We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Circular Economy in Wastewater Treatment Plants—Potential Opportunities for Biogenic Elements Recovery
ClearCircular Economy in Wastewater Treatment Plant—Water, Energy and Raw Materials Recovery
This review proposes a conceptual framework for future wastewater treatment plants operating as resource recovery facilities within a circular economy, focusing on technologies for recovering water, energy, and raw materials including nutrients and biopolymers.
Wastewater Valorization: Practice around the World at Pilot- and Full-Scale
This review summarizes pilot- and full-scale wastewater valorization practices globally, focusing on how water resource recovery facilities recover nutrients, energy, and bio-based materials from sewage and sludge to contribute to a circular economy. The authors identify effective technological strategies that are being implemented or scaled up worldwide.
Wastewater and sludge valorisation: a novel approach for treatment and resource recovery to achieve circular economy concept
This review highlights novel approaches for wastewater and sludge valorisation within a circular economy framework, focusing on recovering value-added products including biopolymers, nutrients, and energy to achieve sustainable development goals and combat water scarcity.
Redefining Water Treatment: Identification of WWTPs as an Earth System Problem and Circular Economic Eco-Bog System to Challenge It
This paper argues that wastewater treatment plants should be reconceptualized as Earth system problems rather than isolated infrastructure, because the daily discharge of microplastics and other contaminants creates complex, poorly understood ecological effects at a planetary scale.
Process simulation of co-HTC of sewage sludge and food waste digestates and supercritical water gasification of aqueous effluent integrated with biogas plants
Researchers modeled a system that combines wet waste from sewage sludge and food scraps into a biorefinery process, using hydrothermal carbonization (heating waste under pressure) followed by supercritical water gasification to recover nutrients and generate surplus energy, potentially transforming biogas plants into multi-product facilities.
Water reuse: a pillar of the circular water economy
This review argues that water reuse is a foundational pillar of the circular water economy, shifting the paradigm from dissipative pollutant removal toward resource recovery and closed-loop water management. The authors examine how conventional wastewater treatment approaches must be reimagined to enable sustainable water circularity.
Phosphorus removal and recovery in wastewater biological treatment from the perspective of phosphine: Current status, action mechanisms and future potential
This comprehensive review examines phosphorus removal and recovery from wastewater via biological treatment processes, using bibliometric analysis to map research trends and highlighting the emerging role of phosphine gas generation in phosphorus cycling within treatment systems.
Wastewater Reclamation – opportunities and challenges
Researchers evaluated the potential of reclaimed municipal wastewater to supplement agricultural fertilizer demand by analyzing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and total organic carbon in treated effluent disinfected by chlorination, ozonation, and UV irradiation, framing wastewater reclamation as a sustainable nutrient recovery solution within the ReNutriWater project.
Sewage Sludge Quality and Management for Circular Economy Opportunities in Lombardy
Researchers analyzed sewage sludge production and management in Lombardy, Italy, finding that most sludge met quality thresholds for agricultural recovery after stabilization but had low energy value, with circular economy opportunities depending heavily on sludge composition and regional treatment capacity.
Potential Nutrient Conversion Using Nature-Based Solutions in Cities and Utilization Concepts to Create Circular Urban Food Systems
This review examines how nature-based solutions in cities—like constructed wetlands and green infrastructure—can help recover nutrients from wastewater for reuse in agriculture. These systems can also help filter out microplastics and other contaminants before they reach waterways.
Environmental Performance of Nitrogen Recovery from Reject Water of Sewage Sludge Treatment Based on Life Cycle Assessment
This study used life cycle assessment to evaluate nitrogen recovery from sewage sludge reject water via air stripping and biochar adsorption, finding that both methods can reduce environmental impacts compared to conventional fossil-based fertilizer production.
Phyco-remediation of swine wastewater as a sustainable model based on circular economy
Researchers reviewed the use of microalgae to treat nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich swine wastewater, finding that phyco-remediation not only cleans effluent but generates commercially valuable biomass products like lipids, pigments, and biogas, making it a circular economy alternative to conventional waste stabilization ponds.
