Environmental applications of electrochemical technology. What is needed to enable full-scale applications?

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, thousands of scientific articles have considered the application of electrochemical technologies to remediate environmental problems ranging from the treatment of polluted soils to the removal of hazardous species from industrial liquid wastes. New research topics continue to emerge. Despite such research efforts, the technology readiness level (TRL) for many of those technologies remains very low; although most are considered promising, many are far from being introduced as efficient processes into the market. Important barriers need to be overcome to reach high TRLs. Some of these are scientific or technological and generate the opportunity for critical, applied research. Others are related to the lack of components in the value chain of the technology and generate opportunities for entrepreneurs to benefit from an improvement in the TRL. In this short review, a brief description of the current state of the most relevant technologies which are still in low TRL is carried out, highlighting barriers that must be removed to achieve full-scale applications in industry.