Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:63437–63439

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16870-3

EDITORIAL

Green technologies for sustainable environment: an introduction

Eldon R. Rene1 · Xuan Thanh Bui2,3 · Huu Hao Ngo4 · Long D. Nghiem4 · Wenshan Guo4

Published online: 12 October 2021

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Water pollution has long been a major source of concern Firstly, concerning water quality, an effective arithmeti-
for the environment, the biosphere, and human well-being. cal method for evaluating the quality of surface and ground
In order to safeguard the environment, technologies such as water has been described as the water quality index (WQI).
wastewater treatment, reuse, recycling, and resource recov- The determination of water quality indexes often entails
ery have been tested and implemented at the pilot and indus- the integration of diverse biological, physical, and chemi-
trial scales. In recent years, the research hotspot of environ- cal aspects of a water source to yield a single value that is
mental protection has gradually shifted from the well-known unitless but serves as an effective indicator of water qual-
conventional technologies to eco-friendly, cost-effective, ity because it is non-destructive. Secondly, the increased
and sustainable technologies, also known as green tech- consumption of fossil fuels contributes to global warming,
nologies which could demonstrate outstanding advantages. depletion of fossil fuel reserves, and future energy insecu-
Several practical treatment processes have been proposed rity, all of which encourage the globe to look for alterna-
and applied in practice; however, the green technologies are tives that are more environmentally friendly, simple, and
currently the most attractive for pollution control, especially inexpensively available. Thirdly, in many water bodies
water and wastewater remediation, preventing air pollution, around the globe, toxic cyanobacterial blooms (TCBs) are
and also the development of sophisticated, yet usable on-site becoming a rising source of worry and it has depleted the
sensors and analytical instruments. In the context of envi- water quality. By using modern analytical and quantita-
ronmental protection, green technologies are a collection tive real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and high-
of practical methodologies, techniques, technologies, and performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques,
materials that are based on non-toxic chemical processes, the dynamics of poisonous cyanobacteria and microcys-
non-toxic end products, renewable energy sources, and envi- tin (MC) concentrations in different aquatic ecosystems
ronmental monitoring instruments, among other things, to can be determined. Fourthly, the recovery of energy from
mitigate or correct the negative impact caused by human plastic wastes has become increasingly popular in recent
activities. decades, owing to the increased need for energy in the
world. The green principles and concepts such as recy-
cling and reusing are being considered as an alternative,
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues
but reprocessing plastics and subjecting them to additional
* Xuan Thanh Bui heating cycles will almost certainly result in molecular
[email protected] damage such as cross-linking, chain scission, or the for-
1 mation of double bonds, which will reduce the product's
Department of Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental
Engineering, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, reliability. Fifthly, when we discuss the global issue of
Westvest 7, PO Box 3015, 2611AX Delft, The Netherlands climate change, the levels of carbon dioxide in the earth’s
2
Key Laboratory of Advanced Waste Treatment Technology, atmosphere are increasing on a daily basis as a result of
Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh (VNU-HCM), the combustion of fossil fuels for the generation of elec-
Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, tricity. This has caused greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
Viet Nam accounting for 64% of global warming since the industrial
3
Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Ho revolution. From a techno-economic and green technol-
Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), ogy viewpoint, researchers have been more interested in
Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Viet Nam
novel carbon capture because of its ease of integration
4
Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater, School with coal-fired power plants, which does not require con-
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University
of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NWS 2007, Australia siderable adjustments (e.g., the use of photobioreactors,

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63438 Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2021) 28:63437–63439

