Emerging Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Water Purification and Resource Recovery

Closes: 31 Jul 2027

Journal: Technological Sustainability

Guest editor

Dr. Armaghan Moghaddam

Introduction

Water scarcity and pollution are among the most pressing challenges of our time, intensified by population growth, industrialization, and the accelerating effects of climate change. Meeting this challenge requires more than improvements to existing treatment methods; it calls for new and sustainable materials and technologies capable of purifying water more efficiently, with lower energy demands and reduced environmental footprints. At the same time, there is growing recognition that water treatment should not be viewed in isolation from resource management. Wastewater and industrial effluents often contain valuable resources, metals, nutrients, and other recoverable materials, that are unfortunately discarded under conventional treatment approaches. This special issue, “Emerging Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Water Purification and Resource Recovery,” brings together research addressing both sides of this challenge: purifying water effectively while recovering value from what would otherwise be waste. Recent years have seen substantial progress on both the materials and technology fronts. On the materials side, advanced membranes, functionalized nanomaterials, biopolymers, and porous adsorbents continue to push the boundaries of selectivity, efficiency, and sustainability in water treatment. On the technology side, there is growing interest in process-level innovations that reduce reliance on fossil-fuel-driven energy inputs, such as solar-driven desalination, electrochemical and capacitive deionization methods, membrane distillation, and hybrid treatment systems that combine multiple purification mechanisms. Digital and data-driven tools, including process modeling, monitoring, and optimization technologies, are also increasingly relevant to making water treatment systems more efficient and adaptable. Together, these developments in materials and technologies are reshaping how water purification and resource recovery can be approached, moving away from energy-intensive, single-purpose systems toward more integrated and sustainable solutions. This special issue aims to draw these threads together and, importantly, to encourage a sustainability-oriented perspective throughout. Rather than treating water treatment materials and technologies purely as a technical problem to be optimized for performance, we want to highlight work that also considers environmental trade-offs, scalability, energy use, and the potential for resource recovery and circular economy integration. We are particularly interested in contributions that connect fundamental designs to practical implementation, discussing not just how well a system performs, but how it fits into a broader, more sustainable water treatment strategy. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and applied contributions from researchers across chemistry, materials science, chemical and environmental engineering, and related disciplines. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, membrane technologies, functionalized nanomaterials, biopolymer-based systems, solar and renewable-energy-driven treatment technologies, electrochemical and hybrid treatment processes, adsorbents for pollutant removal, and resource and energy recovery from wastewater streams. We are especially keen to receive submissions addressing the short-term and long-term environmental implications of the materials and technologies discussed, in line with the journal’s broader mission of linking scientific and technological innovation with sustainability outcomes. We look forward to receiving contributions that advance both the science and the sustainability of water treatment, and to curating a collection that offers meaningful insight for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working toward more resilient and resource-conscious water systems.

List of topic areas

• Novel membranes for ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and desalination
• Sustainable nanomaterials for water treatment
• Biopolymer-based and bio-derived materials for sustainable water purification
• Porous adsorbent materials for pollutant removal
• Removal of emerging contaminants
• Solar-driven and renewable-energy-powered desalination technologies
• Electrochemical treatment and capacitive deionization
• Hybrid treatment systems
• Adsorption and advanced oxidation processes for water treatment
• Resource recovery from wastewater and industrial effluents
• Circular economy approaches and zero-liquid-discharge systems
• Energy-efficient and low-carbon water treatment technologies
• Process modeling, monitoring, and optimization for water treatment systems
• Environmental and techno-economic assessment of water treatment technologies 

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/techs 

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/techs#author-guidelines 

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 01/11/2026

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/07/2027

Email for submissions: armaghanmoghaddam@gmail.com