Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater has great potential to create a circular economy through the recovery and efficient use of resources and the reduction of emissions. Treated water, biosolids, biomethane and nutrients, among other resources, can be recovered from wastewater.

These resources are recovered mainly from biochemical processes using environmental biotechnologies such as anaerobic digestion, thermal hydrolysis, biogas desulfurization, Annamox, struvite precipitation and microalgae.

This is relevant both globally and locally due to natural hazards such as water scarcity, soil contamination and climate change, especially considering that globally 80% of sewage is introduced into the environment without adequate treatment, and 40% of the world's population faces the challenge of water scarcity. In addition, Sustainable Development Goal 6 on sustainable sanitation requires significant investment in infrastructure, which is of particular interest to the Latin American region.

Therefore WWTPs are a key infrastructure and a major point of interest for the development of circular economies. The configuration of a WWTP depends on the geographical region, population served and the respective quality and quantity of wastewater to be treated. This is why there is no universal solution for the application of a circular economy in WWTPs.

Typical bottlenecks are related to the level of technological development of the different biotechnologies mentioned, the economic risk and state of the market segment, public policies and public acceptance of waste reuse systems for domestic wastewater.

The purpose of the Special Issue is to know the current state and technological advances that it will allow a total transforming and/or improve a wastewater treatment plant into a product and energy producer plant using wastewater as raw material, under the concept of bio-refinery. Please, to enter a title, authors and a tentative 200-word abstract before submitting a full paper. In turn, the deadline to submit the full paper is August 2023.

Prof. Dr. Rolando Chamy
Dr. Estela Tapia-Venegas
Guest Editors

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• water treatment plants
• WWTPs
• active sludge
• nutrient recovery
• energy recovery
• sustainability
• biorefinery
• circular economy