New frontiers from removal to recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater in the Circular Economy

Robles, Ángel; Aguado, Daniel; Barat, R.; Borrás, L.; Bouzas, A.; Giménez, Juan Bautista; Martí, N.; Ribes, J.; Ruano, M.V.; Serralta, J.; Ferrer, J.; Seco, A.

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.122673

Cited by 162 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 149 publications

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“…Within this same strategy, another set of papers focus on technology and process innovations related to material composition and material recovery, with a focus on electric and electronic devices/metals and critical raw materials [92][93][94] as well as nutrient recovery from wastewater [95][96][97][98].…”

Section: Recycling and Recovery-rewiring Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eco-Innovation Diversity in a Circular Economy: Towards Circular Innovation Studies

et al. 2021

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Transition to a Circular Economy (CE) is about structural change and is predicated on the introduction of transformative eco-innovation (EI). Research on the CE–EI nexus has recently attracted attention both from an analytical and regulatory perspective. However, in-depth research exploring EI dynamics within the CE is still marginal, especially concerning the trends and dynamics of the pro-CE innovation policy and strategy. This paper addresses this gap by taking advantage of the burgeoning research on CE of the last 20 years and offers a new working synthesis. By implementing a “(systematic) review of (systematic) reviews”, this paper provides a new comprehensive framework for understanding pro-circular innovation strategies and, as a complement, argues the need to advance “circular innovation studies” as an agenda in its own right. Innovations related to recycling and recovery CE strategies along with business-model innovations and systemic/transformative innovations are found to be a major current trend in the research, connecting supply and demand side innovations and also driving other forms of innovation linked to design, product manufacturing, logistics and reverse logistics and end-of-life management and recovery. Additionally, of note is that the conceptual understanding of EI dynamics within a CE is still mainly implicit (rather than explicitly discussed) limiting the possibilities to advance knowledge in the area of innovation for CE: this is why we propose a “circular innovation studies” agenda.

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Section: Recycling and Recovery-rewiring Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eco-Innovation Diversity in a Circular Economy: Towards Circular Innovation Studies

et al. 2021

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“…The circular economy concept has been developed to overcome the problems of a linear economy 'take-make-use-dispose' model and found great application areas in the water sector to preserve the availability of water (Sodiq et al, 2019;Voulvoulis, 2018). The linear economy aims to treat waste streams involving a potential risk to the receiving environment, while recovery/reuse strategies belong to the circular economy concept (Robles et al, 2020). This transition triggered innovative technologies/processes for efficient water utilization, finding alternative water sources, and closing the water-related loops to balance water demand and supply (Peng et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy and legislative barriers to close water-related loops in innovative small water and wastewater systems in Europe: A critical analysis

Cipolletta

Özbayram

Eusebi

et al. 2021

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Water supply and reuse through non-conventional water resources can significantly decrease the stress on natural water resources. Decentralized systems can help not only to alleviate issues of water security in arid areas, but also to create a sustainable framework within a 2 circular economy. Although these small-scale innovative technologies are able to achieve ready-to-use, high quality of recovered/treated water on-site, the loop cannot be closed in most cases due to legislative barriers. Similarly, the end-use of sewage sludge after treatment in decentralized systems still lacks specific regulations that limit its valorization. This work analyzes the current policy and legislation related to water supply, wastewater treatment, water reuse, and resource valorization within the context of decentralized state-of-the-art technologies applied in rural areas. The drawbacks in the current EU legislation that set barriers to close water-related loops in European countries are highlighted. A regulatory fitness check is applied to each type of loop to identify the key factors to accomplish the legislative compliance, and financing pathways are further evaluated at the EU level. As a possible solution, further development of an innovation deal approach is recommended to address the environmental, regulatory, and financial gaps in water management through an integrated framework, providing ad-hoc policies and prescriptions for the sustainable reuse of all water resources.

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“…Mitigating nutrient pollution in water bodies and securing future nutrient supplies requires a radical rethinking of various aspects of nutrient management and in all parts of society, from agriculture and food processing to food consumers and residual management, to reduce nutrient demand and losses, and achieve a more circular use of these essential plant nutrients (Sutton et al, 2013;McConville et al, 2015;Withers et al, 2020). It is in this light that recent years have seen significant interest in concepts like "circular nutrient solutions", "closing the nutrient loop", "nutrient circularity", and "circular nutrient economy" (Nesme and Withers, 2016;Cobo et al, 2019;Robles et al, 2020;Rosemarin et al, 2020;van der Wiel et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2020). Given the popularity of the concept of "circular bioeconomy" in research and policy discussions, an increased demand for biomass can be expected in the years to come.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Circularity of Nutrient Flows Across Nested Scales for Four Food System Scenarios in the Okanagan Bioregion, BC Canada

Harder

Mullinix

Smukler

2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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In light of continued nutrient pollution in water bodies and anticipated insecurities related to future nutrient supplies, there is an increasing awareness of the need to use nutrients in a more circular way. As part of a food system design study in the Okanagan bioregion, BC Canada we set out to evaluate different food system scenarios for the year 2050 in terms of nutrient circularity. In doing so, the objective was to evaluate the circularity of nutrient flows not only in the Okanagan, but also in relation to exogenous regions, insofar as nutrient flows relate to feed and food consumption and production in the Okanagan. This is important because feed and food trade means that nutrient inputs to crop production in the Okanagan may make their way into organic residuals outside the Okanagan, and vice versa. If not accounted for, this may lead to a distorted picture when analyzing nutrient circularity. To this effect, we applied an analytical framework and calculation model that explicitly tracks nutrients from crop production to organic residual generation. The results of the study suggest that assessing nutrient circularity across nested scales was critical for two reasons. First, changes in overall nutrient flows in response to population increase and dietary change were found to be more pronounced outside the Okanagan. Second, our analysis clearly revealed the extent to which feed and food trade boost nutrient self-reliance in the Okanagan at the expense of nutrient self-reliance outside the Okanagan. This kind of analysis should therefore be useful to explore, ideally together with food system and organic residual management actors, how different food system and organic residual management scenarios perform in terms of nutrient circularity, in the geographical area being considered, but also how it impacts nutrient flows and circularity in the places with which feed and food are traded.

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New frontiers from removal to recycling of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater in the Circular Economy

Cited by 162 publications

References 149 publications

Eco-Innovation Diversity in a Circular Economy: Towards Circular Innovation Studies

Eco-Innovation Diversity in a Circular Economy: Towards Circular Innovation Studies

Policy and legislative barriers to close water-related loops in innovative small water and wastewater systems in Europe: A critical analysis

Assessing the Circularity of Nutrient Flows Across Nested Scales for Four Food System Scenarios in the Okanagan Bioregion, BC Canada

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