Pub Date : 2025-09-11DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00501-z
Haojin Peng, Qingran Zhang, Yu Su, Shuai Wang, Yinguang Chen
Conventional biodenitrification for water with a low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N) demands exogenous carbon, exacerbating carbon consumption and emissions. Here we propose a metabolic reprogramming strategy leveraging Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II) synergy to redirect carbon flux through the glyoxylate shunt (GS), enhancing tricarboxylic acid cycle anaplerosis for efficient denitrification and reduced greenhouse gases during low-C/N wastewater treatment. At a C/N of 3, Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II) promoted carbon metabolism by the tricarboxylic acid cycle in Paracoccus denitrificans, elevating reducing power (electron carriers) production and electron transporter activity. This increased total nitrogen removal by 196.2% compared with the blank control and by approximately 32.0–146.6% compared with single- or dual-metal-supplemented controls, while reducing nitrous oxide emissions by 51.3% and approximately 26.2–85.6%, respectively. This effect originated from the inhibition of isocitrate dehydrogenase and α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase by Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II), causing isocitrate accumulation that activates isocitrate lyase of the glyoxylate shunt and prioritizes GS-driven anaplerosis. Finally, activated sludge validation increased 31.7% total nitrogen removal efficiency, highlighting the approach’s practical potential. This carbon-metabolism reprogramming strategy reduces organic carbon demand in denitrification, enhancing energy efficiency and advancing carbon-neutral wastewater treatment. This study proposes a strategy for enhancing denitrification in low-C/N wastewater by redirecting carbon flux through glyoxylate shunt regulation.
{"title":"Efficient denitrification and N2O mitigation in low-C/N wastewater treatment by promoting TCA cycle anaplerosis via glyoxylate shunt regulation","authors":"Haojin Peng, Qingran Zhang, Yu Su, Shuai Wang, Yinguang Chen","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00501-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00501-z","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional biodenitrification for water with a low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N) demands exogenous carbon, exacerbating carbon consumption and emissions. Here we propose a metabolic reprogramming strategy leveraging Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II) synergy to redirect carbon flux through the glyoxylate shunt (GS), enhancing tricarboxylic acid cycle anaplerosis for efficient denitrification and reduced greenhouse gases during low-C/N wastewater treatment. At a C/N of 3, Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II) promoted carbon metabolism by the tricarboxylic acid cycle in Paracoccus denitrificans, elevating reducing power (electron carriers) production and electron transporter activity. This increased total nitrogen removal by 196.2% compared with the blank control and by approximately 32.0–146.6% compared with single- or dual-metal-supplemented controls, while reducing nitrous oxide emissions by 51.3% and approximately 26.2–85.6%, respectively. This effect originated from the inhibition of isocitrate dehydrogenase and α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase by Mo(VI)–Fe(III)–Cu(II), causing isocitrate accumulation that activates isocitrate lyase of the glyoxylate shunt and prioritizes GS-driven anaplerosis. Finally, activated sludge validation increased 31.7% total nitrogen removal efficiency, highlighting the approach’s practical potential. This carbon-metabolism reprogramming strategy reduces organic carbon demand in denitrification, enhancing energy efficiency and advancing carbon-neutral wastewater treatment. This study proposes a strategy for enhancing denitrification in low-C/N wastewater by redirecting carbon flux through glyoxylate shunt regulation.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"992-1002"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-10DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00487-8
Laibao Liu, Mathias Hauser, Michael Windisch, Sonia I. Seneviratne
Agroecological droughts are expected to increase with climate change, becoming one of the greatest threats to ecosystems and human society. To mitigate climate change and the growing risk of agroecological droughts, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is increasingly recognized as unavoidable. However, it remains unclear whether the increase of agroecological drought due to atmospheric CO2 emissions will be symmetrically reversed by an equivalent atmospheric CDR. Here we investigate this question by utilizing an idealized atmospheric CO2 emission and removal experiment from the CDR Model Intercomparison Project, involving eight Earth system models, and develop a new methodology to quantify climate hysteresis and reversibility. We find that drought increases in hotspot regions cannot be symmetrically reversed by an equivalent CDR: drought severity under the CDR pathway is 65% ± 30% greater than under the emission pathway; drought frequency increases are only partially reversed by 73% ± 18% when CO2 emissions are balanced by equivalent CDR. Drought hysteresis and irreversibility are most pronounced in the Mediterranean, northern Central America, west and east southern Africa and southern Australia. Our findings imply irreversible drought impacts associated with CDR, highlighting the need for planning long-term drought adaptations. Using an idealized multi-model experiment and a new hysteresis quantification method, this study shows that equivalent carbon dioxide removal fails to symmetrically reverse CO2-emissions-induced agroecological droughts, revealing irreversible impacts in hotspots in the Mediterranean, northern Central America, southern Africa and southern Australia, necessitating urgent adaptation planning.
