Conceptual system for sustainable and next-generation wastewater resource recovery facilitiesShow others and affiliations
2023 (English)In: Science of the Total Environment, ISSN 0048-9697, E-ISSN 1879-1026, Vol. 885, p. 163758-, article id 163758Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Shifting the concept of municipal wastewater treatment to recover resources is one of the key factors contributing to a sustainable society. A novel concept based on research is proposed to recover four main bio-based products from mu-nicipal wastewater while reaching the necessary regulatory standards. The main resource recovery units of the pro-posed system include upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor for the recovery of biogas (as product 1) from mainstream municipal wastewater after primary sedimentation. Sewage sludge is co-fermented with external organic waste such as food waste for volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production as precursors for other bio-based production. A por-tion of the VFA mixture (product 2) is used as carbon sources in the denitrification step of the nitrification/denitrifica-ti on process as an alternative for nitrogen removal. The other alternative for nitrogen removal is the partial nitrification/anammx process. The VFA mixture is separated with nanofiltration/reverse osmosis membrane technol-ogy into low-carbon VFAs and high-carbon VFAs. Polyhydroxyalkanoate (as product 3) is produced from the low -carbon VFAs. Using membrane contactor-based processes and ion-exchange techniques, high-carbon VFAs are recovered as one-type VFA (pure VFA) and in ester forms (product 4). The nutrient-rich fermented and dewatered bio-solid is applied as a fertilizer. The proposed units are seen as individual resource recovery systems as well as a concept of an integrated system. A qualitative environmental assessment of the proposed resource recovery units confirms the positive environmental impacts of the proposed system.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier BV , 2023. Vol. 885, p. 163758-, article id 163758
Keywords [en]
Resource recovery, Biogas, Volatile fatty acids, Bioplastics, Environmental sustainability
National Category
Industrial Biotechnology Oceanography, Hydrology and Water Resources
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-330531DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163758ISI: 001003742800001PubMedID: 37120021Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85156256927OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-330531DiVA, id: diva2:1777893
Note
QC 20230630
2023-06-302023-06-302023-06-30Bibliographically approved