Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a promising process for biomass valorization; however, optimizing HTC conditions and characterizing hydrochar through experimental methods remain costly and time-consuming. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its related machine learning (ML) techniques provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative, enabling efficient optimization and predictive analysis without extensive experimental tests. In this study, an analysis-ready database (ARD) comprising 544 data points was constructed using the authors' previous research (41) and scattered data compiled from the literature (503). An ensemble of eight diversified machine learning (ML) models was developed using biomass-agnostic properties and process conditions to predict hydrochar properties including elemental analysis, proximate analysis, and hydrochar yield. Tailor-made decision fusion models were developed for each target by merging the outputs of the best-performing models. Furthermore, a set of interpretable machine learning (IML) and explainable AI (XAI) techniques, leveraging feature importance analysis and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values, indicated that biomass fixed carbon (FC) content and process temperature are the most influencing features, which were then considered as inputs for the ensemble models. The decision fusion models achieved high accuracy for target prediction, surpassing the currently used models in the literature, with adjusted R² values ranging from 0.98 to 1.0. For outputs that are typically difficult to predict, such as hydrochar yield, the model achieved an adjusted R² of 0.98, representing over a 5 % improvement compared to the best-performing model reported in the literature. All predictions were derived from white-box modeling by incorporating XAI into the ensemble-based learning, ensuring greater model transparency and interpretability.

Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) research has mainly focused on primary char production, with limited attention to secondary char, which is formed through polymerization and condensation of dissolved organic compounds in the liquid phase. This research aims to address this gap via an experimental investigation of the impact of stirring on the mass and carbon balance of HTC reaction products, surface functional groups, and surface morphology of secondary char, using fructose as a model compound. A 3D hydrodynamic simulation model was developed for a two-liter HTC stirred reactor. The experimental results indicated that stirring did not significantly influence the pH, mass, carbon balance, and surface functional groups of secondary char produced under the range of experimental conditions (180 °C, 10% biomass to water (B/W) ratio, and a residence time of 0-120 min) studied. Nonetheless, it was observed that a stirring rate of 200 rpm influenced the morphology and shape of the secondary char microspheres, leading to a significant increase in their size i.e., from 1-2 μm in unstirred conditions compared with 70 μm at a stirring rate of 200 rpm. This increase in size was attributed to the aggregation of microspheres into irregular aggregates at stirring rates > 65 rpm and residence times > 1 h. The hydrodynamic model revealed that high turbulence of Re > 10⁴ and velocities > 0.17 m s⁻¹ correlated with regions of secondary char formation, emphasizing their role in particle aggregation. Particle aggregation is significant above a stirring rate of 65 rpm, which corresponds to the onset of turbulent flow in the reactor. Finally, a mechanism is proposed, based on reactor hydrodynamics under stirred conditions, that explains secondary char deposition on the reactor walls and stirrer.

Although industrial hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) uses wet feedstock, lab-scale studies tend to dry the feedstock under the assumption that the rehydration of the feedstock would restore its original properties. To the best of our knowledge, this assumption has not been thoroughly examined at the lab scale; therefore, its investigation is crucial to prevent any discrepancies that might affect the upscaling of HTC. This research aims to examine the effects of pre-drying biomass by comparing it to the use of wet biomass in HTC experiments, employing three different types of biomass (rejected tomatoes, rejected apples, and digestate). Additionally, the study investigates the influence of stirring on pre-dried and wet biomass under the selected HTC conditions. The results indicate a substantial disparity in studied hydrochar properties when using pre-dried biomass compared to wet biomass. For pre-dried biomass, there is a tendency for an increase in mass yield and solid carbon yield in most examined samples (5–10% dry basis) compared to the wet biomass. Regarding functional groups, wet tomatoes and apples exhibit more pronounced peaks than pre-dried samples. Conversely, digestate shows similar spectra across all examined scenarios. The effect of stirring appears insignificant for most of the studied scenarios; nevertheless, it reduced dehydration and decarboxylation reactions during HTC.