photo-sequencing bioreactors, and algal bioreactors). All

these five issues have led to the development of an enor-
mous number of indicators that aims at pollution preven- Dr. Eldon R. Rene is currently
tion, resource recovery, and the implementation of cleaner working as a Senior Lecturer at
production concepts by a variety of national and interna- IHE Delft Institute for Water
tional entities/research groups. Education, The Netherlands. He
obtained his University Teaching
On December 1–4, 2019, the 2­ nd Green Technologies Qualification (UTQ) diploma
for Sustainable Water Conference (GTSW 2019) was suc- from IHE Delft and a PhD in
cessfully held in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The aim of Chemical Engineering from the
GTSW 2019 was to provide a special forum for exchang- Indian Institute of Technology
Madras (India). Eldon’s research
ing experiences, knowledge, and innovative ideas on all focuses on topics related to the
aspects of green technologies, with seven main themes: development of resilient biologi-
(1) water and wastewater treatment by green technolo- cal treatment processes for
gies, (2) wastewater treatment and reuse, (3) membrane waste-gas and wastewater treat-
ment, development of waste-to-
processes, (4) resources recovery from wastewater, (5) energy conversion technologies,
nanotechnology for biological waste treatment, (6) bio- and the use of artificial intelligence tools for environmental monitoring
processes and bio-products, and (7) disruptive technolo- and environmental process control. He has contributed to several EU-
gies and the application for water resource treatment and funded projects (the ABWET and E ­ TeCoS3), PADUCO projects with
Palestine partners, DUPC-funded projects, and consultancy roles for
management. A wide range of present and future devel- companies in Poland, India, and Brazil. He has mentored 21 PhD stu-
opment difficulties in the fields of green technologies for dents and more than 70 MSc students. He has published 280 research/
waste to energy conversion, the resource recovery in the review articles in scientific journals, ~25 book chapters, ~100 confer-
form of energy, fuel, valuable products and chemicals, ence papers, and 7 monographs.
and resilient environmental technologies were addressed Assoc./Prof. Dr. Xuan Thanh
by the keynote speakers, all of whom were speaking in a Bui obtained his bachelor’s
worldwide context. degree in Chemical Engineering
The outcomes of GTSW 2019 were an opportunity to from Ho Chi Minh City Univer-
sity of Technology (HCMUT),
discuss and assess the latest approaches, innovative tech- Vietnam National University Ho
nologies, policies, and new directions in infrastructure Chi Minh (VNU-HCM), Viet
development, pollution prevention, and eco-friendly pro- Nam, and received his M. Eng
cesses to promote cooperation and networking amongst and Ph.D. degrees in Environ-
mental Engineering from the
practitioners and researchers involved in addressing Green Asian Institute of Technology
Technologies for Sustainable Water. The papers published (AIT), Thailand. Currently, he is
in this special edition will provide significant network- an associate professor at the Fac-
ing opportunities for professionals and will provide the ulty of Environment and Natural
Resources, HCMUT, VNU-
groundwork for future collaboration among these indi- HCM. He serves as the chairman
viduals. We are grateful to Prof. Philippe Garrigues, the of Dept. of Water Science & Technology and head of VNU-HCM Key
Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science and Pollution Laboratory of Advanced Waste Treatment Technology. His research
Research (ESPR), for providing us with the chance to focuses on membrane separation processes, water, and wastewater
treatment technologies, biological treatment processes, algae processes,
publish a selection of peer-reviewed papers that were pre- and green technologies. He has published more than 150 SCIE journal
sented at GTSW 2019, and we appreciate him for his sup- papers, 30 books/book chapters, and 1 US patent. Additionally, he has
port. We would like to express our gratitude to Ms. Fanny played the role of project investigator for more than 60 international/
Creusot and Ms. Florence Delavaud, Editorial Assistants national research projects in the field and organized three international
conferences. Since 2017, he became a member of the scientific
of ESPR, as well as the entire Springer production team,
for their invaluable assistance in bringing this issue to
a successful conclusion. The guest editors are confident
that the papers in this special issue will be useful reading
materials for your study group, and we wish you the best
of luck in your endeavors.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to

jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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committee in the field of earth sciences and environment of National Environmental Sustainability, IJSEES; Environmental Science and
Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED), Ecotechnology, EHIT; and Bioengineered, Taylor & Francis.
Ministry of Science and Technology, Viet Nam.

