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Arcas-Pilz V, Gabarrell X, Orsini F, Villalba G. Literature review on the potential of urban waste for the fertilization of urban agriculture: A closer look at the metropolitan area of Barcelona. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 905:167193. [PMID: 37741375 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 08/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/25/2023]
Abstract
Urban agriculture (UA) activities are increasing in popularity and importance due to greater food demands and reductions in agricultural land, also advocating for greater local food supply and security as well as the social and community cohesion perspective. This activity also has the potential to enhance the circularity of urban flows, repurposing nutrients from waste sources, increasing their self-sufficiency, reducing nutrient loss into the environment, and avoiding environmental cost of nutrient extraction and synthetization. The present work is aimed at defining recovery technologies outlined in the literature to obtain relevant nutrients such as N and P from waste sources in urban areas. Through literature research tools, the waste sources were defined, differentiating two main groups: (1) food, organic, biowaste and (2) wastewater. Up to 7 recovery strategies were identified for food, organic, and biowaste sources, while 11 strategies were defined for wastewater, mainly focusing on the recovery of N and P, which are applicable in UA in different forms. The potential of the recovered nutrients to cover existing and prospective UA sites was further assessed for the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Nutrient recovery from current composting and anaerobic digestion of urban sourced organic matter obtained each year in the area as well as the composting of wastewater sludge, struvite precipitation and ion exchange in wastewater effluent generated yearly in existing WWTPs were assessed. The results show that the requirements for the current and prospective UA in the area can be met 2.7 to 380.2 times for P and 1.7 to 117.5 times for N depending on the recovery strategy. While the present results are promising, current perceptions, legislation and the implementation and production costs compared to existing markets do not facilitate the application of nutrient recovery strategies, although a change is expected in the near future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Verónica Arcas-Pilz
- Sostenipra Research Group (2021 SGR 00734), Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals ICTA-UAB (CEX2019-0940-M), Z Building, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Xavier Gabarrell
- Sostenipra Research Group (2021 SGR 00734), Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals ICTA-UAB (CEX2019-0940-M), Z Building, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Francesco Orsini
- DISTAL-Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
| | - Gara Villalba
- Sostenipra Research Group (2021 SGR 00734), Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals ICTA-UAB (CEX2019-0940-M), Z Building, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
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Ma GQ, Li LH, Hong Y, Yu MR. Cultivation of Haematococcus pluvialis in source-separated urine for biomass production and astaxanthin accumulation. ALGAL RES 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.algal.2022.102945] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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Tao Y, Liu Z, Zheng J, Zhou J, He D, Ma J. Microalgae production in human urine: Fundamentals, opportunities, and perspectives. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:1067782. [DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1067782] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The biological treatment of source-separated human urine to produce biofuel, nutraceutical, and high-value chemicals is getting increasing attention. Especially, photoautotrophic microalgae can use human urine as media to achieve environmentally and economically viable large-scale cultivation. This review presents a comprehensive overview of the up-to-date advancements in microalgae cultivation employing urine in photobioreactors (PBRs). The standard matrices describing algal growth and nutrient removal/recovery have been summarized to provide a platform for fair comparison among different studies. Specific consideration has been given to the critical operating factors to understand how the PBRs should be maintained to achieve high efficiencies. Finally, we discuss the perspectives that emphasize the impacts of co-existing bacteria, contamination by human metabolites, and genetic engineering on the practical microalgal biomass production in urine.