Sustainable Development Goal 6 highlight the importance of providing reliable, affordable, and safe source of clean drinking water and sanitation for all by 2030. In Tanzania there is a dire need of a water supply strategy due to high levels of natural fluoride contamination in ground water (upto 74 mg/L) and the challenge of meeting water demand during 5 months long dry period. This study assesses social and technical feasibility of implementing rainwater harvesting (RWH) along with treatment technologies that includes Denutritor® to remove ammonia/pesticides and ultrafiltration to eliminate carbon. This integrated technology known as “Mbinguni Maji” is aimed for the long-term water storage to supply drinking water throughout the dry season. The methodology involves i) Assessing the technical feasibility of RWH using database from QGIS and Water Productivity Open-access portal (WaPOR) from the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations; ii) conducting pilot demonstration in 5 different locations in Tanzania; and iii) conducting socio-economic survey for social acceptance of the technology through detailed questionnaires administered to residential homes, medical facilities, schools, hotels, and water kiosk owner. The result indicates that, from technical perspective, there is ample rainfall (average of 1036 mm/year) to supply water throughout the dry season, primarily for drinking and cooking purpose only (upto a maximum of 10 lpcd). The pilot demonstration confirms that the Mbinguni Maji RWH technology produce water that meets WHO water quality standards. The produced water is free from nutrients like carbon and ammonia, ensuring the possibility of long-term storage without bacterial and algal growth. Furthermore, Lab scale demonstration of Denutritor® show promising result of removing nitrite, ammonia even at high elevated temperature (30 °C), which can be effectively applied in Tanzania. In terms of social acceptance, RWH technology is already widely practised in Tanzania during the rainy season. However, the initial investment costs and operation & maintenance (O&M) concerns hinder the usage of RWH technology. Therefore, to ensure the long-term sustainability of RWH technologies, there is a need of development of comprehensive business plan and community awareness campaign.

According to existing literature, there are no conclusive results on the impact of stirring on hydrothermal carbonization (HTC); some studies report a significant impact on the product's properties, while others indicate no influence. This study investigates the influence of stirring rate on several responses and properties of HTC products, including solid mass yield, solid carbon fraction, surface area, surface functional groups, morphology, and the fate of inorganic elements during HTC. Waste biomass was introduced as a feedstock to a 2 L HTC reactor, where the effects of temperature (180–250 °C), residence time (4–12 h), biomass to water (B/W) ratio (1–10%), and stirring rate (0–130 rpm) were investigated. The findings of this study conclusively indicated that the stirring rate does not influence any of the studied responses or properties of hydrochar under the selected experimental conditions used in this study. Nevertheless, the results indicated that a low-stirring rate (5 RPM) is enough to slightly enhanced the heating-up phase of the HTC reactor. For future research, it is recommended to examine the impact of stirring rate on the HTC of other types of biomass using the methodology developed in this study.

This study aims at applying and verifying the MFI-UF method to predict particulate fouling in RO plants. Two full-scale RO plants treating surface water, with average capacity of 800–2000 m³/h, were studied. Firstly, the MFI-UF of RO feed and concentrate was measured using 5–100 kDa membranes at same flux applied in the RO plants (20–26 L/m².h). Subsequently, the particle disposition factor (Ω) was calculated to simulate particle deposition in RO cross-flow filtration. Finally, particulate fouling rates were predicted based on MFI-UF and Ω, and compared with the actual fouling rates in the plants. For plant A, the results showed that the fouling rates predicted using MFI-UF measured with 100 kDa membrane have the best agreement with the actual fouling (with 3–11 % deviation). For plant B, the fouling rates predicted based on both 10 and 100 kDa membranes agree well with the actual fouling (with 2 % and 15 % deviation, respectively). However, the fouling predicted based on 5 kDa membrane is considerably overestimated for both plants, which is attributed to the effect of the low surface porosity of 5 kDa membrane. More widespread applications of MFI-UF in full-scale RO plants are required to demonstrate the most suitable MFI-UF membranes for fouling prediction.

