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Various studies have been conducted in the fields of sustainable operations management (SOM), optimization, and wastewater treatment, yielding unsubstantiated recovery. In the context of Europe's climate neutrality vision, this paper reviews effective decarbonization strategies and proposes sustainable approaches to mitigate carbonization in various sectors such as buildings, energy, industry, and transportation and how these interlink with wastewater management. The study also explores the role of digitalization in decarbonization and reviews policies that can direct governments' actions towards a climate-neutral society. This paper presents a review of optimization approaches applied in the fields of science and technology, incorporating modern optimization techniques based on various peer-reviewed published research papers. It emphasizes non-conventional energy and distributed power-generating systems along with the deregulated and regulated environment. Additionally, this paper critically reviews the performance and capability of the micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) process in the treatment of dye wastewater. The review presents evidence of the simultaneous removal of co-existing pollutants and explores the feasibility and efficiency of biosurfactants instead of chemical surfactants. Lastly, the paper proposes a novel Firm–Regulator–Consumer-Technology Enablers/Facilitators interaction framework to study operations, decisions and interactive cooperation considering the relationships between the four agents through a comprehensive literature review of SOM. The proposed framework provides support for exploring future research opportunities and holistic sustainability initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores flows and stocks, at the scale of the European Union, of certain rare earth elements (REEs; Pr, Nd, Eu, Tb, Dy and Y) which are associated with products that are important for the decarbonisation of the energy sector and that also have strong recycling potential. Material flow analyses were performed considering the various steps along the value chain (separation of rare earth oxides, manufacture of products, etc.) and including the lithosphere as a potential stock (potential geological resources). Results provide estimates of flows of rare earths into use, in-use stocks and waste streams. Flows into use of, e.g., Tb in fluorescent lamp phosphors, Nd and Dy in permanent magnets and Nd in battery applications were estimated, for selected reference year 2010, as 35, 1230, 230 and 120 tons respectively. The proposed Sankey diagrams illustrate the strong imbalance of flows of permanent magnet REEs along the value chain, with Europe relying largely on the import of finished products (magnets and applications). It is estimated that around 2020, the amounts of Tb in fluorescent lamps and Nd in permanent magnets recycled each year in Europe, could be on the order of 10 tons for Tb and between 170 and 230 tons for Nd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]