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Di Capua F, de Sario S, Ferraro A, Petrella A, Race M, Pirozzi F, Fratino U, Spasiano D. Phosphorous removal and recovery from urban wastewater: Current practices and new directions. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 823:153750. [PMID: 35149060 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 02/04/2022] [Accepted: 02/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Phosphate rocks are an irreplaceable resource to produce fertilizers, but their availability will not be enough to meet the increasing demands of agriculture for food production. At the same time, the accumulation of phosphorous discharged by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is one of the main causes of eutrophication. In a perspective of circular economy, WWTPs play a key role in phosphorous management. Indeed, phosphorus removal and recovery from WWTPs can both reduce the occurrence of eutrophication and contribute to meeting the demand for phosphorus-based fertilizers. Phosphorous removal and recovery are interconnected phases in WWTP with the former generally involved in the mainstream treatment, while the latter on the side streams. Indeed, by reducing phosphorus concentration in the WWTP side streams, a further improvement of the overall phosphorus removal from the WWTP influent can be obtained. Many studies and patents have been recently focused on treatments and processes aimed at the removal and recovery of phosphorous from wastewater and sewage sludge. Notably, new advances on biological and material sciences are constantly put at the service of conventional or unconventional wastewater treatments to increase the phosphorous removal efficiency and/or reduce the treatment costs. Similarly, many studies have been devoted to the development of processes aimed at the recovery of phosphorus from wastewaters and sludge to produce fertilizers, and a wide range of recovery percentages is reported as a function of the different technologies applied (from 10-25% up to 70-90% of the phosphorous in the WWTP influent). In view of forthcoming and inevitable regulations on phosphorous removal and recovery from WWTP streams, this review summarizes the main recent advances in this field to provide the scientific and technical community with an updated and useful tool for choosing the best strategy to adopt during the design or upgrading of WWTPs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Di Capua
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy
| | - Simona de Sario
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy
| | - Alberto Ferraro
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy.
| | - Andrea Petrella
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy
| | - Marco Race
- Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via di Biasio 43, Cassino, 03043, Italy
| | - Francesco Pirozzi
- Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Claudio 21, Naples, 80125, Italy
| | - Umberto Fratino
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy
| | - Danilo Spasiano
- Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Via E. Orabona 4, Bari, 70125, Italy
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Jain R, Mishra S, Mohanty K. Cattle wastewater as a low-cost supplement augmenting microalgal biomass under batch and fed-batch conditions. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2022; 304:114213. [PMID: 34896802 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2021] [Revised: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 11/28/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The utilization of costly chemical fertilizers and large freshwater requirements make the microalgae cultivation process uneconomical and highly unsustainable. To address this challenge, the present study aimed to integrate cattle wastewater (CW) (alternate for fertilizers) with domestic sewage wastewater (DSW) (substitute for freshwater) to cultivate Chlorella thermophile. To maximize the biomass yield, in-depth nutrient consumption patterns in both batch and fed-batch cultivation conditions were analyzed. Out of the eight (1%-4.5%) different CW feed concentrations tested during the batch cultivation, 2.5% CW set gave the highest biomass yield (2.17 g L-1), which was almost double the yield obtained using Bold Basal Medium (1.24 g L-1) and DSW without any CW addition (1.22 g L-1). However, the biomass yield declined with CW> 2.5%, and the ammonium (NH4+) inhibitory effect was observed. To address the (NH4+) toxicity challenge and further enhance the biomass yield, fed-batch experiments were designed with an intermittent CW feeding based on nutrient (NH4+) consumption pattern. The fed-batch cultivation resulted in twofold increased biomass yield (4.52 g L-1) in comparison to the batch process. The nutrient consumption pattern inferred that the (NH4+) concentration greater than 600 mg L-1 during the logarithmic phase was inhibitory for Chlorella thermophila cells. On biomass characterization, a significant improvement in protein content with CW addition was observed. The FAME analysis of the derived lipid stated its competitive biofuel quality with up-gradation of C:16 and C:18 groups. Based on the obtained results, projection analysis for an integrated rural model demonstrated the technology's potential for sustainable water management with valuable resource recovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rahul Jain
- School of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India
| | - Sanjeev Mishra
- School of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India
| | - Kaustubha Mohanty
- School of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India; Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India.
