Abstract
Wastewater has been one of the most widely researched environmental resources due to the environmental, social and economic impacts of its discharge on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
The development of wastewater management systems has caused, that currently a numerous of technological developments are available, ranging from transport structures for wastewater to advanced treatment systems, that allow the separation of pollutants that limit its use; However, in many cases these systems have been conceived as independent structures or components, which has limited the efficient and integral use of resources derived from wastewater management.
According to van Loosdrecht et al. (2014) the future performance indicators of the urban and municipal wastewater systems should be include apart from the water quality limits, five fundamental aspects, related with the management of resources such as water, solids, air, energy and chemicals.
For water, options such as reuse, aquifer recharge, potabilization and industrial or agricultural consumption are proposing. For solids are proposed the use in industry or agriculture and their adequate final disposal. For the air is proposed the control of the greenhouse gases emission. For energy is proposed to potentiate the generation and exploitation of methane and hydrogen as a result of the organic matter of the wastewater transformation, and for the chemical alternatives are proposed, the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus of the wastewater and reduction of chemical uses, through the use and monitoring of the biological communities present in the wastewater treatment systems and for the incorporation of new environmental microbiology developments (Reardon et al., 2013; van Loosdrecht et al., 2014).
From this perspective, this research analyzes the challenges and implications for an integral management of wastewater and proposes some technological schemes to promote the sustainable management of this kind of systems.
Conclusions
Preliminary results have shown that the main challenges regarding the integral management of wastewater are:
Ensure strategic planning of wastewater treatment systems as an integral part of the projections of municipal, departmental and national development, through the integration of life cycle analysis and resource recovery tools, into the technical regulations for drinking water and basic sanitation.
- Undertake the technological conversion to take advantage of the methane and hydrogen generated in wastewater treatment systems, and reduce the generation or emission of greenhouse gases.
- Reduce energy consumption for nutrients transformation.
- Incorporate strategies that allow community participation to guarantee the adequate flow of resources, the fulfillment of the goals of wastewater management systems and the support of investors and managers of technological development.
Keywords: Resources recovery from wastewater, nutrients recovery, integral management for wastewater.
Bibliography
Reardon R. Davel J., Baune D., McDonald S., Appleton R., Gillette R. (2013). Wastewater Treatment Plants of the Future: Current Trends Shape Future Plans. Florida Water Resources Journal. January 2013, p8 - 14.
van Loosdrecht M., Seah H., Wah Y. L., Cao Y. (2014). The next 100 years. In: Activated sludge – 100 year and counting. IWA Publishing. London.
5d Design for sustainability (Eco-Design, C2C, product service systems)