Water distribution networks (WDNs) require large capital investment and ongoing operational costs, resulting in their optimisation being a highly researched field. Despite the benefits tanks bring to networks, most optimisation models omit them as decision variables due to the complexity they can introduce to heuristic approaches. This paper addresses the least-cost optimisation of WDN design and operation through the development and application of the Small-network Configurator for Optimising Pump Energy consumption (SCOPE). The SCOPE algorithm incorporates pipes, pumps and tanks as decision variables and solves the optimisation problem through an iterative approach that pairs EPANET simulation results with subsequent hydraulic calculations to converge on the pumping and storage configuration which yields the lowest energy consumption. The SCOPE output can then be used to seed further optimisation techniques. This approach has been tested on the synthetic Nametown and real-life Dili networks and demonstrated annual cost savings of 10% and 25%, respectively.

The objectives of this study are to assess the performance of antiscalants in increasing the recovery (≥85%) of a reverse osmosis (RO) plant treating anaerobic groundwater (GW) in Kamerik (the Netherlands), and to identify scalants/foulant that may limit RO recovery. Five different commercially available antiscalants were compared on the basis of their manufacturer-recommended dose. Their ability to increase the recovery from 80% to a target of 85% was evaluated in pilot-scale measurements with anaerobic GW and in once-through lab-scale RO tests with synthetic (artificial) feedwater. A membrane autopsy was performed on the tail element(s) with decreased permeability. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that calcium phosphate was the primary scalant causing permeability decline at 85% recovery and limiting RO recovery. The addition of antiscalant had no positive effect on RO operation and scaling prevention, since at 85% recovery, permeability of the last stage decreased with all five antiscalants, while no decrease in permeability was observed without the addition of antiscalant at 80% recovery. In addition, in lab-scale RO tests executed with synthetic feed water containing identical calcium and phosphate concentrations as the anaerobic GW, calcium phosphate scaling occurred both with and without antiscalant at 85% recovery, while at 80% recovery without antiscalant, calcium phosphate did not precipitate in the RO element. In brief, calcium phosphate appeared to be the main scalant limiting RO recovery, and antiscalants were unable to prevent calcium phosphate scaling or to achieve a recovery of 85% or higher.

The potential of membrane scaling control by a real-time optimization algorithm was investigated. The effect of antiscalant dosing was evaluated from the induction time measured in glass batch-reactors, and from the operational performance of a lab-scale reverse osmosis (RO) unit and two pilot-scale RO units. Step changes in the antiscalant dosing demonstrated that the accumulation of scaling is ‘paused’ during periods when the optimum dose is applied. This is paramount for the application of a dynamic dosing strategy that may briefly underdose, while searching for the optimum dose. It was found that antiscalant underdose and overdose were both detrimental to RO operation since underdose resulted in membrane scaling, while overdose led to membrane fouling due to calcium-antiscalant deposits. The dosing algorithm was used to minimize antiscalant consumption in two pilot RO units. The algorithm was able to lower the antiscalant doses to 0.2 mg/L and 0.6 mg/L, while the supplier's recommended antiscalant doses were 2.0 mg/L and 4.5 mg/L, respectively. As a result, the algorithm could reduce antiscalant consumption by up to 85–90% for the plants mentioned.

Rapid population growth and urbanization are two main drivers for the over-abstraction of conventional freshwater resources in various parts of the world, which leads to the situation of water scarcity (per capita availability <1000 m³ /year). Predictions based on the World Bank projected population data and the FAO AQUASTAT database for freshwater availability show that by 2050, 2 billion people living in 44 countries will likely suffer from water scarcity, of which 95% may live in developing countries. Among these, the countries that will likely be most strongly hit by water scarcity by 2050 are Uganda, Burundi, Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Tanzania, Niger, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Pakistan. Currently, these countries have not yet established desalination to meet their freshwater demand. However, the current global trend shows that membrane-based desalination technology is finding new outlets for supplying water to meet growing water demand in most of the water-scarce countries. These 14 water-scarce countries will demand an additional desalination capacity of 54 Mm³ /day by 2050 in order to meet the standard of current municipal water demand and to compensate for the withdrawal of renewable resources. Case studies from India, China, and South Africa have highlighted that other countries may apply the strategy of using desalinated water for industrial users. Moreover, challenges to the widespread adoption of desalination exist such as expense, significant energy use, the need for specialized staff training, the large carbon footprint of facilities, environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emission (GHGs), chemical discharge, and operational problems such as membrane fouling.