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Larsen TA, Riechmann ME, Udert KM. State of the art of urine treatment technologies: A critical review. WATER RESEARCH X 2021; 13:100114. [PMID: 34693239 PMCID: PMC8517923 DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2021.100114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2021] [Revised: 07/15/2021] [Accepted: 08/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Over the last 15 years, urine treatment technologies have developed from lab studies of a few pioneers to an interesting innovation, attracting attention from a growing number of process engineers. In this broad review, we present literature from more than a decade on biological, physical-chemical and electrochemical urine treatment processes. Like in the first review on urine treatment from 2006, we categorize the technologies according to the following objectives: stabilization, volume reduction, targeted N-recovery, targeted P-recovery, nutrient removal, sanitization, and handling of organic micropollutants. We add energy recovery as a new objective, because extensive work has been done on electrochemical energy harvesting, especially with bio-electrochemical systems. Our review reveals that biological processes are a good choice for urine stabilization. They have the advantage of little demand for chemicals and energy. Due to instabilities, however, they are not suited for bathroom applications and they cannot provide the desired volume reduction on their own. A number of physical-chemical treatment technologies are applicable at bathroom scale and can provide the necessary volume reduction, but only with a steady supply of chemicals and often with high demand for energy and maintenance. Electrochemical processes is a recent, but rapidly growing field, which could give rise to exciting technologies at bathroom scale, although energy production might only be interesting for niche applications. The review includes a qualitative assessment of all unit processes. A quantitative comparison of treatment performance was not the goal of the study and could anyway only be done for complete treatment trains. An important next step in urine technology research and development will be the combination of unit processes to set up and test robust treatment trains. We hope that the present review will help guide these efforts to accelerate the development towards a mature technology with pilot scale and eventually full-scale implementations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tove A. Larsen
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Michel E. Riechmann
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
| | - Kai M. Udert
- Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
- ETH Zürich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
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Microalgae cultivation for space exploration: Assessing the potential for a new generation of waste to human life-support system for long duration space travel and planetary human habitation. ALGAL RES 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.algal.2021.102258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Behera B, Patra S, Balasubramanian P. Biological nutrient recovery from human urine by enriching mixed microalgal consortium for biodiesel production. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2020; 260:110111. [PMID: 32090822 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 01/08/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Utilization of waste resources is necessary to harness the long-term sustainability of algal technology. The study focused on the use of human urine as the basic nutrient source for culturing native microalgal consortium and further optimized the process parameters using response surface methodology. A full factorial, central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with three variables: urine concentration (1-10% vol of urine/vol of distil water [%v/v]), pH (6.5-9) and light intensity (50-350 μmolphotonsm-2sec-1) was used to evaluate the microalgal biomass and lipid content. Results indicated that at 95% confidence limits, the selected factors influence the biomass and lipid productivity. The maximum biomass productivity of 211.63 ± 1.40 mg l-1 d-1 was obtained under optimized conditions with 6.50% v/v of urine, pH of 7.69 and at light intensity of 205.40 μmolphotonsm-2sec-1. The lipid content was found to increase from 18.96 ± 1.30% in control media to 26.27 ± 1.94% under optimal conditions. The interactive effect of variables over the microalgal biomass and lipid content has also been elucidated. The data obtained were comparable to the BG11 media (control). Optimized diluted urine media in the presence of ammonium ions and under limited nitrate showed better lipid yields. Significant lipid biomolecules were detected in the algal oil extracts obtained from the diluted urine media characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) revealed the presence of several monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids in the transesterified algal oil. Such studies would aid in technically realizing the field scale cultivation of microalgae for biofuels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bunushree Behera
- Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Biotechnology & Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha, India
| | - Sandip Patra
- Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Biotechnology & Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha, India
| | - P Balasubramanian
- Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Group, Department of Biotechnology & Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha, India.
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Gour RS, Garlapati VK, Kant A. Effect of Salinity Stress on Lipid Accumulation in Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp.: Feasibility of Stepwise Culturing. Curr Microbiol 2020; 77:779-785. [DOI: 10.1007/s00284-019-01860-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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