{"title":"Hysteresis and reversibility of agroecological droughts in response to carbon dioxide removal","authors":"Laibao Liu, Mathias Hauser, Michael Windisch, Sonia I. Seneviratne","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00487-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00487-8","url":null,"abstract":"Agroecological droughts are expected to increase with climate change, becoming one of the greatest threats to ecosystems and human society. To mitigate climate change and the growing risk of agroecological droughts, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is increasingly recognized as unavoidable. However, it remains unclear whether the increase of agroecological drought due to atmospheric CO2 emissions will be symmetrically reversed by an equivalent atmospheric CDR. Here we investigate this question by utilizing an idealized atmospheric CO2 emission and removal experiment from the CDR Model Intercomparison Project, involving eight Earth system models, and develop a new methodology to quantify climate hysteresis and reversibility. We find that drought increases in hotspot regions cannot be symmetrically reversed by an equivalent CDR: drought severity under the CDR pathway is 65% ± 30% greater than under the emission pathway; drought frequency increases are only partially reversed by 73% ± 18% when CO2 emissions are balanced by equivalent CDR. Drought hysteresis and irreversibility are most pronounced in the Mediterranean, northern Central America, west and east southern Africa and southern Australia. Our findings imply irreversible drought impacts associated with CDR, highlighting the need for planning long-term drought adaptations. Using an idealized multi-model experiment and a new hysteresis quantification method, this study shows that equivalent carbon dioxide removal fails to symmetrically reverse CO2-emissions-induced agroecological droughts, revealing irreversible impacts in hotspots in the Mediterranean, northern Central America, southern Africa and southern Australia, necessitating urgent adaptation planning.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"1017-1024"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00487-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-09DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00483-y
Hao Zhang, Yanghua Duan, Menachem Elimelech, Yunkun Wang
Commercial nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes are inherently inefficient at removing small, neutral organic contaminants. In this study, we biomimetically designed a catalytic nanofiltration membrane that synergizes advanced oxidation with nanofiltration to achieve near-complete removal of contaminants, ranging from salts to small organic contaminants, addressing a key deficiency of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes and marking a breakthrough in membrane technology. The developed catalytic nanofiltration membrane amplifies the rate of peroxymonosulfate activation reactions by enriching its concentration near the membrane surface by a factor of 6.9 through concentration polarization. Confinement of the catalyst within the nanometre-scale pores greatly enhances the reactivity of the catalyst. Furthermore, the small pore size (<1.2 nm) effectively rejects natural organic matter (NOM) and the salts formed during the catalytic processes, thereby minimizing the interference of NOM within the active layer and preventing secondary contamination from salts, minimizing their interference in oxidative contaminant transformation. The optimized catalytic nanofiltration membrane demonstrated exceptional contaminant removal efficiency, maintaining close to 100% efficiency over 500 hours of continuous cross-flow filtration, and its fabrication was scaled up to the industrial scale through a roll-to-roll process, highlighting its practical viability for real-world applications. A catalytic nanofiltration membrane achieves the simultaneous removal of salts and small, neutral organic pollutants via oxidant enrichment at the membrane surface and confinement of the catalyst within nanometre-scale pores.
