24 of the 88 Environmental Engineering projects at ISEF 2026 won a Grand Award. Here's every one, with its abstract.
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering First Award
Globally, pests destroy over 40% of crops annually. Traditional pesticides are highly harmful to the environment and human health, and current application methods—either wasteful mass sprayi…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering First Award
Marine ecosystems are paramount to the planet's health, but they are threatened by human-introduced pollutants. In particular, microplastics have proven to be detrimental to aquatic wildlife…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Second Award
While global oil production exceeds 100 million barrels per day, over 40 million liters of crude oil have contaminated marine ecosystems since 2020, resulting in catastrophic ecological and…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Second Award
Interfacial solar steam generation systems offer a promising solution to freshwater scarcity and energy-intensive desalination. However, most current research uses hydrophilic membranes that…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Second Award
Widespread contamination of surface and groundwater systems from heavy metals, excess nutrients, and other hazardous pollutants has intensified the need for sustainable water remediation tec…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Second Award
Non-Polar Organic Contaminants (NPOCs) such as Micro/Nano-sized Microplastics (MNMPs), oils and Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl Benzene, Xylene (BTEX) are emerging contaminants that are critical thr…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Second Award
Lithium is essential for rechargeable batteries, and demand is rising rapidly due to E-mobility and clean energy growth. About 66% of the world's lithium is produced through brine pond evapo…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
Over the last decade, more than 140 new emerging pollutants have been identified in wastewater treatment effluents, placing stress on existing infrastructure. These emerging pollutants inhib…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
Urban flooding is escalating into a critical global challenge, driven by the inability of conventional drainage inlets to handle increasing rainfall intensities due to rapid urbanization and…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
Secondhand smoke (SHS) is a major public health concern, causing over 1.3 million deaths globally each year. Despite its links to cancer and respiratory disease, SHS is difficult to detect i…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
Purpose: In Zimbabwe 72% of schoolgirls can’t affordable sanitary products. Globally, 500 million women and girls have inadequate access to sanitary products contributing to period poverty.…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
An estimated 92 million tons of textiles are discarded annually, yet fabric-to-fabric recycling accounts for less than 1% of production due to quality degradation and financial barriers. Thi…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
Marine oil spills release toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other compounds that harm organisms and bioaccumulate across food chains. Meanwhile, conventional remediation primarily r…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Third Award
With approximately 4.4 billion people worldwide lacking access to safe water, sustainable purification technologies that operate efficiently under natural sunlight are necessary. Industrial…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Devices placed on the seabed in shallow coastal waters must remain stable under waves and near-bed currents. In this project, I developed a coastal underwater seabed waste bin that serves as…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Synthetic herbicides dominate agriculture due to their effectiveness and low cost; however, they cause water contamination, biodiversity loss, and the development of resistant weeds, threate…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Emergencies like wildfires and industrial accidents threaten public health. Accurate predictions of pollutant dispersion are vital for timely protective actions, but atmospheric models often…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals with strong carbon-fluorine bonds that resist breakdown in the environment and are associated with serious health effects,…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Due to high ultrafine particle (UFP) concentrations on freeways and the lack of effective UFP prevention technologies in vehicles, passengers may be exposed to elevated cabin UFP levels duri…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
This study presents the design and evaluation of a solar-driven hybrid plasmonic–photocatalytic system based on ophiolite-supported nanomaterials for the treatment of oilfield produced water…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Purpose: The world loses billions of trees each year, and current reforestation efforts cannot keep pace. Drone-based seed planting has emerged as a promising solution, with current systems…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Global lithium demand is projected to increase by nearly 4000% by 2040 due to expansion of electric vehicles and energy storage systems; however, current extraction methods are water-intensi…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Brazil accounts for 70% of global passion fruit production (736,000 tons per year). However, 75% of this production becomes waste. Due to inadequate management, this waste can generate signi…
ISEF · 2026
Environmental Engineering Fourth Award
Airborne microplastics are an emerging environmental and public health concern, with recent studies suggesting that humans may inhale up to 70,000 particles daily. These polymer particulates…