A review of enhanced municipal wastewater treatment through energy savings and carbon recovery to reduce discharge and CO2 footprint

Rui Du; Cong Li; Qingtao Liu; Jiarui Fan; Yongzhen Peng

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128135

A review of enhanced municipal wastewater treatment through energy savings and carbon recovery to reduce discharge and CO₂ footprint

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Nov:364:128135. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128135. Epub 2022 Oct 15.

Authors

Rui Du¹, Cong Li¹, Qingtao Liu¹, Jiarui Fan¹, Yongzhen Peng²

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Engineering Research Center of Beijing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, PR China.
² National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Municipal Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technology, Engineering Research Center of Beijing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, PR China. Electronic address: pyz@bjut.edu.cn.

PMID: 36257527
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128135

Abstract

Municipal wastewater treatment that mainly performed by conventional activated sludge (CAS) process faces the challenge of intensive aeration-associated energy consumption for oxidation of organics and ammonium, contributing to significant directly/indirectly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy use, which hinders the achievement of carbon neutral, the top priority mission in the coming decades to cope with the global climate change. Therefore, this article aimed to offer a comprehensive analysis of recently developed biological treatment processes with the focus on reducing discharge and CO₂ footprint. The biotechnologies including "Zero Carbon", "Low Carbon", "Carbon Capture and Utilization" are discussed, it suggested that, by integrating these processes with energy-saving and carbon recovery, the challenges faced in current wastewater treatment plants can be overcome, and a carbon-neutral even be possible. Future research should investigate the integration of these methods and improve anammox contribution as well as minimize organics lost under different scales.

Keywords: Anammox; Carbon capture and recovery; Carbon neutral; Municipal wastewater treatment; Sludge anaerobic fermentation.