Sources, colloidal characteristics, and separation technologies for highly hazardous waste nanoemulsions

Nanoemulsions play a crucial role in various industries. However, their application often results in hazardous waste, posing significant risks to human health and the environment. Effective management and separation of waste nanoemulsions requires special attention and effort. This review provides a comprehensive understanding of waste nanoemulsions, covering their sources, characteristics, and suitable treatment technologies, intending to mitigate their environmental impact. This study examines the evolution of nanoemulsions from beneficial products to hazardous wastes, provides an overview of the production processes, fate, and hazards of waste nanoemulsions, and highlights the critical characteristics that affect their stability. The latest advancements in separating waste nanoemulsions for recovering oil and reusable water resources are also presented, providing a comprehensive comparison and evaluation of the current treatment techniques. This review addresses the significant challenges in nanoemulsion treatment, provides insights into future research directions, and offers valuable implications for the development of more effective strategies to mitigate the hazards associated with waste nanoemulsions.

Water scarcity in agriculture: An overview of causes, impacts and approaches for reducing the risks

Freshwater is a vital resource for both ecosystem health and human survival, and it is the natural resource that is the most extracted at the global level. Excessive freshwater consumption can be responsible for a scarcity in the circulation rate, which occurs when the freshwater demand exceeds its availability. Hence, water consumption needs to be optimised in all human activities, given the increasing freshwater scarcity due to climate changes and to the annual net increase in the human population of 81,000,000. Freshwater plays many important roles in daily life for example, agriculture is responsible for nearly 70% of that withdrawal volume, and it is therefore, the most water-intensive sector. This puts emphasis upon the urgent need of transitioning towards more sustainable agricultural and food-production/consumption systems. Water Footprint (WF) is increasingly playing a guiding role in that context. Indeed, it makes it possible to quantify water consumption and related environmental consequences. With the objective of contributing to enhancement of research and of supporting practitioners and decision-makers in environmentally sustainable and resilient food production/consumption, the authors of this article addressed the relevant issues connected with: a) physical and economic water scarcity in agriculture, b) practices and tools to reduce water wastage, c) WF assessment methodologies. A number of environmental, economic, and engineering solutions were proposed to mitigate water scarcity. The improvement of irrigation technologies and practices was identified as an important major way to reduce water scarcity. Additionally, solar powered 'reverse-osmosis' is being used in many parts of the world to produce irrigation water from saline water, thereby reducing the need to extract freshwater from underground aquifers. This article confirmed the importance of research on water scarcity; moreover, it can stimulate development and application of solutions that make agricultural production/consumption more efficient and resilient.

Performance of Different Crop Models in Simulating Soil Temperature

Soil temperature is one of the key factors to be considered in precision agriculture to increase crop production. This study is designed to compare the effectiveness of a land surface model (Noah Multiparameterization (Noah-MP)) against a traditional crop model (Environmental Policy Integrated Climate Model (EPIC)) in estimating soil temperature. A sets of soil temperature estimates, including three different EPIC simulations (i.e., using different parameterizations) and a Noah-MP simulations, is compared to ground-based measurements from across the Central Valley in California, USA, during 2000-2019. The main conclusion is that relying only on one set of model estimates may not be optimal. Furthermore, by combining different model simulations, i.e., by taking the mean of two model simulations to reconstruct a new set of soil temperature estimates, it is possible to improve the performance of the single model in terms of different statistical metrics against the reference ground observations. Containing ratio (CR), Euclidean distance (dist), and correlation co-efficient (R) calculated for the reconstructed mean improved by 52%, 58%, and 10%, respectively, compared to both model estimates. Thus, the reconstructed mean estimates are shown to be more capable of capturing soil temperature variations under different soil characteristics and across different geographical conditions when compared to the parent model simulations.