Fate of microplastics in a centralized biogas plant treating mainly sewage sludge
Researchers tracked the fate of microplastics through a centralized biogas plant treating sewage sludge, examining how anaerobic digestion and subsequent dewatering partition microplastics between solid and liquid digestate fractions. The study informs efforts to develop safer digestate-based recycled fertilizers that minimize microplastic introduction to agricultural soils, where 20-55% of microplastics entering wastewater treatment plants are estimated to end up in sludge.
Removal of microplastics from wastewater: available techniques and way forward
This review surveys available techniques for removing microplastics from wastewater within a circular economy framework, discussing innovative treatment technologies, integrated risk-based approaches, and regulatory and economic guidelines needed to advance water resource recovery facilities beyond conventional pollutant removal.
Countering the porcelain dream: key findings from an evaluation of the global nitrogen cycle, a fundamental characterization of fresh faeces, and a campus composting toilet
This thesis examines global sanitation challenges through a sustainability lens, focusing on nutrient recovery and the need to close elemental cycles to reduce long-term environmental burdens. Proper sanitation infrastructure is foundational to reducing the pollution that reaches waterways, including microplastics.
Microplastics pollution from wastewater treatment plants: A critical review on challenges, detection, sustainable removal techniques and circular economy
This review critically examines the challenges of detecting and removing microplastics from wastewater treatment plants, evaluating sustainable removal technologies and circular economy approaches to address this persistent source of aquatic microplastic pollution.
AI Applied to the Circular Economy: An Approach in the Wastewater Sector
This review explored how artificial intelligence can be applied to circular economy objectives in the wastewater sector, examining AI-driven approaches for optimizing water treatment, resource recovery, and system efficiency. The paper identified opportunities and challenges for integrating machine learning into water utility operations within an ecological transition framework.
Material and energy flows of industrial biogas plants in Switzerland in the context of the circular economy
Researchers modeled material and energy flows through industrial biogas plants in Switzerland, finding that anaerobic digestion (breaking down organic waste without oxygen) could replace up to 14,000 tonnes of chemical fertilizers annually — but currently allows about 70 tonnes of plastic per year to end up in farm fields. Addressing that plastic contamination is essential if biogas expansion is to support a true circular economy.
Circular Economy in Wastewater Management—The Potential of Source-Separating Sanitation in Rural and Peri-Urban Areas of Northern Finland and Sweden
Researchers evaluated regional-scale source-separation sanitation scenarios in sparsely populated northern Finland and Sweden, finding that black water separation and urine diversion can substantially improve nutrient recovery compared to conventional wastewater treatment, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas.
Editorial: Emerging approaches for sustainable management for wastewater
This editorial introduces a research collection on emerging approaches for sustainable wastewater management, highlighting advances in nutrient recovery, contaminant removal, and resource valorisation within circular economy frameworks.
Utilization of Microalgae for Urban Wastewater Treatment and Valorization of Treated Wastewater and Biomass for Biofertilizer Applications
Researchers explored using microalgae to treat urban wastewater by recovering phosphorus and nitrogen, then repurposing the resulting biomass as a biofertilizer. The study suggests that this approach offers dual benefits of wastewater remediation and sustainable agriculture, as the nutrient-rich algal biomass promoted plant growth when applied to soil.
Retrieval of carbon and inorganic phosphorus during hydrothermal carbonization: ANN and RSM modeling
Researchers studied the recovery of carbon and inorganic phosphorus during hydrothermal carbonization of biomass feedstocks, optimizing conditions to maximize nutrient and carbon retention in the resulting hydrochar. Recovered hydrochar was proposed as a soil amendment combining carbon sequestration with phosphorus recycling.
Biomass valorization via pyrolysis in microalgae-based wastewater treatment: Challenges and opportunities for a circular bioeconomy
Researchers reviewed how microalgae grown in wastewater treatment systems can have their leftover biomass converted into useful products — biochar, bio-oil, and gas — through a heating process called pyrolysis. While promising for a circular economy, major challenges remain including high energy demands and potential harmful emissions that need to be addressed before the approach can be widely adopted.
A nanotechnology roadmap for circular wastewater management
This review paper summarizes research on using tiny particles called nanoparticles to make wastewater treatment more efficient and environmentally friendly. The technology could help clean water while also recovering valuable materials like nutrients and energy, but scientists still need to solve problems like how to use it safely on a large scale. Better wastewater treatment matters for human health because it helps ensure our water supply stays clean and reduces pollution in the environment.