Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology最新文献

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a thermostable, lipophilic, non-steroidal estrogenic mycotoxin produced by Fusarium spp. that persistently contaminates cereals and feed, posing major risks to food safety, human and animal health, and environmental sustainability. Conventional physical and chemical detoxification methods often compromise nutritional quality and leave toxic residues. This review critically evaluates recent advances in ZEN degradation, integrating physical, chemical, biological, and emerging hybrid approaches, and compares their mechanistic efficiency and applicability. Biological systems employing microorganisms and recombinant enzymes such as peroxidases, laccases, and lactonases exhibit high substrate specificity and eco-compatibility, yet remain limited by enzyme stability and cofactor dependence. Innovative methods including cold atmospheric plasma, polyphenol-mediated redox systems, and nanobiotechnology enhance degradation via reactive species generation, electron transfer, or catalytic surface interactions. Conceptually, this review synthesizes cross-disciplinary progress linking enzymatic catalysis with nanomaterial-assisted detoxification, highlighting hybrid enzyme-nanoparticle systems and synthetic-biology-driven enzyme engineering as promising solutions. Persistent gaps include industrial scalability and regulatory acceptance. Future research should emphasize integrated multi-modal frameworks that couple enzymatic precision with nanomaterial reactivity to achieve efficient, residue-free, and sustainable ZEN detoxification.

Nitrogen (N) plays a critical role in crop growth, development, and yield. In global agriculture, however, about 40 to 60 percent of nitrogen applied to soil is lost through nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, nitrate (NO₃⁻) leaching, and ammonia (NH₃) volatilization, resulting in significantly reduced crop yields and environmental issues, such as water body eutrophication, soil degradation, and increased greenhouse gas emissions. While a range of mitigation strategies have been explored, effective and scalable solutions that simultaneously enhance N retention in soil and promote crop uptake remain limited. In this context, integrated approaches that combine microbial aggregates with functional materials represent a promising yet underexplored pathway. This review examines the structural functions of microbial aggregates and the properties of common functional materials, emphasizing their mechanisms of action in reducing soil nitrogen loss and their potential contributions to mitigating environmental pollution. Additionally, the physical, chemical, and biological interactions during the synergistic application of these technologies were investigated, resulting in a 14–26% increase in soil nitrogen retention and a 15–35% increase in crop yields through improved inter-root nitrogen supply. This review aims to provide practical strategies for reducing agricultural nitrogen loss and its associated environmental hazards while promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

The viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state represents a unique survival strategy adopted by many aquatic bacterial pathogens under environmental stress. In aquaculture environments, factors such as low temperatures, nutrient imbalances, oxidative stress, and disinfection treatments (e.g., UV or chlorine) can induce bacteria to enter the VBNC state, wherein they remain metabolically active yet undetectable using traditional culturing methods. This dormant state allows pathogens such as Vibrio spp., Edwardsiella spp., and Aeromonas spp. to evade standard monitoring systems, persist in aquaculture systems, and later resuscitate under favorable conditions, regaining pathogenicity and contributing to disease outbreaks. VBNC cells also exhibit increased antibiotic resistance and may serve as reservoirs for resistance genes, amplifying concerns about treatment failure and the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Recent advancements in molecular diagnostics, including PMA-qPCR, FISH, and omics-integrated AI detection, have improved the identification of VBNC populations. Furthermore, resuscitation mechanisms involving quorum sensing, oxidative stress regulators (e.g., RpoS, OxyR), and resuscitation-promoting factors (Rpfs) are being actively investigated. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the VBNC state in aquatic pathogens, with a focus on its environmental triggers, physiological and molecular characteristics, implications for disease transmission, and recent advances in detection and control strategies. A deeper understanding of VBNC dynamics is essential for improving aquatic animal health, enhancing biosecurity, and establishing sustainable aquaculture practices.

B vitamins are essential cofactors in cellular metabolism, influencing host physiology and microbial community dynamics. Current supplies rely on dietary intake, supplementation, or chemical synthesis, but high production cost, environmental burden, and reliance on non-renewable feedstocks underscore the need for sustainable alternatives. Microbial fermentation offers bioavailable B vitamins, offering potential gut-targeted benefits, particularly when integrated with agro-food waste valorization. This review summarizes advances in microbial production systems, including commensal and industrial strains, metabolic engineering, and co-culture approaches, alongside vitamin-specific biosynthetic pathways. Agro-food residues as low-cost renewable substrates are discussed in the context of circular bioeconomy and zero-waste principles. Special emphasis is placed on the gut microbiota, where B vitamins modulate microbial diversity, host immunity, and metabolism, and act as regulators of microbial communication, affecting quorum sensing, biofilm formation, virulence, and resistance. By interlinking agro-waste valorization, microbial biosynthesis, gut microbiota modulation, and microbial communication, this review highlights sustainable B vitamin production, identifies knowledge gaps, and outlines future directions for microbiome-targeted innovations.