This study aimed to quantify the effect of membrane surface porosity on particulate fouling predicted by the MFI-UF method at constant flux. Firstly, the surface porosity of polyethersulfone UF membranes (5–100 kDa) was determined using ultra-high resolution SEM. Thereafter, the MFI-UF was measured using suspensions of polystyrene particles (75 nm), which were pre-washed to remove surfactant and particle fractions smaller than the pores of MFI-UF membranes, thus ensuring complete retention of particles during MFI-UF measurements. Consequently, the MFI-UF values of washed polystyrene particle suspensions were independent of the pore size and depended only on the surface porosity of MFI-UF membrane. The results showed that the membrane surface porosity decreased with MWCO from 10.5% (100 kDa) to 0.6% (5 kDa), and consequently the MFI-UF increased from 3700 to 8700 s/L², respectively. This increase in MFI-UF was attributed to the non-uniform distribution of membrane pores, which is exacerbated as surface porosity decreases. Consequently, preliminary correction factors of 0.4–1.0 were proposed for MFI-UF measured with UF membranes in the range 5–100 kDa. Finally, the surface porosity correction was applied to predict particulate fouling in a full-scale RO plant. However, additional research is required to establish correction factors for different types of feed water.

Jordan was late in adopting seawater and brackish water desalination as a source until the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, ongoing studies are still discussing the technical, economic, and socio-political aspects of brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) desalination plants. In this study, the water–energy nexus was considered, in order to highlight the main challenges facing BWRO desalination. We discuss the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology, together with BWRO desalination, as an approach to compensate for ecological, financial, and social challenges in Jordan. For this purpose, the performance of nine existing BWRO desalination plants in the agricultural, domestic, and industrial sectors is assessed. The water performance is assessed based on water consumption, safe yield extraction, plant recovery rate (R, %), and compliance to local and international water quality standards; the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC, kWh/m³) is taken as the main evaluation criterion to assess the energy performance of the BWRO desalination plants; and economic performance is assessed based on the overall cost of water produced per cubic meter (USD/m³). The main environmental component is the brine disposal management practice utilized by each plant. Based on this assessment, the main challenges in BWRO desalination are the unsustainable patterns of water production, mismanaged energy performance, low recovery rates, and improper brine disposal. The challenges in domestic and industrial BWRO desalination, which are completely dependent on the electricity grid, are associated with critical energy and costs losses, as reflected by the high SEC values (in the range of 2.7–5.6 kWh/m³) and high water costs per cubic meter (0.60–1.18 USD/m³). As such, the use of PV solar panels is suggested, in order to reduce the electricity consumption of the assessed BWRO plants. The installation of PV panels resulted in significantly reduced energy costs (by 69–74%) and total costs (by 50–54%), compared with energy costs from the electricity grid, over the lifetime of the assessed BWRO desalination plants.

