Enhancing fiber recovery from wastewater may require toilet paper redesign

Li, Simeng; Wu, Zhuangzhuang; Wu, Zixin; Liu, Guoqiang

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121138

Cited by 13 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…paper per capita is considerably lower in China (i.e. 2.9 kg/capita/year), the total amount of toilet paper entering WWTPs is also significant because of its vast number of consumers (Li et al, 2020). Despite the large consumption of toilet paper, cellulose fibers originating from toilet paper usage are often overlooked as a contributor to total COD and total suspended solids (TSS).…”

Section: United States ≈23mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such long SRTs are typically not applied nor economically viable. Instead of burdening the biological processes during the secondary treatment in WWTPs, toilet paper fibers could be physically recovered as a potential resource during primary treatment (Li et al, 2020). The latter opens up opportunities for recovery of these fibres through solidliquid separation approaches.…”

Section: United States ≈23mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Resource Recovery from Water

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Throughout history, the first and foremost role of urban water management has been the protection of human health and the local aquatic environment. To this end, the practice of (waste-)water treatment has maintained a central focus on the removal of pollutants through dissipative pathways. Approaches like – in the case of wastewater treatment – the activated sludge process, which makes ‘hazardous things’ disappear, have benefitted our society tremendously by safeguarding human and environmental health. While conventional (waste-)water treatment is regarded as one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century, these dissipative approaches will not suffice in the 21st century as we enter the era of the circular economy. A key challenge for the future of urban water management is the need to re-envision the role of water infrastructure, still holding paramount the safeguard of human and environmental health while also becoming a more proactive force for sustainable development through the recovery of resources embedded in urban water. This book aims (i) to explain the basic principles governing resource recovery from water (how much is there, really); (ii) to provide a comprehensive overview and critical assessment of the established and emerging technologies for resource recovery from water; and (iii) to put resource recovery from water in a legal, economic (including the economy of scale of recovered products), social (consumer's point of view), and environmental sustainability framework. This book serves as a powerful teaching tool at the graduate entry master level with an aim to help develop the next generation of engineers and experts and is also highly relevant for seasoned water professionals and practicing engineers. ISBN: 9781789060317 (Paperback) ISBN: 9781780409566 (eBook)

show abstract

Section: United States ≈23mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: United States ≈23mentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource Recovery from Water

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Fiber-based materials, used as super-bridging agents, have recently been proposed to increase the floc size and settling rates. 21,22,9 These studies specifically focused on the impact of fibers during settling and screening on removing NOM, TSS, turbidity, and plastic debris (improved removal of nanoplastics and 15 µm microplastics, up to 80 %. 23,24 In terms of cost, performance, and sustainability, these fibers offer promising solutions for eliminating various regulated and emerging contaminants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fiber-based super-bridging agents improve flotation and settling during water treatment

Raissouni,

Benkara,

Lapointe

2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasing demand for water poses a major challenge to the water treatment industry. To maintain their floc removal efficiency, water treatment plants are expected to require larger separation units and use more chemicals, namely, coagulants and flocculants. Conventional physicochemical treatments produce flocs that are limited in size, which limits floc removal efficiency via gravitation-based processes such as settling and flotation. Introducing fiber-based super-bridging agents has improved the floc size, which is 10–100 times larger than conventional flocs. Such improvements could lead to important gains in floc separation and ultimately increase the capacity of water treatment plants. This study analyzed the behavior and interaction of fibers under various coagulation/flocculation conditions to improve flotation and settling. Residual turbidity < 1.5 NTU was systematically achieved when the fibers were combined with conventional physicochemical treatments (alum and polyacrylamide). The results also showed that fiber-based super-bridging agents can allow a ~50 % reduction in coagulant. Three types of renewable fibers originating from the residues were selected for jar tests: softwood cellulose, brown fibers extracted from recycled cardboard boxes, and hemp fibers. The floc settling rate increased considerably when fibers were previously incorporated into the floc structure during aggregation, thus acting as a super-bridging agent. The benefits of fibers on floc settling velocity were particularly pronounced during suboptimal coagulation, as the injection of fibers compensated for poor coagulation conditions. Air bubbles during air flotation were also better incorporated into the larger and more porous floc structure obtained via the fibers, which drastically improved floc removal during flotation. Ultimately, such fiber-based super-bridging agents can be introduced in existing water treatment plants for wastewater and drinking water applications to increase plant capacity, reduce the demand for coagulants/flocculants, and improve contaminant removal.

show abstract

“…Publications on paper recycling peaked in 2000, which may have been dictated by the European declaration on paper recovery issued in that year [40]. During the next decade, publications continued to focus on fiber recovery issues [41][42][43][44][45]. In recent publications, the topic of recovery of biomaterials and bio-refinery feedstock from wastepaper prevailed [46][47][48][49] since, considering the principles of circular economy, this is strategic for mitigating the ongoing climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Which Wastepaper Should Not Be Processed?

Małachowska

Lipkiewicz²,

Dubowik³

et al. 2023

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the 21st century, numerous economic and environmental initiatives have significantly increased paper recycling, which continues to expand due to environmental awareness. With increasing recycling rate, low-quality paper fractions may be included in the process, leading to the overproduction of very low-value papers that cannot be reprocessed. Moreover, the production of paper from poor-quality wastepaper can result in the introduction of chemicals from the recycled paper into the recycling loop and unintended spread of chemical substances. Therefore, reliable and conscious selection of recycled pulp is imperative. To this end, the present study verified the properties of recycled pulp critical for the assessment of its papermaking ability for the production of high-quality sanitary paper. Following an examination of samples, it was found that the key parameters that influence the papermaking ability of wastepaper include presence of impurities, content of extractive substances, freeness, and length of fiber. On this basis, types of wastepaper that, at the very beginning, did not portend well for obtaining paper products with high potential for utility were eliminated.

show abstract

Enhancing fiber recovery from wastewater may require toilet paper redesign

Cited by 13 publications

References 22 publications

Resource Recovery from Water

Resource Recovery from Water

Fiber-based super-bridging agents improve flotation and settling during water treatment

Which Wastepaper Should Not Be Processed?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About