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Sustainability
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Bioenergy and Bioresources Recovery in Urban/Industrial Wastewater Treatment
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Bioenergy and Bioresources Recovery in Urban/Industrial Wastewater Treatment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 October 2023) | Viewed by 2436

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Andrea G. Capodaglio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: sustainable development; energy and materials recovery; innovative water and wastewater treatment; groundwater contamination; bioelectrochemical systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater from urban and industrial sources contains relevant amounts of embedded energy and resources. Their recovery can contribute to the decarbonization of wastewater treatment facilities and to the creation of virtuous wastewater-cycle-related Circular Economy patterns. Traditionally, wastewater treatment focused on environmental and public health safeguarding; however, in recent years, treatment facilities have been extensively improved to promote improved bioenergy and bioresources recovery and the reduction of greenhouse emissions, as well as to reduce their environmental footprint. New process technology, integrated by bio-refinery concepts, has the potential to completely transform the nature of wastewater treatment facilities into biofactories of recovered resources. The purpose of this Special Issue is to provide insights into advanced technologies and processes aiming at this transformation, and to illustrate state-of-the-art application examples. Original research articles, significative case study descriptions, and critical review articles are invited on the following topics:

-Advanced or improved microbial processes for bio-energy or nutrients recovery, reduction of environmental footprint, and increased water cycle sustainability;

-Innovations in wastewater treatment to recover/reuse: water, energy, nutrients, carbon, metals, bio-products;

-Algal (or combined algal/bacterial) processes for bio-energy production, water reclamation, and the generation of value-added products through bio-refinery;

-Sustainable recovery of proteins, bioplastics, enzymes, etc., through sludge biorefinery;

-Creation and analysis of Circular Economy cycles based on innovative wastewater management approaches and their integration with the urban economy;

-Comparative cost/benefit or LCA analysis of the introduction of the above technologies.

Prof. Dr. Andrea G. Capodaglio
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wastewater
  • water reuse
  • nutrients
  • renewable biofuels
  • materials recovery
  • water–energy–food nexus
  • circular economy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

18 pages, 1449 KiB  
Review
A Critical Review on Methodologies for the Energy Benchmarking of Wastewater Treatment Plants
by Michela Gallo, Desara Malluta, Adriana Del Borghi and Erica Gagliano
Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 1922; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051922 - 26 Feb 2024
Viewed by 647
Abstract
The main priority at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is the attainment of a high quality of treated effluent ensuring the highly effective removal of pollutants and protecting the environment and public health. However, WWTPs are made of energy-intensive processes and consequently, they are [...] Read more.
The main priority at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is the attainment of a high quality of treated effluent ensuring the highly effective removal of pollutants and protecting the environment and public health. However, WWTPs are made of energy-intensive processes and consequently, they are considered major energy consumers in the public sector. The need to move towards energy neutrality in the wastewater sector was recently pointed out by the proposal of a recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. To date, a comprehensive methodology for energy audits at WWTPs is still missing. The present review aims at discussing the state of the art on energy consumption at WWTPs and at surveying the energy benchmarking methodologies currently available highlighting the main advantages and limitations. It was pointed out that aeration represents the highest energy-intensive compartment in WWTPs (40–75% of total energy). The wide overview provided by key performance indicators (KPIs) might be overcome by applying benchmarking methodologies based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The latest is properly designed for WWTPs and able to manage multiple inputs and outputs. However, the obtained findings are often limited and fragmented, making the standardization of the methodology difficult. Consequently, future investigations are advised on the development of standard procedures related to data acquisition and collection and on the implementation of online and real-time monitoring. Considering the lack of standardized methodology for the energy benchmarking of WWTPs, the present article will provide essential information to guide future research, helping WWTP utilities to reach the energy audit goals in the accomplishment of incoming EU directives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioenergy and Bioresources Recovery in Urban/Industrial Wastewater Treatment)
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18 pages, 1291 KiB  
Review
Utilization of Microalgae for Urban Wastewater Treatment and Valorization of Treated Wastewater and Biomass for Biofertilizer Applications
by Shoyeb Khan, Mahmoud Thaher, Mohammed Abdulquadir, Mohammed Faisal, Sanjeet Mehariya, Mohammad A. A. Al-Najjar, Hareb Al-Jabri and Probir Das
Sustainability 2023, 15(22), 16019; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152216019 - 16 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1420
Abstract
Rapid urbanization has substantially increased freshwater consumption and consequent wastewater generation. The produced wastewater is an abundant resource of phosphorus, nitrogen, and organics. Currently, well-established activated sludge processes are utilized in conventional wastewater treatment plants to remove organics. However, removing nitrogenous and phosphorus [...] Read more.
Rapid urbanization has substantially increased freshwater consumption and consequent wastewater generation. The produced wastewater is an abundant resource of phosphorus, nitrogen, and organics. Currently, well-established activated sludge processes are utilized in conventional wastewater treatment plants to remove organics. However, removing nitrogenous and phosphorus compounds continues to be challenging and energy-intensive for urban wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, the current study aims to understand how photosynthetic microalgae can recover phosphorus and nitrogen from urban wastewater and how wastewater-grown microalgae biomass may be used as a biofertilizer and biostimulant. Utilizing microalgae biomass treated with urban wastewater as a biofertilizer promotes plant growth in a manner similar to other organic manures and conventional fertilizers while minimizing nutrient loss to the soil. Furthermore, the microalgal recovery of nutrients from urban wastewater could have potential energy reductions of 47% and 240% for nitrogen and phosphorus, respectively. In addition to producing treated wastewater suitable for a variety of irrigation systems, microalgae biomass is a potential sustainable alternative resource that could reduce conventional inorganic fertilizer usage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioenergy and Bioresources Recovery in Urban/Industrial Wastewater Treatment)
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