Electrodialysis Desalination for Water and Wastewater: A Review

A review on wastewater sludge valorisation and its challenges in the context of circular economy

In recent decades, academia has elaborated a wide range of technological solutions to recover water, energy, fertiliser and other products from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Drivers for this work range from low resource recovery potential and cost effectiveness, to the high energy demands and large environmental footprints of current treatment-plant designs. However, only a few technologies have been implemented and a shift from wastewater treatment plants towards water resource facilities still seems far away. This critical review aims to inform decision-makers in water management utilities about the vast technical possibilities and market supply potentials, as well as the bottlenecks, related to the design or redesign of a municipal wastewater treatment process from a resource recovery perspective. Information and data have been extracted from literature to provide a holistic overview of this growing research field. First, reviewed data is used to calculate the potential of 11 resources recoverable from municipal wastewater treatment plants to supply national resource consumption. Depending on the resource, the supply potential may vary greatly. Second, resource recovery technologies investigated in academia are reviewed comprehensively and critically. The third section of the review identifies nine non-technical bottlenecks mentioned in literature that have to be overcome to successfully implement these technologies into wastewater treatment process designs. The bottlenecks are related to economics and value chain development, environment and health, and society and policy issues. Considering market potentials, technological innovations, and addressing potential bottlenecks early in the planning and process design phase, may facilitate the design and integration of water resource facilities and contribute to more circular urban water management practices.

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A critical review of resource recovery from municipal wastewater treatment plants – market supply potentials, technologies and bottlenecks

Current status of the pilot-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor treatments of domestic wastewaters: A critical review.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) consume high amounts of energy which is mostly purchased from the grid. During the past years, many ongoing measures have taken place to analyze the possible solutions for both reducing the energy consumption and increasing the renewable energy production in the plants. This review contains all possible aspects which may assist to move towards energy neutrality in WWTPs. The sources of energy in wastewater were introduced and different indicators to express the energy consumption were discussed with examples of the operating WWTPs worldwide. Furthermore, the pathways for energy consumption reductions were reviewed including the operational strategies and the novel technological upgrades of the wastewater treatment processes. Then the methods of recovering the potential energy hidden in wastewater were described along with application of renewable energies in WWTPs. The available assessment methods, which may help in analyzing and comparing WWTPs in terms of energy and greenhouse gas emissions were introduced. Eventually, successful case studies on energy self-sufficiency of WWTPs were listed and the innovative projects in this area were presented.

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Achieving energy neutrality in wastewater treatment plants through energy savings and enhancing renewable energy production

The feasibility and challenges of energy self-sufficient wastewater treatment plants

Energy Self-sufficient Wastewater Treatment Plants: Feasibilities and Challenges

Energy-water nexus analysis of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China based on statistical methodologies

Chongming Island is a distinct developing area in Shanghai and is currently being transformed as an international eco-island. The area is located in the Yangtze River estuary and secures the crop supply in Shanghai because of its unique geographical position and abundant water resource. Chongming is an agriculture-dominated district in an industrial city and is characterized by balanced utilization and natural preservation. In this study, the water footprint in Chongming Island from 2011 to 2014 was calculated and the water shortage was analyzed using virtual water as a criterion. Result shows that agricultural water footprint accounted for a major proportion of the total water footprint in Chongming Island. Water footprint from the manufacture of consumer products or services for residents was within the local water resource capacity, indicating that the self-sufficiency rate of water resource in Chongming Island was high. Nevertheless, this rate had been decreasing because of large imports that transfer water burden to other areas to optimize sustainable water consumption. However, Chongming Island had a higher water scarcity than other cities near Shanghai. Agricultural water footprint was categorized to assess the water utilization structure in Chongming’s agriculture. On the basis of the data from 2005 to 2014, four different scenarios were analyzed to predict the water footprint by 2040. The influence of the agricultural structure adjustment on the water resources of Chongming Island was assessed. Water consumption could be obviously reduced by 11.5% when the agricultural structure was changed. This situation should not be ignored by policy makers.

Pengzhou Luo

Papers

The feasibility and challenges of energy self-sufficient wastewater treatment plants

Energy Self-sufficient Wastewater Treatment Plants: Feasibilities and Challenges

Energy-water nexus analysis of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in China based on statistical methodologies

Water footprint and scenario analysis in the transformation of Chongming into an international eco-island