Wastewater technology is not as “green” as it should be

Every drop of safe, clean drinking water in the world becomes more valuable than before. At the same time, dirty water is a potential threat to public health. Agriculture accounts for the majority of the world’s water and plays an important role in water pollution. To prevent this and increase the available clean water, wastewater technology has key functions.
At this point, researchers from the University of Washington National Taiwan University, Shu-Yuan Pan and Yu-i Lin, described and analyzed the performance of various cycle technologies at the University of Washington to convert agricultural wastewater to convert value-added resources, and commented in the Peer Reviewed Reviewed Journal, environment Last March. This work was supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (ROC).
Dr. Pan and colleagues The review begins by summarizing the characteristics of potential value-added agricultural wastewater products. Leadership author Dr Pan said: “Organic (humid) substances and nutrients are the main components of agricultural wastewater and need to be recycled because they can enhance the growth of plants and their roots.” Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are the highest-level examples of recycling or removal from wastewater. “We can understand the importance of just knowing the fact that 5-7% of global energy output is used to dig up phosphorus-containing rocks,” added Dr Pan. To this end, the team summarizes ways to restore humus and nutrients from agricultural wastewater. Although adsorption technology is the most effective technology in chemical and physical processes, it can be difficult to retrieve organic matter using a single method due to its diverse properties.
Later, scientists discussed advances in implementing the concept of circular bioeconomy to convert agricultural wastewater into value-added products. Retrieving resources from agriculture, wastewater reduces environmental impacts and provides opportunities to achieve a sustainable/resource-effective world, according to the team. “Today, due to pollution, extreme weather and population growth, the shortage of water, energy and resources is a global crisis.” To this end, retrieval of these resources can help solve existing and potential problems in humanity. Dr. Pan and colleagues highlighted the importance of optimizing appropriate recycling techniques in the study to the environmental benefits of agricultural wastewater.
Finally, the team demonstrates the prospects and perspectives of agricultural wastewater recycling technology on the concept of circular bioeconomic systems. Energy efficiency design of energy-based technologies should be a priority for future research. “Along the way, the green chemistry principle should be merged with the design of energy-saving cycle technology.” Although the circular bioeconomic system provides considerable environmental benefits, the ecological consequences of the restoration process itself also need to be considered and analyzed.
The scarcity and demand for clean water will continue to rise due to the growing global population, improvements in living standards, differences in consumption patterns, and agricultural irrigation standards. The findings of this critical study will guide future research on circular bioeconomic technologies.
Journal Reference:
Mehta, n. ; Shah, KJ; Lin, Y.-I; Sun, y. Pan, S.-Y. Advances in Circular Bioeconomy Technology: From Agricultural Wastewater to Value-added Resources. Environment 2021, 8, 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments8030020
About the Author
Assistant Professor
Dr. Shu-Yuan Pan
Shu-Yuan Pan is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Environment Systems Engineering, Taiwan University (NTU). His research focuses on the development of advanced energy-saving technologies to restore value-added resources from waste. Since 2011, he has extensive experience in mass production and consumption of China Steel Corporation, including mass production and consumption. Shu-Yuan leads NTU’s Green Technology Laboratory, aiming to dedicate (green research on environmental and agricultural technologies) to achieve a circular Bioarmermecormem codelaremecormely. Due to his outstanding performance, he has won several international awards, such as Germany’s “Green Talent”. And is listed in the “Top 2% of the world’s scientists in 2020” in the field of energy and environmental science. He has published more than 80 SCI papers with total citations > 3300 and H-INDEX is 29. He owns eight patents in the field of circular technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States from 2018 to 2019; a visiting scholar at the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States from 2015 to 2016; and in 2014, he was a visiting scholar at the Yaxing University in Germany. He has a Ph.D. and a Master of Environmental Engineering from NTU and a Bachelor of Geography from NTU.
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