Wastewater treatment stands as a cornerstone in preserving public health and environmental integrity by effectively eliminating contaminants and pathogens from wastewater before discharge or reuse. Despite its crucial role, conventional wastewater treatment faces formidable challenges, mostly due to the quick metabolic adaptation strategies bacteria employ, which, among others, contribute to the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In response, recent attention has turned to bacteriophages, viruses with a predilection for infecting bacteria, as potential antimicrobial agents within wastewater treatment facilities. This review critically examines the rise of bacteriophages as an integrated biological tool in wastewater treatment plants, specifically targeting putative opportunistic pathogens that may harbor and propagate drug resistance. The exploitation of bacteriophage applications offers a promising pathway toward robust pathogen control within these facilities, although we still lack demonstrations and pilot-scale experiments. Furthermore, our review delves into a wide range of considerations arising and examines prospective methodologies for future wastewater treatment approaches.

CaCO₃ is a well-known mineral that has been used extensively as an additive to improve the processability and as a reinforcement material for industrial-based applications. Recently, emphasis has been laid on the fabrication of CaCO₃-based nanoplatforms for enhanced drug and vectors for gene delivery, biosensing, and bioimaging, combinatorial effects of photothermal and photodynamic therapies to treat tumors and cancers. For instance, Fe₃O₄@CaCO₃ nanocomposites not only exhibit excellent biocompatibility in cancer chemotherapy but also provide magnetic separability for reuse in pollutant remediation. Similarly, the association of C dots with CaCO₃ has huge potential in the fabrication of novel and advanced biomaterials that can serve as platforms for various biological and biotechnological-based applications. On the environmental aspect, CaCO₃ nanohybrids have shown efficacy in adsorbing heavy metals, degrading dyes, and even acting as slow-release fertilizers, aligning with sustainable agriculture and circular economy models. Thus, there is a lot of scope for the fabrication of novel CaCO₃-based nanohybrids in the future, and this review highlights the recent advances and developments in this direction. Despite these advances, key gaps and challenges still remain that need to be addressed. Current studies are mostly confined to laboratory settings, with limited translation into clinical or field-scale applications. The challenges include optimizing particle size, morphology, and stability under physiological and environmental conditions, with more emphasis on issues pertaining to biosafety and long-term ecological impacts. Future research must focus on interdisciplinary strategies integrating green synthesis, advanced functionalization, and rigorous in vivo/field trials to fully harness CaCO₃ nanohybrids as multifunctional platforms that aid in biomedical innovation with environmental sustainability.

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The increasing discharge of azo dyes is of ecological concern due to its toxicity and resistance to conventional treatment methods. Microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology has long been identified as a potential solution for treating recalcitrant waste, such as azo dye effluents, providing a dual advantage of dye degradation and energy recovery. This review elucidates azo dye structure, chemistry and its influence on the degradation in MFC with emphasis on redox transformations at the electrodes. At the anode, azo bond reduction with the help of microbial catalysts produces aromatic amines. At the cathode, azo dye can be the terminal electron acceptor, leading to dye decolorization, or it can be degraded to smaller intermediates in an advanced oxidation process. The anodic dye degradation, electrode materials, microbial catalyst, co-substrate, degradation at biotic/abiotic cathode and various membranes used in MFCs have been summarized. The integration of nanomaterials into MFC components for improving electron transfer rates, reducing electrode overpotentials, facilitating electrode-microbes interaction and enhancing membrane cation transfer has been discussed. The recent advancement in scaling up of MFC for dye treatment by integrating with other treatment systems and stacking individual MFCs has been outlined. The review concludes with a future perspective on advancing scalable MFC by consolidating research insights on MFC materials, microbial interactions, reactor design and operational parameters to realize real-world applications.

