Evaluating drivers and barriers to advanced effluent treatment adoption through SWOT-AHP analysis of bio-based and...

Wastewater treatment is increasingly expected to deliver reuse-ready effluent while reducing energy use and environmental impacts. Although bio-based and nanotechnology-enabled treatment options offer promising pathways, their adoption is often slowed by technical, economic, regulatory, and social barriers. This study evaluates the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) of bio-based and nanotechnology-based wastewater treatment technologies across technical, environmental, socio-economic, governance, and health dimensions. The identified SWOT factors are integrated with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritise them using expert input from Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Italy, USA, and Malaysia. The integrated SWOT-AHP analysis produced group and global factor priorities and was used to derive practical measures to support decision-makers. Results indicate that bio-based technologies are driven mainly by opportunity factors, particularly funding and reuse potential, while key constraints relate to operational robustness and biosolids acceptance. In contrast, nanotechnology-based technologies are led by technical strengths, especially high contaminant removal performance, but are primarily constrained by cost and market readiness alongside safety and regulatory concerns. Overall, the study provides a structured prioritisation of adoption drivers and barriers and highlights targeted strategies to accelerate implementation of both technology families.