Anaerobic-Based Water Resources Recovery Facilities: A Review

Abstract

The concept of water resources recovery facilities (WRRFs) has gained more attention as a more sustainable substitute for the conventional activated sludge-based wastewater treatment plant (CAS-WWTPs). Anaerobic treatment is advantageous due to its lower energy use, limited sludge production, and higher recovery of the soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) from the received wastewater. In this article, a critical review of the proposed scheme for the anaerobic-based WRRF (An-WRRFs) is presented which is preceded with discussion of CAS-WWTPs limitations. In addition, the evolution of anaerobic treatment from being viewed as wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to WRRF is demonstrated. It is attained that, even though anaerobic WWTPs (An-WWTPs) have simple and low energy mainline and very limited sludge handling process, its limited removal and recovery capacity have been widely reported, especially in cold weather. On the other hand, in the An-WRRF, higher energy expenditures are employed by using membranes, dissolved methane recovery unit, and primary treatment (extra sludge handling). Yet, energy recovery in the form of biogas is notably increased, as well as the removal efficiency under moderate residence times. The three key challenges to be overcome are the low value of biogas, reducing the energy use associated with membranes, and maintaining high performance in full-scale, especially in cold weather.

Electron beam technology for biogas and biofertilizer generation at municipal resource recovery facilities

“…However, human waste streams are signifi cant pools of water, energy substrates, and nutrients. Given the value of these resources, in today's era of circular economies, the concept of WWTPs has been replaced by the concept of these treatment plants as "resource recovery facilities" [3,4]. The water from human waste streams can be recycled with appropriate treatment technologies for reuse purposes, the organic fraction within these waste streams can be harnessed to yield energy, and the phosphorus content of the wastes could be harvested for inorganic fertilizer use.…”

Comparison of three anaerobic digestion reactors for low‐carbon wastewater treatment

“…Sustainable treatment of sewage is not only a requirement for energy recovery, but also the direction of the main future development of the water treatment industry, which has important significance and application value (Martin‐Gonzalez et al, 2010; Puyol et al, 2017). Energy self‐sufficiency in sewage treatment plants should be the main development goal at this stage (AlSayed et al, 2020; Batstone et al, 2015), and energy recovery is the key component towards achieving this goal. At present, the best way to achieve energy recovery is actively explored, for which anaerobic digestion is a promising technical means (Chen et al, 2008; Schaefer, 2020).…”

Enhancement of Methanogenic Activity in Volumetrically Undersized Reactor by Mesophilic Co-Digestion of Sewage Sludge and Aqueous Residue

“…In some cases, these interventions also allow optimization of the subsequent recovery of material from biosolids (treated BSS [17]) [18]. However, the development of technologies that allow maximum recovery/reuse of matter and energy form residues, promoting the transformation of WWTPs into water resources recovery facilities (WRRFs), is also strongly encouraged [19][20][21][22][23].…”