Background of this Special Issue

Constant growth of population and its never-ending needs have prompted rapid industrialization, which in turn resulted in gradual deterioration of the environment. Energy is central to the human kind and its pervasive consumption has made the tremendous impact on environment as a result of continuously growing and ever-increasing energy needs of society. Hence, technological interventions for promoting sustainability are inevitable to secure clean environment. United Nations (UN) has defined sustainable development goals as presented in Fig. 1. Technological advancements can play a key role in achieving these sustainable development goals. In this respect, CHEM-CONFLUX22, a multidisciplinary international conference, was jointly organized by MNNIT Allahabad (Prayagraj, India) and USM Malaysia (Malaysia) during April 14–16, 2022, with the objective of inviting ideas emphasizing on the thrust areas pertaining to sustainable development. With this special issue, it is aimed to understand the current trends of research that is being conducted pertaining to the broad themes of energy & environment, and to examine the exciting & key research areas that can be taken up further highlighting the inter-disciplinary nature of the field. It is expected that this issue will help the scientific community, in general, and young scientists in particular to come up with excellent research projects for sustainable development.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Sustainable development goals (courtesy: United Nations, https://sdgs.un.org/goals, accessed: March, 2023)

Full size image

Contents of this Special Issue

A total of 233 articles were presented during the conference, out of which 32 articles were recommended for the potential publication in the special issue of Environmental Science and Pollution Research (ESPR) journal, based on their scope, quality, and technical superiority. Out of the 32 invited articles, 21 articles were reviewed. Finally, five articles were accepted through the rigorous review process with just about 24% acceptance rate. These five articles cover areas involving smart techniques for prediction of sewer manhole’s life, sustainability analysis of smart materials, biodegradation using novel bacterial strain, metal oxide–clay composite based dye removal, and novel MISO PEM fuel cell, and are as follows:

  • Prediction of remaining life of RCC sewer manhole using smart material based EMI technique for sustainable environment

  • Sustainability analysis of sandstone using smart material by EMI approach

  • Imidacloprid biodegradation using novel bacteria Tepidibacillus decaturensis strain ST1 in batch and in situ microcosm study

  • One-pot synthesis of metal oxide-clay composite for the evaluation of dye removal studies: Taguchi optimization of parameters and environmental toxicity studies

  • Design of model based control strategies for a novel MISO PEM fuel cell control structure

Concluding remarks

With immense pleasure and great expectations, we prepare this special issue of ESPR journal. The articles submitted by the contributors were rigorously reviewed to evaluate their technical merits and usefulness in the given context. The revered reviewers and editors have done commendable work at accomplishing the tasks within a given timeline with due dedication.

The objectives of this special issue ‘CHEM-CONFLUX22’ are to provide a premier multidisciplinary platform for scientists, practitioners, and educators to present progresses and challenges-cum-solutions espoused in the areas of interest and to educate the interested readers about the novel developments of technologies for promoting sustainability. This special issue sought contributions that can guide researchers, practitioners, and educators in achieving environmental sustainability targets by emphasizing on several issues central to clean environment. In this context, this special issue sought to publish both empirical and theoretical contributions, leading to promotion of sustainability. It is expected that the articles published in this special issue will provide guidance on sustainable technologies for the betterment of environment through clean technologies.