{"title":"Scalable catalytic nanofiltration membranes for advanced water treatment","authors":"Hao Zhang, Yanghua Duan, Menachem Elimelech, Yunkun Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00483-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00483-y","url":null,"abstract":"Commercial nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes are inherently inefficient at removing small, neutral organic contaminants. In this study, we biomimetically designed a catalytic nanofiltration membrane that synergizes advanced oxidation with nanofiltration to achieve near-complete removal of contaminants, ranging from salts to small organic contaminants, addressing a key deficiency of nanofiltration and reverse osmosis membranes and marking a breakthrough in membrane technology. The developed catalytic nanofiltration membrane amplifies the rate of peroxymonosulfate activation reactions by enriching its concentration near the membrane surface by a factor of 6.9 through concentration polarization. Confinement of the catalyst within the nanometre-scale pores greatly enhances the reactivity of the catalyst. Furthermore, the small pore size (<1.2 nm) effectively rejects natural organic matter (NOM) and the salts formed during the catalytic processes, thereby minimizing the interference of NOM within the active layer and preventing secondary contamination from salts, minimizing their interference in oxidative contaminant transformation. The optimized catalytic nanofiltration membrane demonstrated exceptional contaminant removal efficiency, maintaining close to 100% efficiency over 500 hours of continuous cross-flow filtration, and its fabrication was scaled up to the industrial scale through a roll-to-roll process, highlighting its practical viability for real-world applications. A catalytic nanofiltration membrane achieves the simultaneous removal of salts and small, neutral organic pollutants via oxidant enrichment at the membrane surface and confinement of the catalyst within nanometre-scale pores.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"1038-1047"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-09DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00494-9
Fanmengjing Wang, Huanting Wang
Anchored growth of single-atom catalysts in nanofiltration membranes creates a scalable and long-term stable platform for near-complete removal of hazardous wastewater pollutants.
纳滤膜中单原子催化剂的锚定生长为几乎完全去除有害废水污染物创造了一个可扩展和长期稳定的平台。
{"title":"Scalable catalytic membranes for removal of small and neutral organic pollutants","authors":"Fanmengjing Wang, Huanting Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00494-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00494-9","url":null,"abstract":"Anchored growth of single-atom catalysts in nanofiltration membranes creates a scalable and long-term stable platform for near-complete removal of hazardous wastewater pollutants.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"974-975"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-08DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00511-x
Pintu Kumar Mahla
People stand at the heart of water conflicts and their solutions. The way we act, cooperate, and decide will determine whether water fuels disputes or builds peace and sustainable growth. The Indus Waters Treaty, signed on 19 September 1960, demonstrated that diplomacy led by citizens can shape water management and policy. Sixty-five years later, it is time to reimagine it in a way that empowers citizens, beyond governments, to drive water cooperation and long-term security.
{"title":"A social vision for the Indus Waters Treaty","authors":"Pintu Kumar Mahla","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00511-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00511-x","url":null,"abstract":"People stand at the heart of water conflicts and their solutions. The way we act, cooperate, and decide will determine whether water fuels disputes or builds peace and sustainable growth. The Indus Waters Treaty, signed on 19 September 1960, demonstrated that diplomacy led by citizens can shape water management and policy. Sixty-five years later, it is time to reimagine it in a way that empowers citizens, beyond governments, to drive water cooperation and long-term security.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"965-966"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-05DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00486-9
Nicolas Salliou, Philipp Urech, João Paulo Leitão, Fabrizia Fappiano, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey
Urban water management often prioritizes engineering efficiency over local ecological and social contexts. Landscape architects can leverage high-resolution modelling and vernacular intelligence to design resilient, culturally embedded solutions.
