The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are broad reaching targets from the United Nations that aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Environmental Technology undoubtedly has a key role to play in delivering to the targets of the 17 SDGs, including clean water and sanitation, responsible consumption and production, and affordable and clean energy. Here, I would like to draw attention to some of the innovative and ground-breaking research that has recently been published in Environmental Technology journal that can and will help us meet the SDGs. Goal 6 of the SDGs relates to clean water and sanitation. Among other important and ambitious targets, this goal sets to ensure that there is access to adequate and equitable sanitation for all. Research into decentralized wastewater treatment using novel wastewater processes [1] will help contribute to the continued need for more effective treatment of municipal and industrial waste streams prior to discharge into the environment. The release of untreated effluents remains a huge environmental problem across the world, particularly in low and middle income countries. This work has focused on development of a passive treatment process that uses woven fabrics in a biobed. Innovations such as these are needed so that we can move away from large-scale, centralized treatment facilities that are not feasible (or desirable) in many parts of the world. In such instances, connected infrastructure is either old and of insufficient capacity or simply not there in the first place. This necessitates a re-think of the types of technology that can deliver high quality treated wastewater effluents that can do so while drawing on low energy inputs. More broadly, important research has been undertaken to determine the influence of human activity on water quality [2]. In India, a country containing 16% of the world’s population but only 4% its water resources, many of its freshwater lakes and rivers are heavily polluted. This work used a Water Quality Index methodology to determine howwater quality was deteriorating in Lake Loktak in North Eastern India. Large scale dumping of municipal waste, discharge of untreated domestic wastewater and agricultural run-off attributed to the ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ water quality in the lake itself and the rivers that feed into it. In addition to showing how we can assess water quality using relatively simple determinands, this work has highlighted the need for localized waste management and wastewater treatment technology. This type of research aligns very well with another target of SDG 6 ‘to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally’. To achieve high levels of contaminant removal from water and contaminated land, we will need to develop new materials that are capable of achieving high levels of removal, while also being of low cost and preferentially recoverable and reusable. There have been many innovative and highly efficient examples of such materials being developed in research published in Environmental Technology. This includes the development of modified magnetic graphene oxide adsorbents for pesticide (glyphosate) removal from water [3], adsorbents from waste products (walnut shells) for removal of the heavy metal lead [4] and algae as a biosorbent for the removal of zinc from industrial wastewater [5]. Another of the SDGs where research from Environmental Technology Journal continues to contribute is Goal 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy. Here, there has been a strong focus on the role of algal biomass to produce green energy, typically through digestion or the development of biofuel. In this process, as the algae grows, carbon dioxide is converted to biomass. One of the important bottlenecks of this process is in the separation of the algae from the water before it can be processed into an energy resource. This stage can typically account for more than 20% of the total cost of the process. Research by Zhu et al. [6] has shown how magnetic iron nanoparticles can be used to aggregate and harvest Chorella algae. Using these particles facilitated more than 90% harvesting efficiency. Importantly, the researchers were able to recover the nanoparticles once they were separated – an important step in the development of a reusable and recyclable material for this role. Other research into affordable and clean energy is through the development of bioethanol from wheat straw [7] and detailed research into how green biodiesels can be best used to minimize emission of noxious gases [8].

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实现可持续发展目标 (SDG) 的环境技术：

可持续发展目标 (SDG) 是联合国制定的广泛目标，旨在消除贫困、保护地球并确保所有人的繁荣。环境技术无疑在实现 17 项可持续发展目标的具体目标方面发挥着关键作用，包括清洁水和卫生、负责任的消费和生产以及负担得起的清洁能源。在这里，我想提请注意最近发表在《环境技术》杂志上的一些创新和突破性研究，这些研究可以而且将会帮助我们实现可持续发展目标。可持续发展目标的目标 6 涉及清洁水和卫生设施。在其他重要和雄心勃勃的目标中，该目标旨在确保所有人都能获得充分和公平的卫生设施。研究使用新型废水处理 [1] 的分散式废水处理将有助于在排放到环境之前对市政和工业废物流进行更有效处理的持续需求。未经处理的污水排放仍然是世界范围内一个巨大的环境问题，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家。这项工作的重点是开发一种在生物床中使用机织织物的被动处理工艺。需要诸如此类的创新，以便我们能够摆脱在世界许多地方不可行（或不可取）的大规模集中处理设施。在这种情况下，连接的基础设施要么陈旧且容量不足，要么根本就不存在。这需要重新考虑可以提供高质量处理废水的技术类型，同时利用低能源投入。更广泛地说，已经进行了重要的研究来确定人类活动对水质的影响 [2]。在印度，一个拥有世界 16% 人口但水资源仅占世界 4% 的国家，其许多淡水湖泊和河流受到严重污染。这项工作使用水质指数方法来确定印度东北部 Loktak 湖的水质如何恶化。大规模倾倒城市垃圾、排放未经处理的生活废水和农业径流，原因是湖泊本身和流入其中的河流水质“差”到“非常差”。除了展示我们如何使用相对简单的决定因素评估水质外，这项工作还强调了对本地化废物管理和废水处理技术的需求。这种类型的研究与可持续发展目标 6 的另一个目标非常吻合，即通过减少污染、消除倾倒垃圾和尽量减少危险化学品和材料的排放、将未经处理的废水比例减半以及在全球范围内大幅增加回收和安全再利用来改善水质。为了实现对水体和受污染土地的高水平污染物去除，我们需要开发能够实现高水平去除、同时成本低、可优先回收和再利用的新材料。在《环境技术》上发表的研究中，已经有许多创新和高效的此类材料正在开发的例子。这包括开发用于从水中去除农药（草甘膦）的改性磁性氧化石墨烯吸附剂 [3]、从废物（核桃壳）中去除重金属铅的吸附剂 [4] 以及作为生物吸附剂去除锌的藻类来自工业废水[5]。《环境技术杂志》的研究继续为可持续发展目标做出贡献的另一个可持续发展目标是关于负担得起的清洁能源的目标 7。在这里，人们非常关注藻类生物质在生产绿色能源方面的作用，通常是通过消化或生物燃料的开发。在这个过程中，随着藻类的生长，二氧化碳被转化为生物质。该过程的一个重要瓶颈是在将藻类加工成能源之前将其从水中分离出来。该阶段通常可占该过程总成本的 20% 以上。朱等人的研究。[6] 展示了磁性铁纳米粒子如何用于聚集和收获小球藻。使用这些颗粒促进了 90% 以上的收获效率。重要的是，研究人员能够在分离后回收纳米颗粒——这是开发可重复使用和可回收材料的重要一步。其他对负担得起的清洁能源的研究是通过从小麦秸秆中开发生物乙醇 [7] 和详细研究如何最好地利用绿色生物柴油来最大程度地减少有毒气体的排放 [8]。