Log in

A critical review on sustainable biorefinery approaches and strategies for wastewater treatment and production of value-added products

  • Review Paper
  • Published:
Energy, Ecology and Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An annual reduction in processing expenses results in the direct discharge of millions of litters of diverse wastewater into the environment, which causes eutrophication and depletes pure water sources. Traditional physicochemical treatment are widely employed for wastewater treatment (WWT). However, the optimal functioning of these systems necessitates significant operating and maintenance expenditures and the use of unique technologies for sludge treatment and disposal. One of the most crucial processes in a biorefinery is the effective pretreatment of industrial wastewater, which ensures the bioprocess overall quality and commercial feasibility. Industrial WWT is essential for improving biorefinery and valorization processes for producing biofuels, bioenergy, chemicals, and other valuable products. Consequently, industrial effluent must be managed to facilitate further bioprocessing. Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are an emerging field utilized for the removal of organic matter from industrial wastewater, desalination of seawater, and production of bioelectricity. In the distant future, the utilization of BESs will be focused on environmental remediation, WWT, bioanalysis, and the reduction of toxic gas emissions. In recent years, there has been a surge in research endeavors pertaining to BESs, specifically microbial fuel cells (MFCs), microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), microbial desalination cells (MDCs), and microbial electrolysis desalination cells (MEDCs), in an effort to produce energy that is both environmentally friendly and sustainable. This review focuses on the applicability of various advanced treatment approaches for industrial wastewater or sludge and the separation of recovered products from wastewater and its residues. It also highlights the basic operational characteristics of the MFCs, MECs, MDCs, and MEDCs using wastewater. The cutting-edge data presented in this review could improve further interdisciplinary and translational research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All datasets generated for this study are included in the article.

Abbreviations

BES:

Bioelectrochemical system

BOD:

Biological oxygen demand

CH3COOH:

Acetic acid

CH4 :

Methane

CMs:

Ceramic membranes

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

MDC:

Microbial desalination cell

MEC:

Microbial electrolysis cell

MEDC:

Microbial electrolysis desalination cell

MFC:

Microbial fuel cell

OH⋅:

Hydroxyl radical

TiO2 :

Titanium oxide

TOC:

Total organic carbon

WWB:

Wastewater biorefinery

WWT:

Wastewater treatment

ZnO:

Zinc oxide

References

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFE0107100). It was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31772529) and Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX22_3687) .

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

HJ, TE and XH did writing—original draft, methodology. JS done conceptualization, funding acquisition, validation, and writing—review and editing. RA performed writing—review and editing and formal analysis. MK contributed to investigation and writing—review and editing. SA was involved in conceptualization, software, data curation, writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianzhong Sun, Rania Al-Tohamy or Sameh S. Ali.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The research does not deal with human nor animal data.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jiao, H., He, X., Sun, J. et al. A critical review on sustainable biorefinery approaches and strategies for wastewater treatment and production of value-added products. Energ. Ecol. Environ. 9, 1–24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-023-00312-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40974-023-00312-6

Keywords

Navigation