Issue 4, 2017

Resource recovery by osmotic bioelectrochemical systems towards sustainable wastewater treatment

Abstract

Recovering valuable resources from wastewater will transform wastewater management from a treatment focused strategy to a sustainability focused strategy, creating a need for new technology development. Osmotic bioelectrochemical systems (OsBESs), an innovative treatment concept which is based on cooperation between bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) and forward osmosis (FO), have been introduced and studied in the past few years. An OsBES can accomplish the simultaneous treatment of wastewater and recovery of resources such as nutrients, energy, and water (NEW). The cooperation can be accomplished in either an internal (integrated OsBES) or external (coupled OsBES) configuration, through a strong synergy between a BES and FO. A BES can provide draw solute, perform pre-treatment, or reduce reverse salt flux to help with FO operation, while FO can achieve water recovery, enhance current generation, and supply energy sources to BES operation. Given that there has been much progress and interest in the OsBES, this paper reviews the previous studies, describes the current status, presents qualitative and quantitative analyses, and discusses the perspectives of the OsBES technology, focusing on NEW recovery from wastewater. The challenges for further research and development of OsBESs have also been identified.

Graphical abstract: Resource recovery by osmotic bioelectrochemical systems towards sustainable wastewater treatment

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
08 Apr 2017
Accepted
10 May 2017
First published
11 May 2017

Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2017,3, 583-592

Resource recovery by osmotic bioelectrochemical systems towards sustainable wastewater treatment

M. Qin and Z. He, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol., 2017, 3, 583 DOI: 10.1039/C7EW00110J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements