Wastewater Management in Citrus Processing Industries: An Overview of Advantages and Limits

Abstract

Citrus-processing industries produce large volumes of wastewater (CPWW). The large variability of these volumes coupled to physicochemical characteristics of CPWW determine severe constraints for their disposal due to both economic and environmental factors. To minimize the management costs and prevent the negative ecological impacts of CPWW, several systems have been proposed and adopted. However, all these treatment/valorization routes have many issues that are not yet thoroughly known by the scientific community and stakeholders of the citrus-processing chain. This paper reports an overview of the possible treatment/valorization opportunities for CPWW: intensive biological treatment, lagooning, direct land application, energy conversion, and biorefinery uses for the extraction of added-value compounds. Advantages and constraints are presented and discussed, and the following conclusions are achieved: (i) there is not a unique solution for CPWW treatment, since the best management system of CPWW must be chosen case by case, taking into account the quality/quantity of the effluent and the location of the transformation industry; (ii) the adoption of a biorefinery approach can increase the competitiveness and the further development of the whole citrus sector, but the cost of novel technologies (some of which have not been tested at real scale) still limits their development.

Integrated production of biopolymers with industrial wastewater treatment: Effects of OLR on process yields, biopolymers characteristics and mixed microbial community enrichment

“…In particular, Corsino et al [38] observed that as the OLR increased there was a proportional increase in the abundance of filamentous bacteria. Similar results were also obtained by Zema et al [44], confirming that high OLR determined the onset of process instability, especially in terms of worsening of the sludge settling characteristics due to the overgrowth of filamentous bacteria as will be better discussed in the following paragraphs.…”

Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Swine Wastewater Treatments Using Ammonia Stripping and Anaerobic Digestion: A Short Review

“…Another viable system for SW treatment is the anaerobic digestion, which allows an easier control of the main operational parameters of the depuration process. The anaerobic digestion systems are used for depurating several agro-industrial waste and wastewater, such as the olive mill wastewater or citrus peel waste and wastewater [20][21][22]. However, the methane production in the anaerobic digestion plants treating SW is often reduced or even inhibited by the high ammonia content (often over 4.0 g L −1 ) that hampers the activity of the methanogenic bacteria [23,24].…”

A Review: Long-Term Impact of Recycled Wastewater Irrigation on Woody Forests

“…Reusing wastewater can assist boost water reserves for agriculture, which will help fertilize agricultural regions and address the current water deficit brought on by the drought (Zema et al, 2019). According to (Mojiri and Abdul Aziz, 2011) and (Banitalebi et al, 2016) in contrast to river water, using wastewater for irrigation does have fullsize capabilities: it reduces strain on the underground water resources, will increase agricultural procedure efficiency, decreases wastewater price of treatment, enhances soil permeability, enhances permeability, lowers bulk density, and lowers pH saline soil.…”

“…The soil structure, bodily soil characteristics, soil water storage ability can, fertility and natural counted content material all be increased with wastewater remedy (Arast et al, 2018). The scarcity of precipitation, the occurrence of inadequate water distribution systems, the excessive demand for agricultural water and reduced irrigation effectiveness, insufficient sewage treatment, and local weather variability are all contributing contributors to the water deficit, in accordance to Zema et al, (2019). Using domestic wastewater in agriculture is one option of discarding of and managing wastewater (Malekian et al, 2008).…”