Public Perceptions and Willingness-to-Pay for Nanopesticides.

The usage of pesticides is deemed essential to ensure crop production for global food security. Conventional chemical pesticides have significant effects on ecosystems. Nanopesticides are increasingly considered an emerging alternative due to their higher efficiency and lower environmental impacts. However, large knowledge gaps exist in the public perceptions and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for nanopesticides. Thus, we conducted a regional survey of pesticide users and food consumers on perceptions and WTP for nanopesticides across China. We found that 97.4% pesticide users were willing to pay for nanopesticides, with a main price from 25% to 40% higher than for conventional pesticides. Experience with applying pesticides, income, familiarity with and attitude toward nanopesticides, and trust in industries were significant determinants of WTP. Although the public were not familiar with nanopesticides, they had positive attitudes toward their future development and supported labeling nanoscale ingredients on products. Pesticide users presented high trust levels in governments and industries, while 34% of food consumers neutrally or distrusted industries in selling and production. This study highlights the socioeconomic and technological aspects of nanopesticides, which could provide guidance for industries to develop market strategies and for governments to design relevant regulation policies effectively, contributing to crop yield improvement and sustainable agriculture.

Shifting entrepreneurial landscape and development performance of water startups in emerging water markets.

Emerging technologies have driven the rise of many water-related startups and created new opportunities in water markets. The global water crisis could be mitigated by applying innovative technologies, sound water management decisions, and successful business models, and it is essential to better understand the status and future trends of emerging water markets. This study aims to discover shifts in the entrepreneurial landscape and evaluate water startups' development performance for the sustainable development of emerging water markets. We collected and analyzed data including the founding date, service area, service provided, details of funding raised, revenues, and consumer responses on 132 water startups founded between 2008 and 2018 in California, USA. Our results indicated that municipal area dominated the emerging water startup market compared to agricultural and industrial areas, and that many of the services provided shifted from conventional technologies to digital technologies. Though digital water startups' current revenues were relatively low, digital techniques applied in the water industry exhibited the good potential to promote public health and water saving. The development trends and performance of water startups enlighten the technological and commercial revolutions in the emerging water market, and provide guidelines for the decision-making in relevant stakeholders in the scientific, governmental, and industrial communities.

In-Situ H2O2 Cleaning for Fouling Control of Manganese-Doped Ceramic Membrane through Confined Catalytic Oxidation Inside Membrane.

This work presents an effective approach for manganese-doped Al2O3 ceramic membrane (Mn-doped membrane) fouling control by in-situ confined H2O2 cleaning in wastewater treatment. An Mn-doped membrane with 0.7 atomic percent Mn doping in the membrane layer was used in a membrane bioreactor with the aim to improve the catalytic activity toward oxidation of foulants by H2O2. Backwashing with 1 mM H2O2 solution at a flux of 120 L/m2/h (LMH) for 1 min was determined to be the optimal mode for in-situ H2O2 cleaning, with confined H2O2 decomposition inside the membrane. The Mn-doped membrane with in-situ H2O2 cleaning demonstrated much better fouling mitigation efficiency than a pristine Al2O3 ceramic membrane (pristine membrane). With in-situ H2O2 cleaning, the transmembrane pressure increase (ΔTMP) of the Mn-doped membrane was 22.2 kPa after 24-h filtration, which was 40.5% lower than that of the pristine membrane (37.3 kPa). The enhanced fouling mitigation was attributed to Mn doping, in the Mn-doped membrane layer, that improved the membrane surface properties and confined the catalytic oxidation of foulants by H2O2 inside the membrane. Mn3+/Mn4+ redox couples in the Mn-doped membrane catalyzed H2O2 decomposition continuously to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) (i.e., HO• and O21), which were likely to be confined in membrane pores and efficiently degraded organic foulants.