Recovery of different types of resources from wastewater – a structured review / Återvinning av olika typer av resurser från avloppsvatten – en litteratursammanställning
As the population of the world increases, and economies continue to develop, energy, water, materials of different types, and nutrients for food production will be needed in ever-increasing amounts. The water-energy nexus is well-understood in research circles, but one could modify this paradigm to water-nutrients/materials-energy nexus in order to incorporate recovery of substances that can be recirculated to the anthroposphere. ‘Resources’ would thus include both energy and materials (elements, compounds and mixtures – both organic and inorganic). Research in, and implementation of, recovery of different types of resources – material and energy – from wastewater (municipal, agricultural and industrial) has been going on for quite some time now. It will not be wrong to say that the imperativeness and importance of research in this field has been earnestly appreciated by academia, industry, utilities and governments alike in many parts of the world, over the last decade. This paper is a literature review of selected publications from the period 2010–2018, from a wide range of journals, focusing on resource recovery from wastewater. The selected publications originate from 44 different countries (in six continents) of the world.