The bacterial growth potential (BGP) of drinking water is widely assessed either by flow cytometric intact cell count (BGP_ICC) or adenosine triphosphate (BGP_ATP) based methods. Combining BGP_ICC and BGP_ATP measurements has been previously applied for various types of drinking water having high to low growth potential. However, this has not been applied for water with ultra-low nutrient content, such as remineralised RO permeate. To conduct a sound comparison, conventionally treated drinking water was included in this study, which was also used as an inoculum source. BGP_ICC, BGP_ATP, intact cell-yield (Y_ICC), and ATP-yield (Y_ATP) were determined for conventionally treated drinking water (Tap-water) and remineralised RO permeate (RO-water). In addition, both BGP_ICC and BGP_ATP methods were used to identify the growth-limiting nutrient in each water type. The results showed that the BGP_ICC ratio between Tap-water/RO-water was ∼7.5, whereas the BGP_ATP ratio was only ∼4.5. Moreover, the Y_ICC ratio between Tap-water/RO-water was ∼2 (9.8 ± 0.6 × 10⁶ vs. 4.6 ± 0.8 × 10⁶ cells/µg-C), whereas the Y_ATP ratio was ∼1 (0.39 ± 0.12 vs. 0.42 ± 0.06 ng ATP/µg-C), resulting in a consistently higher ATP per cell in RO-water than that of Tap-water. Both BGP_ICC and BGP_ATP methods revealed that carbon was the growth-limiting nutrient in the two types of water. However, with the addition of extra carbon, phosphate limitation was detected only with the BGP_ICC method, whereas BGP_ATP was not affected, suggesting that a combination of carbon and phosphate is essential for biomass synthesis, whereas carbon is probably utilised for cellular activities other than cell synthesis when phosphate is limited. It was estimated that the intact cell-yield growing on phosphate would be 0.70 ± 0.05 × 10⁹ cells/µg PO₄-P.

The role of phosphate and humic substances (HS) in preventing calcium carbonate scaling and their impact on antiscalant dose was investigated for a reverse osmosis (RO) system treating anaerobic groundwater (GW) (containing 2.1 mg/L orthophosphate and 6-8 mg/L HS). Experiments were conducted with the RO unit (treating anaerobic GW), and with a once-through lab-scale RO system (operating with artificial feedwater). Additionally, (batch) induction time (IT) measurements were performed with, i) real RO concentrate, and ii) artificial RO concentrates in the presence and absence of phosphate and HS. It was found that at 80% recovery (Langelier saturation index (LSI) 1.7), calcium carbonate scaling did not occur in the RO unit when the antiscalant dose was lowered from 2.2 mg/L (supplier's recommended dose) to 0 mg/L. The IT of the real RO concentrate, without antiscalant, was longer than 168 h, while, at the same supersaturation level, the IT of the artificial concentrate was approximately 1 h. The IT of the artificial concentrate increased to 168 h with the addition of 10 mg/L of phosphate, humic acid (HA), and fulvic acid (FA). Furthermore, in the lab-scale RO tests, the normalized permeability (Kw) of the membrane decreased by 20% in 2 h period when fed with artificial concentrate of 80% recovery containing no phosphate, whereas, with phosphate, no decrease in Kw was observed in 10 h period. These results indicate that phosphate and HS present in the GW prevented calcium carbonate scaling in the RO unit and reduced the use of commercial (synthetic) antiscalants.

All of the possible strategies to reduce water losses in piped distribution systems follow the law of diminishing returns: the higher the expenditure on water loss reduction, the lower the progressive return in terms of water saved. Therefore, water utilities need to estimate the economic level of water losses (ELWL) so that they can reduce their water loss to the level where the cost to reduce the water losses is equal to the value of the water saved. This paper aims to estimate the ELWL using four different methods: the total cost method, the marginal cost method, the cumulative cost–benefit method, and the component‐based methods. This analysis is based on data (2011– 2016) on the water utilities of the city of Malang (PDAM Kota Malang), Indonesia. It was found that the total cost and marginal cost methods gave almost similar results for ELWL. However, the total cost method is preferred to calculate ELWL because it is the most accurate, easier to apply, and does not need a long data series. In addition, the estimated ELWL for PDAM Kota Malang was 21.76%, which is 3.71% higher than the water loss level estimated in 2016, which means that their strategies to reduce water loss are not cost‐efficient. Moreover, the lack of data is a major challenge in the estimation of ELWL in Indonesia. This study emphasizes the importance of estimating the ELWL so that water utilities, especially in Indonesia, can evaluate their strategies in reducing water loss and improving their cost‐effectiveness.

