Recovery of Cellulose, Extracellular Polymeric Substances and Microplastics from Sewage Sludge: A Review

Ewa Wiśniowska () and Mariusz Kowalczyk
Additional contact information
Ewa Wiśniowska: Department of Sanitart Installationa and Networks, Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 69 Dabrowskiego Str., 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland
Mariusz Kowalczyk: Department of Sanitart Installationa and Networks, Faculty of Infrastructure and Environment, Czestochowa University of Technology, 69 Dabrowskiego Str., 42-200 Czestochowa, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-11

Abstract: Wastewater treatment plants are considered to be not only as treatment facilities, but also essential elements of the circular economy. Wastewater treatment plants can be essential chains of the circular economy cycle. Despite this, sewage sludge management and utilization are mostly limited to biodegradation and further agricultural uses or incineration. The recovery of valuable products is mainly limited to nitrogen and phosphorus compounds. Fewer analyses focus on generating, recovering, and removing various polymers from sewage sludge, such as cellulose or extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). On the other hand, sewage sludge also contains polymeric pollutants, such as microplastics. The recovery and use of biopolymers is significant considering the problems connected with the presence and effects of artificial polymers (microplastics) in the environment. Despite the technical possibilities, not many technical scale installations are operated. Law regulations should make some incentives to develop the technologies and sell the recovered polymers in the market not as waste material, but as a valuable product. This paper presents state-of-the-art technologies for selected polymers’ recovery from sludge, including technical parameters of the processes and possible applications of recovered products, but it also considers the possibility of microplastics’ removal from this waste material.

Keywords: extracellular polymeric substances; microplastics; wastewater; cellulose; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/20/7744/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/20/7744/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:20:p:7744-:d:947519

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().