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Water
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Biological Wastewater Treatment towards a Sustainable Circular Economy
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Biological Wastewater Treatment towards a Sustainable Circular Economy

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 7071

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Boni Maria Rosaria

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Interests: treatment and remediation technologies for contaminated sites; fate and removal of emerging contaminants in environment; sustainable reactive material for the removal of pollutants from contaminated waters and soils
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Camilla Di Marcantonio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Sapienza, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: water and wastewater treatment for traditional and emerging contaminant removal; innovative processes for the biological treatment of contaminated soil
Dr. Simone Marzeddu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Department of Civil, Constructional and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy
Interests: biochar; adsorption; biodegradation; endocrine disrupters; wastewater treatment; emerging contaminants; illicit drugs; back-diffusion; numerical model; wastewater treatment plants; carbon footprint
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The application of the principles of the circular economy on the water sector is compulsory to foresee the issues related to the increasing water scarcity and deterioration of water quality worldwide.

Therefore, we need to contribute to consolidating the idea that wastewater treatments are an opportunity to convert wastes into resources. Indeed, further research is needed on effective and sustainable options for the valorization of all the outputs of those treatments, i.e., the final effluents and the waste sludge.

To this purpose, particular attention is posed to biological treatments, since they are considered environmentally friendly, effective and low-cost compared to physicochemical and thermal technologies.

Moreover, biodegradation can be also able to remove recalcitrant and emerging contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals, or biological agents, e.g., SARS-CoV-2. These practises are in accordance with all the strategies adopted by the European Union to stimulate the conversion from a linear to a circural economy, such as the Regulation for water reuse 2020/741/EU and several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including clean water (SDG 6), affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13).

The Special Issue of Water entitled “Biological Wastewater Treatment Towards a Sustainable Circular Economy” would contribute to this topical reasearch needs for a more resilent and safe environment.

The Special Issue is now open for submissions. Accepted papers will be published rapidly and will be listed together on the Special Issue website.

Prof. Dr. Boni Maria Rosaria
Dr. Camilla Di Marcantonio
Dr. Simone Marzeddu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • anaerobic digestion
  • bio-based solutions
  • biodegradation
  • bioeconomy
  • COVID-19
  • energy recovery
  • environmental impacts
  • life cycle assessment
  • resource recovery
  • waste management
  • water reuse