Prof. Huu Hao NGO (Ngo) is cur-

rently a Professor of Environ-
mental Engineering and serves
as the Deputy Director of Centre Prof. Long D. Nghiem is an envi-
for Technology in Water and ronmental engineer and a mem-
Wastewater and Co-Director of brane technologist. His research
Joint Research Centre for Protec- expertise covers a range of mem-
tive Infrastructure Technology brane separation processes
and Environmental Green Bio- (including pressure-driven mem-
process, University of Technol- brane filtration, forward osmosis,
ogy Sydney. He has not only membrane distillation, facilitated
been duly elected as Fellow of transport membrane, membrane
International Water Association electrolysis, and membrane bio-
(FIWA) and Fellow of the Inter- reactor), anaerobic digestion,
national Bioprocessing Associa- molecular biology, and urban
tion (FIBA) but also as the water management. His current
Chairman of the International Bioprocessing Association. Ngo’s main research work focuses on the
areas of expertise include advanced biological waste treatment pro- development of a membrane
cesses, membrane separation technologies; alternative resources, man- separation platform for the
agement and impacts assessment, and solid waste management. Ngo recovery of clean water, energy, and nutrients from wastewater. He is
also focuses on developing green technologies for sustainable develop- currently the Director of the Centre for Technology in Water and
ment for resource recovery, water-waste-bioenergy nexus, and green- Wastewater and a Professor in Environmental Engineering at the
house gas emission control. Ngo has received several important School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UTS, Australia.
national and international awards/honors such as Clarivate Analytics,
Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher 2020 in the category of Biol- Prof. Wenshan GUO is currently
ogy and Biochemistry; Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science Highly working as a Professor at Univer-
Cited Researcher 2019 in Cross Field Category; Mendeley Data top sity of Technology Sydney UTS,
Cited Researchers in the world, 2020; Top #1 in Australia and Top #3 Australia. She is also a core
in the world in the field of Environmental Engineering member in Centre for Technol-
(2015–2020)-SciVal (Elsevier 5-year ranking); Top #1 in Australia and ogy in Water and Wastewater
Top #5 in the world in Bioengineering (2015–2020)-SciVal (Elsevier (CTWW) at UTS and her
5-year ranking); Top #1 in Australia and Top #11 in the world in research focuses on innovative
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment water and wastewater treatment
(2015–2020)-SciVal (Elsevier 5-year ranking); Leader in Environmen- and reuse technologies. Her
tal Science 2020 (THE AUSTRALIAN- RESEARCH yearly ranking); expertise and practical experi-
and Leader in Biotechnology in Australia, 2019 (THE AUSTRALIAN- ence cover the areas of water and
RESEARCH yearly ranking). wastewater engineering such as
Ngo has more than 600 publications including 12 books and 35 membrane technologies,
book chapters, 5 patents with a h-index of 83, and citation of > 29,500 advanced biological wastewater
(Google Scholar, September 2021). He has been invited for giving treatment technologies, physico-
numerous plenary/keynotes and invited talks, seminars, and lecturers in chemical separation technologies, solid waste management, environ-
the international conferences as well as the universities/research institu- mental assessment, and desalination. Her current research focuses on
tions. He has also been the Honorary Distinguished Professor, Inter- green technologies for resource and energy recovery, waste-to-energy,
national Guest/ Chair professor, Visiting Research Fellow in France, water-waste-energy nexus, and climate change mitigation. She has pub-
China, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, etc. while lished 3 books, 31 book chapters, and more than 370 peer-reviewed
being Conference Chair, Section Chair, and as advisory, organizing, or journal papers. She has been recognized as Highly Cited Researcher
scientific committee member in a number of conferences 2019 and 2020 in Cross Field Category by Clarivate Analytics, Web of
Ngo has been appointed as the Editor of Bioresource Technology, Science Group, and the Mendeley Data Top Cited Researcher. She has
Elsevier; Associate Editor of Science of the Total Environment, Else- also been named as one of the Top 40 Research Superstars in Australia
vier; Associate Editor of Journal of Water Process Engineering and (Environmental Science in Life Sciences & Earth Sciences major dis-
Associate Editor of Heliyon Journal, Elsevier. He is also an editorial cipline area). She is currently serving as the Editor of Bioresource
board member/guest editor of numerous international journals such Technology Reports (Elsevier), Associate Editor, Journal of Water
as Bioresource Technology Reports, Bioresource Technology, Else- Process Engineering (Elsevier), Associate Editor of Journal of Hazard-
vier; Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring, and Management, ous, Toxic & Radioactive Waste (ASCE), and Academic Editor of
Elsevier; Editor of Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier; Jour- Journal of Chemistry (Hindawi Publishing Corporation, USA).
nal of Water Process Engineering, Elsevier; Journal of Energy and

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