Resource recovery and waste-to-energy from wastewater sludge via thermochemical conversion technologies in support of circular economy: a comprehensive review

Abstract

With the rapid rise in global population over the past decades, there has been a corresponding surge in demand for resources such as food and energy. As a consequence, the rate of waste generation and resultant pollution levels have risen drastically. Currently, most organic solid wastes are either land applied or sent to landfills, with the remaining fraction incinerated or anaerobically digested. However, with the current emphasis on the reduction of emissions, nutrient recovery, clean energy production and circular economy, it is important to revisit some of the conventional methods of treating these wastes and tap into their largely unrealized potential in terms of environmental and economic benefits. Wastewater sludge, with its high organic content and fairly constant supply, provides a great opportunity to implement some of these strategies using thermochemical conversion technologies, which are considered as one of the alternatives for upcycling such waste streams. This paper summarizes the results of prominent studies for valorizing wastewater sludge through thermochemical conversion technologies while drawing inferences and identifying relationships between different technical and operating parameters involved. This is followed by sections emphasizing the environmental and economic implications of these technologies, and their corresponding products in context of the broader fields of waste-to-energy, nutrient recycling and the progress towards a circular economy.