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 725 KiB  
Article
Circular Economy in Wastewater Treatment Plants—Potential Opportunities for Biogenic Elements Recovery
by Alina Dereszewska and Stanislaw Cytawa
Water 2023, 15(21), 3857; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15213857 - 6 Nov 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2046
Abstract
Technologies used in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) allow the recovery of energy and valuable elements (phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic carbon) for the soil. This article presents, in schematic form, the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling in a WWTP with a load of [...] Read more.
Technologies used in municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) allow the recovery of energy and valuable elements (phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic carbon) for the soil. This article presents, in schematic form, the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling in a WWTP with a load of 70,000 Population Equivalent and develops a spreadsheet to estimate their recovery. Biogas generation enables the recovery of 1126 Mg of organic carbon per year and the generation of 12.6 GWh of energy. The most rational form of organic waste recycling is the production of compost with fertilizing parameters, but efforts should be made to reduce iron compounds in its composition. It has been estimated that compost production provides the recovery of 30% of carbon, 98% of phosphorus, and 18% of nitrogen from the streams of these elements entering the WWTP. The possibility of partially replacing the iron coagulants used to precipitate phosphorus with waste magnesium salt is presented, leading to the precipitation of struvite, which is well absorbed by plants. The article presents the advantages of combining sewage treatment with organic waste management in WWTPs. The developed spreadsheet allows for the control of energy recovery through the quantitative selection of organic waste for fermentation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Wastewater Treatment towards a Sustainable Circular Economy)
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13 pages, 2585 KiB  
Article
Comparative Analysis of Composition and Porosity of the Biogenic Powder Obtained from Wasted Crustacean Exoskeletonsafter Carotenoids Extraction for the Blue Bioeconomy
by Fran Nekvapil, Maria Mihet, Geza Lazar, Simona Cîntă Pinzaru, Ana Gavrilović, Alexandra Ciorîță, Erika Levei, Tudor Tamaș and Maria-Loredana Soran
Water 2023, 15(14), 2591; https://doi.org/10.3390/w15142591 - 16 Jul 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1596
Abstract
The recovery and recycling of wasted resources are at the forefront of contemporary global issues. Methods of addressing several different issues may go hand-in-hand with each other, such as linking food waste recycling into bio-based adsorbent materials and wastewater treatment. Crustacean exoskeletons are [...] Read more.
The recovery and recycling of wasted resources are at the forefront of contemporary global issues. Methods of addressing several different issues may go hand-in-hand with each other, such as linking food waste recycling into bio-based adsorbent materials and wastewater treatment. Crustacean exoskeletons are promising candidates for bio-friendly adsorbents; however, maximizing their efficiency requires the optimization of processing technology. Crustacean meat offers an (often luxury) culinary delicacy, while their waste exoskeletons offer opportunities for smart recycling of the magnesian calcite nanoporous biocomposite. Here, we conduct a structural characterization of the exoskeletons of three crustacean species to assess how the extraction of valuable carotenoids affects prospects for the further valorization of their porous powder. The exoskeleton powder’s composition and morphology were investigated by SEM, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR and XRD. The biomineral component magnesian calcite was recorded both in native and in post-extraction exoskeleton powder. Acetone extraction, however, partially removed organic matter from the exoskeletons, resulting in the porosity of the respective powder increasing significantly from below 10 m2 g−1 in the native powder to over 32 m2 g−1 in post-extraction samples of blue crab and spider crab exoskeletons—while the spiny lobster exoskeleton exhibited low porosity, as measured by the BET method. This new insight could improve exoskeleton processing in the sustainable circular economy and applied blue bioeconomy—most notably for adsorbent materials for pollutants dissolved in water or as ordered, nature-derived nanostructured templates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Wastewater Treatment towards a Sustainable Circular Economy)
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9 pages, 1217 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Effect of Sludge Reduction and Energy Production from Introducing Anaerobic Digest Plant into a Sewage Treatment Plant
by Dowan Kim and Chaegun Phae
Water 2022, 14(11), 1821; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14111821 - 6 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2542
Abstract
As the amount of sewage sludge (SS) is increasing worldwide, anaerobic digesters (ADP) are being distributed to reduce it and treat it in an environmentally friendly way. In Korea, 20 years have passed since the introduction of ADP, but the number of sewage [...] Read more.
As the amount of sewage sludge (SS) is increasing worldwide, anaerobic digesters (ADP) are being distributed to reduce it and treat it in an environmentally friendly way. In Korea, 20 years have passed since the introduction of ADP, but the number of sewage treatment plants (STP) installed with ADP is only about 10% of the total STP. Accordingly, problems and improvements were examined through material flow analysis targeting STP, and the effect of introducing anaerobic digestion (AD) was analyzed as a way to solve them. As a result of the analysis, the amount of SS generated by the STP (SS-ADP + Co-ADP) installed and operated by an AD was 0.54 kg/m3, and the facility without it was 0.77 kg/m3, showing a reduction effect of about 31%. The SS reduction effect of the facility that only used SS-AD was found to be reduced by 21–24% TOE (Ton Of Equivalent))/day, which has the effect of reducing 794,867 kg-CO2/day of greenhouse gas. In terms of energy efficiency, Co-AD was 86% higher than SS-AD, and biogas production yield was 90% higher than that of SS-AD. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce Co-AD into STP in terms of reducing SS, energy production, and greenhouse gas reduction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Wastewater Treatment towards a Sustainable Circular Economy)
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