IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i18p9466-d631698.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wastewater Valorization: Practice around the World at Pilot- and Full-Scale

Author

Listed:
  • Anouk F. Duque

    (Associate Laboratory i4HB—Institute for Health and Bioeconomy, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 1099-085 Lisboa, Portugal
    UCIBIO—Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit, Department of Chemistry, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 1099-085 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • Riccardo Campo

    (DICEA—Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via di S. Marta 3, 50139 Florence, Italy)

  • Angeles Val del Rio

    (Department of Chemical Engineering, CRETUS Institute, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, E-15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain)

  • Catarina L. Amorim

    (CBQF—Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina—Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Rua Diogo Botelho 1327, 4169-005 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

Over the last few years, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been rebranded as water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), which recognize the resource recovery potential that exists in wastewater streams. WRRFs contribute to a circular economy by not only producing clean water but by recovering valuable resources such as nutrients, energy, and other bio-based materials. To this aim, huge efforts in technological progress have been made to valorize sewage and sewage sludge, transforming them into valuable resources. This review summarizes some of the widely used and effective strategies applied at pilot- and full-scale settings in order to valorize the wastewater treatment process. An overview of the different technologies applied in the water and sludge line is presented, covering a broad range of resources, i.e., water, biomass, energy, nutrients, volatile fatty acids (VFA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and exopolymeric substances (EPS). Moreover, guidelines and regulations around the world related to water reuse and resource valorization are reviewed.

Suggested Citation

  • Anouk F. Duque & Riccardo Campo & Angeles Val del Rio & Catarina L. Amorim, 2021. "Wastewater Valorization: Practice around the World at Pilot- and Full-Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-28, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9466-:d:631698
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9466/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9466/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hussain, Fida & Shah, Syed Z. & Ahmad, Habib & Abubshait, Samar A. & Abubshait, Haya A. & Laref, A. & Manikandan, A. & Kusuma, Heri S. & Iqbal, Munawar, 2021. "Microalgae an ecofriendly and sustainable wastewater treatment option: Biomass application in biofuel and bio-fertilizer production. A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Tyagi, Vinay Kumar & Lo, Shang-Lien, 2013. "Sludge: A waste or renewable source for energy and resources recovery?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 708-728.
    3. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    4. Jay N. Meegoda & Brian Li & Kush Patel & Lily B. Wang, 2018. "A Review of the Processes, Parameters, and Optimization of Anaerobic Digestion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, October.
    5. Gude, Veera Gnaneswar, 2015. "Energy and water autarky of wastewater treatment and power generation systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 52-68.
    6. Kumar, Adepu Kiran & Sharma, Shaishav & Dixit, Gaurav & Shah, Ekta & Patel, Aesha, 2020. "Techno-economic analysis of microalgae production with simultaneous dairy effluent treatment using a pilot-scale High Volume V-shape pond system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 1620-1632.
    7. Kleemann, Rosanna & Chenoweth, Jonathan & Clift, Roland & Morse, Stephen & Pearce, Pete & Saroj, Devendra, 2015. "Evaluation of local and national effects of recovering phosphorus at wastewater treatment plants: Lessons learned from the UK," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 105(PB), pages 347-359.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paulina Schiappacasse & Bernhard Müller & Le Thuy Linh, 2019. "Towards Responsible Aggregate Mining in Vietnam," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Pina Puntillo, 2023. "Circular economy business models: Towards achieving sustainable development goals in the waste management sector—Empirical evidence and theoretical implications," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 941-954, March.
    3. Schlör, Holger & Venghaus, Sandra & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2018. "The FEW-Nexus city index – Measuring urban resilience," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 382-392.
    4. Jean-Louis Combes & Alexandru Minea & Pegdéwendé Nestor Sawadogo, 2019. "Assessing the effects of combating illicit financial flows on domestic tax revenue mobilization in developing countries," Post-Print halshs-02315734, HAL.
    5. Nelson, Ewan & Warren, Peter, 2020. "UK transport decoupling: On track for clean growth in transport?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 39-51.
    6. Ibrahim Ari & Muammer Koc, 2018. "Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development: Understanding the Interrelations between Public Investment and Sovereign Debt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-25, October.
    7. R. Ebrahimi & S. Choobchian & H. Farhadian & I. Goli & E. Farmandeh & H. Azadi, 2022. "Investigating the effect of vocational education and training on rural women’s empowerment," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Benjamin Nölting & Bettina König & Anne B. Zimmermann & Antonietta Di Giulio & Martina Schäfer & Flurina Schneider, 2022. "Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity to reflect on sustainability research," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 11-27, December.
    9. Rashmi Jaipal, 2017. "Psychology at the Crossroads," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 29(2), pages 125-159, September.
    10. Bárbara Galleli & Elder Semprebon & Joyce Aparecida Ramos dos Santos & Noah Emanuel Brito Teles & Mateus Santos de Freitas-Martins & Raquel Teodoro da Silva Onevetch, 2021. "Institutional Pressures, Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19: How Are Organisations Engaging?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    11. Claire Villette & Loïc Maurer & Julie Zumsteg & Jérôme Mutterer & Adrien Wanko & Dimitri Heintz, 2023. "Mass spectrometry imaging for biosolids characterization to assess ecological or health risks before reuse," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Sagarika Dey & Priyanka Devi, 2019. "Impact of TVET on Labour Market Outcomes and Women’s Empowerment in Rural Areas: A Case Study from Cachar District, Assam," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 357-371, December.
    13. Rostami-Tabar, Bahman & Ali, Mohammad M. & Hong, Tao & Hyndman, Rob J. & Porter, Michael D. & Syntetos, Aris, 2022. "Forecasting for social good," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1245-1257.
    14. Maria Sassi, 2020. "A SEM Approach to the Direct and Indirect Links between WaSH Services and Access to Food in Countries in Protracted Crises: The Case of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal State, South Sudan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-13, November.
    15. Seebacher, Moritz, 2023. "Pathways to progress: The complementarity of bicycles and road infrastructure for girls’ education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    16. Christina Tsouti & Christina Papadaskalopoulou & Angeliki Konsta & Panagiotis Andrikopoulos & Margarita Panagiotopoulou & Sofia Papadaki & Christos Boukouvalas & Magdalini Krokida & Katerina Valta, 2023. "Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Novel Films for the Packaging of Fresh Tomatoes Enriched with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compounds through Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    17. Olga Stepanova & Magdalena Romanov, 2021. "Urban Planning as a Strategy to Implement Social Sustainability Policy Goals? The Case of Temporary Housing for Immigrants in Gothenburg, Sweden," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Alberto Bertossi & Stefania Troiano & Francesco Marangon, 2022. "Where is sustainability? An assessment of vending products," RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA', FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 155-180.
    19. Michel, Hanno, 2020. "From local to global: The role of knowledge, transfer, and capacity building for successful energy transitions," Discussion Papers, Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation SP III 2020-603, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Hervé Corvellec & Johan Hultman & Anne Jerneck & Susanne Arvidsson & Johan Ekroos & Niklas Wahlberg & Timothy W. Luke, 2021. "Resourcification: A non‐essentialist theory of resources for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1249-1256, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9466-:d:631698. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.