Scale and Environmental Impacts of Food Loss and Waste in China-A Material Flow Analysis

Evidence of China's food loss and waste (FLW) and its increasing impacts on food security and environmental sustainability is urgently needed to guide policy intervention and avoid unnecessary damage to human health and the environment. This paper estimates the scale of China's FLW in 2019 and assesses the environmental impacts of major food types along the entire food supply chain (FSC) by using a food balance and material flow analysis (MFA) based on existing empirical research. The results show a total FLW of 422.56 Mt which is around 22.37% of total food production (1889.12 Mt). There are also serious environmental impacts on the land footprint (LF), water footprint (WF), and the carbon footprint (CF) estimation (4152.36 × 10⁹ gm², 613.84 × 10⁶ t CO₂e and 506.07 × 10⁹ m³ on average, respectively), most of which are found in foods of animal products, cereals, vegetables and fruit at the stages of consumption, agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage. In addition, the root causes of FLW generation at different levels-micro, meso and macro-were also analyzed. These results will provide significant guidance to researchers and decision-makers on primary data collection and reduction-policy development for China's FLW.

Food Banks against Climate Change, a Solution That Works: A Case Study in Navarra, Spain

Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted each year, which is equivalent to releasing 4.4 Gt of CO₂ equivalents (CO₂e). In this context, the Food Bank of Navarra (FBN) annually avoids the waste of approximately 3000 tons of perfectly consumable food. The aim of this study was twofold: on the one hand, to analyse the carbon footprint of the FBN and, on the other hand, to perform a comparative analysis of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in two scenarios, "with" and "without" the actions of the FBN, in order to identify and quantify the environmental benefits, in terms of GHG emissions reduction, associated with the reduction in food waste. The analyses were conducted in two different years. The carbon footprint associated with the FBN's activities was 147 t of CO₂e in the year 2018. The quantification of GHGs in the scenario "without the FBN" showed that if the FBN did not exist 4715 t of CO₂e would have been emitted. The results obtained in consecutive years were similar, highlighting the importance of the FBN-not only in social terms but also environmental terms-as it prevented a large amount of GHGs from being emitted into the atmosphere. A detailed account of the carbon emission reduction associated with the food bank's operations and the knowledge of the benefits involved could boost their positive effects in facilitating the integration of their activities into policies aimed at climate neutrality.

The Role of the Food Banks in Saving Freshwater Resources through Reducing Food Waste: The Case of the Food Bank of Navarra, Spain

In the year 2011, the FAO estimated that food loss and waste reached one third of the total food produced worldwide. Since then, numerous studies have been published characterizing this problem and reflecting on its repercussions, not only social, but also environmental. Food wastage triggers unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation or loss of biodiversity. This study aims to quantify the water-related benefits associated with food loss and waste reduction by studying the Food Bank of Navarra (FBN). For this purpose, the water footprint assessment manual has been followed. First, the water footprint of the activities of the FBN has been analysed for the year 2018 (scenario with the FBN). A comparative analysis has been carried out between the scenario with the FBN and a theoretical scenario without the action of the FBN. This has allowed us to highlight the benefits associated with the activity of this entity. The FBN not only avoided the waste of 2.7 thousand tons of food suitable for consumption in 2018, but also avoided the unnecessary use of more than 3.2 million m³ of freshwater. As a result of the present investigation, it can be stated that promoting food banks, which avoid food waste, would be an effective way to contribute to the protection and conservation of water resources.

COVID-19 Reveals Vulnerabilities of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus to Viral Pandemics

Food, energy, and water (FEW) sectors are inextricably linked, making one sector vulnerable to disruptions in another. Interactions between FEW systems, viral pandemics, and human health have not been widely studied. We mined scientific and news/media articles for causal relations among FEW and COVID-19 variables and qualitatively characterized system dynamics. Food systems promoted the emergence and spread of COVID-19, leading to illness and death. Major supply-side breakdowns were avoided (likely due to low morbidity/mortality among working-age people). However, COVID-19 and physical distancing disrupted labor and capital inputs and stressed supply chains, while creating economic insecurity among the already vulnerable poor. This led to demand-side FEW insecurities, in turn increasing susceptibility to COVID-19 among people with many comorbidities. COVID-19 revealed trade-offs such as allocation of water to hygiene versus to food production and disease burden avoided by physical distancing versus disease burden from increased FEW insecurities. News/media articles suggest great public interest in FEW insecurities triggered by COVID-19 interventions among individuals with low COVID-19 case-fatality rates. There is virtually no quantitative analysis of any of these trade-offs or feedbacks. Enhanced quantitative FEW and health models are urgently needed as future pandemics are likely and may have greater morbidity and mortality than COVID-19.