。在这里，我们回顾了基于蛋白质纳米纤维的水净化剂的前沿技术，并强调了这种绿色、高效和经济实惠的解决方案在缓解全球水危机方面的优势。我们讨论了不同的蛋白质纳米纤维试剂，并根据性能、适用范围和可持续性对它们进行了分析。我们强调了从食品废物、牛、农业或奶制品工业副产品开始设计用于高效水净化的蛋白质纳米纤维的独特机会，从而同时带来环境、经济和社会效益，并进行了案例分析，包括详细的生命周期评估，以确定它们相对于其他常见天然吸附剂的可持续足迹，预示着这种水净化方法的光明前景。