{"title":"Urban water projects must consider landscape architecture","authors":"Nicolas Salliou, Philipp Urech, João Paulo Leitão, Fabrizia Fappiano, Adrienne Grêt-Regamey","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00486-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00486-9","url":null,"abstract":"Urban water management often prioritizes engineering efficiency over local ecological and social contexts. Landscape architects can leverage high-resolution modelling and vernacular intelligence to design resilient, culturally embedded solutions.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 9","pages":"967-971"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00513-9
Peter Raymond, Noah Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard
{"title":"Author Correction: Using carbonates for carbon removal","authors":"Peter Raymond, Noah Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00513-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00513-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 11","pages":"1331-1331"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00513-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145538095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-19DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00477-w
Orisa Z. Coombs, Taigyu Joo, Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior, Divya Chalise, William A. Tarpeh
Distributed solar-enabled nitrogen capture from urine helps to manage the nitrogen cycle and increases fertilizer, sanitation and electricity access. Here we provide proof of concept for a photovoltaic–thermal electrochemical stripping (ECS) system, known as solar-ECS, that recovers ammonium sulfate fertilizer from real urine independently of the electricity grid. Constant control of photovoltaic currents and extracting waste heat to cool the solar panel while heating ECS enabled 59.3 ± 3.6% more power production and improved ammonia recovery efficiency by 22.4 ± 7.4% relative to prototypes with no heat transfer and uncontrolled currents. The added heat accelerated ammonia volatilization (the rate-limiting step of ECS), while preventing excessive current via charge controllers reduced energy use by 2.24 ± 0.25 kJ g−1 N per excess milliampere per square centimetre. A new process model for ECS operation at different currents and temperatures was proposed and applied to estimate possible net fertilizer revenues of up to US$2.18 kg−1 N in US markets and US$4.13 kg−1 N in African markets. By advancing the recovery of high-purity commodity chemicals from underused wastewaters, this work supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, clean energy and responsible production. Recovering fertilizers from wastewater has the potential to make intensive agriculture more sustainable and reduce aqueous pollution, but energy requirements could be prohibitive. A prototype photovoltaic–thermal electrochemical stripping system shows how distributed ammonia manufacturing can be achieved through solar energy in off-grid locations, thus reducing energy and environmental costs.
{"title":"Prototyping and modelling a photovoltaic–thermal electrochemical stripping system for distributed urine nitrogen recovery","authors":"Orisa Z. Coombs, Taigyu Joo, Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior, Divya Chalise, William A. Tarpeh","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00477-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00477-w","url":null,"abstract":"Distributed solar-enabled nitrogen capture from urine helps to manage the nitrogen cycle and increases fertilizer, sanitation and electricity access. Here we provide proof of concept for a photovoltaic–thermal electrochemical stripping (ECS) system, known as solar-ECS, that recovers ammonium sulfate fertilizer from real urine independently of the electricity grid. Constant control of photovoltaic currents and extracting waste heat to cool the solar panel while heating ECS enabled 59.3 ± 3.6% more power production and improved ammonia recovery efficiency by 22.4 ± 7.4% relative to prototypes with no heat transfer and uncontrolled currents. The added heat accelerated ammonia volatilization (the rate-limiting step of ECS), while preventing excessive current via charge controllers reduced energy use by 2.24 ± 0.25 kJ g−1 N per excess milliampere per square centimetre. A new process model for ECS operation at different currents and temperatures was proposed and applied to estimate possible net fertilizer revenues of up to US$2.18 kg−1 N in US markets and US$4.13 kg−1 N in African markets. By advancing the recovery of high-purity commodity chemicals from underused wastewaters, this work supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, clean energy and responsible production. Recovering fertilizers from wastewater has the potential to make intensive agriculture more sustainable and reduce aqueous pollution, but energy requirements could be prohibitive. A prototype photovoltaic–thermal electrochemical stripping system shows how distributed ammonia manufacturing can be achieved through solar energy in off-grid locations, thus reducing energy and environmental costs.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 8","pages":"913-926"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-19DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00491-y
Water is the key driving force behind the cycling of Earth’s essential elements — carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals across the atmosphere, land, and oceans. Understanding water’s role in this grander cycle is central to our responses to accelerating environmental changes.
{"title":"The grander cycle","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00491-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00491-y","url":null,"abstract":"Water is the key driving force behind the cycling of Earth’s essential elements — carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and metals across the atmosphere, land, and oceans. Understanding water’s role in this grander cycle is central to our responses to accelerating environmental changes.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 8","pages":"841-841"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00491-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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