ABSTRACT

Recent reports have pointed out that, at the current rate of development, the world will fail to meet Goal 6 of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ensure the availability of sanitation and water for all. Over half the world’s population in the middle- and low-income countries will not have sanitation and water with sufficient quality and quantity due to limited financial and freshwater resources. An algal-based wastewater treatment (A-WWT) system is proposed here as an appropriate and affordable pathway to support SDG 6 as well as 11 other related SDGs. Our previous reports on this A-WWT system have documented its ability to produce discharge-ready water, comparable in quality to that of the conventional activated sludge-based (CAS) system, but at lower initial cost and lower energy needs. In the current study, we demonstrate that activated carbon adsorption and ozonation are potential follow-up processes to reclaim high-quality water for beneficial reuse. The quality of water reclaimed by the A-WWT system is shown to be superior to what is currently possible with the CAS system. Microbial assessments and Microtox toxicity assays confirm that the reclaimed water from the A-WWT system is safe for agricultural reuse. The A-WWT system holds promise as a greener alternative to meet the four targets under SDG 6: improving water quality, wastewater treatment, and safe reuse; increasing water-use efficiency and ensuring freshwater supplies; implementing water reuse management; and protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems.

摘要

最近的报告指出，以目前的发展速度，世界将无法实现联合国的17个可持续发展目标（SDG）中的目标6，以确保所有人都能获得卫生和水。由于财政和淡水资源有限，世界上一半以上的中等收入和低收入国家人口没有足够质量和数量的卫生和水。此处提出基于藻类的废水处理（A-WWT）系统，作为支持SDG 6和其他11个相关SDG的适当且负担得起的途径。我们先前关于此A-WWT系统的报告已证明其具有产生可排放水的能力，其质量与传统的基于活性污泥的系统（CAS）相当，但初始成本较低且能源需求较低。在目前的研究中 我们证明了活性炭的吸附和臭氧化是潜在的后续过程，可回收高质量的水以利于再利用。事实证明，A-WWT系统回收的水质要优于CAS系统目前能达到的水质。微生物评估和Microtox毒性测定证实，A-WWT系统回收的水可安全用于农业。A-WWT系统有望成为实现SDG 6下四个目标的绿色替代方案：改善水质，废水处理和安全回用；提高用水效率并确保淡水供应；实施中水回用管理；以及保护和恢复与水有关的生态系统。