Antiscalants are well known to prevent the precipitation of carbonate and sulphate scales of calcium in reverse osmosis (RO) applications, but according to literature their inhibitory ability against calcium phosphate is not clear. The objective of this study was to investigate if antiscalants, without acid addition, can prevent calcium phosphate scaling in RO systems. Eight calcium phosphate antiscalants from different manufacturers spanning a range of concentrations were tested in batch (in glass reactors) experiments to inhibit the formation of calcium phosphate in synthetic concentrate corresponding to 85% recovery (Ca²⁺ = 765 mg/L, PO₄³⁻ = 13–15 mg/L and pH = 7.6) of a groundwater RO in the Netherlands. Additionally, once-through lab-scale RO tests were conducted where an RO element was fed with synthetic concentrate and the performance of antiscalants was evaluated from the rate of flux-decline in the RO element. Without antiscalant addition, a substantial flux-decline was observed due to the deposition of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) on the RO membrane. The tested antiscalants were unable to inhibit the formation of ACP and were incapable of preventing the deposition of the formed ACP particles, since with each antiscalant, the flux of the RO element decreased at least 15% in a 3-h period. Briefly, the available antiscalants, tested in this study, did not provide acceptable inhibition of calcium phosphate scaling in RO applications.

In this study, the removal of particulate, organic and biological fouling potential was investigated in the two-stage dual media filtration (DMF) pretreatment of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant. Moreover, the removal of fouling potential in two-stage DMF (DMF pretreatment) was compared with the removal in two-stage DMF installed after dissolved air floatation (DAF) (DAF-DMF pretreatment). For this purpose, the silt density index (SDI), modified fouling index (MFI), bacterial growth potential (BGP), organic fractions and microbial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were monitored in the pretreatment processes of two full-scale SWRO plants. Particulate fouling potential was well controlled through the two stages of DMF with significant removal of SDI15 (>80%), MFI0.45 (94%) and microbial ATP (>95%). However, lower removal of biological/organic fouling potential (24–41%) was observed due to frequent chlorination (weekly) of the pretreatment, resulting in low biological activity in the DMFs. Therefore, neutralizing chlorine before media filtration is advised, rather than after, as is the current practice in many full-scale SWRO plants. Comparing overall removal in the DAF-DMF pretreatment to that of the DMF pretreatment showed that DAF improved the removal of biological/organic fouling potential, in which the removal of BGP and biopolymers increased by 40% and 16%, respectively. Overall, monitoring ATP and BGP during the pretreatment processes, particularly in DMF, would be beneficial to enhance biological degradation and lower biofouling potential in SWRO feed water.

Although water produced by reverse osmosis (RO) filtration has low bacterial growth potential (BGP), post-treatment of RO permeate, which is necessary prior to distribution and human consumption, needs to be examined because of the potential re-introduction of nutrients/contaminants. In this study, drinking water produced from anaerobic groundwater by RO and post-treatment (ion exchange, calcite contactors, and aeration) was compared with that produced by conventional treatment comprising (dry) sand filtration, pellet softening, rapid sand filtration, activated carbon filtration, and UV disinfection. The multi-parametric assessment of biological stability included bacterial quantification, nutrient concentration and composition as well as bacterial community composition and diversity. Results showed that RO permeate remineralised in the laboratory has an extremely low BGP (50 ± 12 × 10³ ICC/mL), which increased to 130 ± 10 × 10³ ICC/mL after site post-treatment. Despite the negative impact of post-treatment, the BGP of the finished RO-treated water was >75% lower than that of conventionally treated water. Organic carbon limited bacterial growth in both RO-treated and conventionally treated waters. The increased BGP in RO-treated water was caused by the re-introduction of nutrients during post-treatment. Similarly, OTUs introduced during post-treatment, assigned to the phyla of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes (75–85%), were not present in the source groundwater. Conversely, conventionally treated water shared some OTUs with the source groundwater. It is clear that RO-based treatment achieved an extremely low BGP, which can be further improved by optimising post-treatment, such as using high purity calcite. The multi-parametric approach adopted in this study can offer insights into growth characteristics including limiting nutrients (why) and dominating genera growing (who), which is essential to manage microbiological water quality in water treatment and distribution systems.