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Photovoltaic power generation is playing an increasingly prominent role in the global energy transition, and the rapid expansion of photovoltaic power plants (PVPPs) has raised growing concerns regarding their ecological impacts. This research presents a comprehensive review of the ecological effects of PVPPs from atmosphere, soil, hydrology, and biodiversity. In the atmosphere, PVPPs contribute to the regulation of microclimates, increasing surface albedo from 0.22 to 0.24, reducing the annual mean temperature by 0.32 °C/TWh of generated electricity. In the soil environment, PVPPs increase available soil phosphorus and pH levels, and indirectly promote carbon fixation through vegetation restoration and optimized land utilization. Concurrently, PVPP deployment significantly increased the soil organic carbon concentration to 1.20 g kg^–1. In hydrology, PVPPs alter local hydrological cycles by reducing wind speed, intercepting rainfall, and increasing surface runoff. At the biodiversity level, PVPPs enhance avian diversity while simultaneously increasing plant species richness and improving microbial resilience. Notably, PVPP implementation at a coverage of 27.00–33.00% modifies habitats, resulting in a 116.70% increase in plant species richness and a 68.70% increase in aboveground biomass. This research offers valuable insights for ecosystem protection, land management, and the advancement of policy-making strategies, thereby promoting sustainable development and ecological conservation.

Transitioning towards a low-carbon society can be accelerated by producing clean hydrogen fuels from sustainable resources, such as biomass and water, thereby offering a sustainable energy source that effectively reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of hydrogen production technologies, including fossil fuel-based processes (e.g., thermochemical conversions and steam methane reforming), electrolysis-based routes (alkaline, polymer electrolyte membrane, and solid oxide water), and biological methods (dark fermentation, photofermentation, and biophotolysis), along with emerging photocatalytic and photochemical systems. For each pathway, we critically assess its technological maturity, deployment status, and potential to enhance the share of clean energy in the global renewable energy supply chain. The manuscript also highlights research gaps, prospects, and challenges for numerous upstream hydrogen generation from both biological and non-biological sources, with a specific focus on enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving environmental performance. Photochemical, electrochemical, and photocatalytic hydrogen generation systems utilizing biomass and water as feedstocks have garnered significant attention.

Technological advances in the downstream enrichment and storage of hydrogen gas are critically evaluated, including opportunities, current challenges, and barriers associated with commercial applications. Metal–organic framework-based pressure swing adsorption, electrochemical hydrogen pumps, and metal hydrides are analyzed for their capacity to achieve high hydrogen purification (~ 99.99%) and enable a scalable storage solution. However, the economic and commercial feasibility of hydrogen production from biomass remains a substantial challenge due to the high production cost ($4.11–$7.45/kg H₂). This can be alleviated by appropriate biomass selection, the development of highly selective catalysts, the integration of different processes, and the application of artificial intelligence-/machine learning-driven models to predict the outcomes for better industrial automation. This study offers insightful information for the selection of highly effective and advanced hydrogen generation, purification, and storage techniques. We conclude with strategic recommendations for technology development, scale-up efficiency, and policy frameworks that can expedite the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy.

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Sugarcane vinasse biodigestion presents challenges due to its sulfate-rich nature (2–3 g-SO₄^2– L^–1), causing microbial competition, inhibition, and H₂S-rich biogas production. The high H₂S content (up to 45,000 ppm) is considered a significant economic drawback for energy recovery purposes, mainly for the upgrading routes toward biomethane. Despite the potential benefits, the adoption of two-stage biodigestion faces obstacles because of high alkalinization costs. However, the fermentative-sulfidogenic process is promising by producing bicarbonate alkalinity as a by-product of the organic matter oxidation and consuming H⁺ ions through ionized sulfide generation. This pathway mitigates the need for expensive alkalinizing inputs and enhances the biogas energetic value (CH₄ > 80%, H₂S-free), providing favorable conditions for cost-effective and environmentally sustainable upgrading strategies. Moreover, the H₂S- and CO₂-rich biogas produced during the fermentative-sulfidogenic stage must be addressed from an environmental perspective as an “off-gas”, enabling promising biotechnological routes for sulfur and biogenic CO₂ recovery. Although significant progress has been made at laboratory scale, further understanding is needed regarding the role of the fermentative-sulfidogenic step as a biological alkalinity source for methanogenesis. In parallel, developing low-cost and environmentally advantageous strategies to support sulfidogenic activity remains critical. This review elucidates the fermentative-sulfidogenic pathway’s central role in vinasse biodigestion, highlighting its dual potential for biogas upgrading and recovery of valuable by-products such as elemental sulfur and biogenic CO₂.

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