Are integrated bioelectrochemical technologies feasible for wastewater management?

The need for sustainable technological solutions for wastewater management at different scales has led to the emergence of several promising integrated bioelectrochemical technologies in the past decade. A thorough assessment of these technologies is imperative to understand their practical implementation feasibility and to identify the key challenges to prioritise the research and development work. Our multicriteria-based assessment reveals that the integrated technologies are efficient for wastewater treatment in terms of normalised land footprint [(0.31–1.39 m2/population equivalent (PE))] – and energy consumption (0.18–1.49 kWH/m3) as compared to the conventional biotechnologies, and suggests that they have potential for real-world application. Specifying the boundaries according to their treatment capabilities and scale-up potential besides niche application sites or geographical locations is required to expedite their transition to the real-world wastewater management sector. The key issues associated with the conventional and emerging wastewater treatment technologies, such as the energy-intensive operation of aerobic processes, slow-rate treatment or large land footprint of processes based on ecological principals and high capital expenditure and scalability concerns of microbial electrochemical technologies have led to the emergence of an integrated bioelectrochemical technology concept. The advancements in this area focus mainly on minimising the consumption of resources such as energy and land and enhancing resource recovery capabilities, as well as achieving low-cost and energy-efficient wastewater treatment on different scales. A thorough assessment of rapidly progressing integrated bioelectrochemical technologies is imperative to understand their practical implementation feasibility in the frame of sustainable wastewater management infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]