Recovering valuable materials from waste streams is critical to the transition to a circular economy with reduced environmental damages caused by resource extraction activities. Municipal and industrial wastewaters contain a variety of materials, such as nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), lithium, and rare earth elements, which can be recovered as value-added products. Owing to their modularity, convenient operation and control, and the non-requirement of chemical dosage, electrochemical technologies offer a great promise for resource recovery in small-scale, decentralized systems. Here, we review three emerging electrochemical technologies for materials recovery applications: electrosorption based on carbonaceous and intercalation electrodes, electrochemical redox processes, and electrochemically induced precipitation. We highlight the mechanisms for achieving selective materials recovery in these processes. We also present an overview of the advantages and limitations of these technologies, as well as the key challenges that need to be overcome for their deployment in real-world systems to achieve cost-effective and sustainable materials recovery.

从废物流中回收有价值的材料对于过渡到循环经济至关重要，因为循环经济可以减少资源开采活动对环境的损害。市政和工业废水包含多种物质，例如营养物（氮和磷），锂和稀土元素，可以作为增值产品回收。由于其模块化，方便的操作和控制以及不需要化学剂量，电化学技术为小型分散式系统中的资源回收提供了广阔的前景。在这里，我们回顾了用于材料回收应用的三种新兴电化学技术：基于碳质和插层电极的电吸附，电化学氧化还原过程以及电化学诱导的沉淀。我们重点介绍了在这些过程中实现选择性材料回收的机制。我们还概述了这些技术的优点和局限性，以及将它们部署到现实系统中以实现具有成本效益和可持续的材料回收所需要克服的关键挑战。