A strategy of directly recovering organics for the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) was introduced to make wastewater treatment profitable. A sludge adsorption section was proposed to add before the conventional wastewater process for adsorbing the organics in wastewater by the excess activated sludge which was produced during biological wastewater treatment and returned from the secondary settling tank. Then, the excess activated sludge combining wastewater organics, called organics-enriched sludge, was anaerobically fermented for the production of high value-added VFAs. Results indicated about 70 % of wastewater organics could be source-recovered within 30 min. Most of the organics in wastewater could avoid being lost via carbon dioxide or synthesized into bacterial organisms, therefore, the total amount and overall bioavailability of the organics recovered from wastewater were greatly improved. Pilot-scale tests indicated VFAs production from wastewater organics was enhanced by 62.2 %. Mass balance analysis indicated 46.8 % of wastewater organics could be finally transferred into VFAs, only 12 % in conventional processes. Economic evaluations indicated source-recovering wastewater organics for VFAs production was a promising alternative to make wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) profitable. Finally, an idealized organics transformation route for wastewater treatment was proposed based on this concept to make wastewater treatment profitable.

为了使废水处理有利可图，引入了一种直接回收有机物以生产挥发性脂肪酸（VFA）的策略。建议在常规废水处理之前增加一个污泥吸附区，以通过生物废水处理过程中产生的并从二级沉淀池返回的过量活性污泥吸附废水中的有机物。然后，厌氧发酵结合废水有机物的过量活性污泥，称为有机物富集污泥，以生产高附加值的VFA。结果表明，在30分钟内可以回收70％的废水有机物。废水中的大多数有机物可以避免通过二氧化碳损失或合成为细菌生物，因此，从废水中回收的有机物的总量和整体生物利用度得到了极大的提高。中试测试表明，废水有机物的VFA产量提高了62.2％。质量平衡分析表明，最终可以将46.8％的废水有机物转移到VFA中，而在常规过程中只有12％。经济评估表明，用于VFA生产的源回收废水有机物是使废水处理厂（WWTP）盈利的有前途的替代方法。最后，基于该概念提出了一种理想的有机物转化废水处理路线，以使废水处理有利可图。8％的废水有机物最终可以转移到VFA中，而在常规过程中只有12％。经济评估表明，用于VFA生产的源回收废水有机物是使废水处理厂（WWTP）盈利的有前途的替代方法。最后，基于该概念提出了一种理想的有机物转化废水处理路线，以使废水处理有利可图。8％的废水有机物最终可以转移到VFA中，而在常规过程中只有12％。经济评估表明，用于VFA生产的源回收废水有机物是使废水处理厂（WWTP）盈利的有前途的替代方法。最后，基于该概念提出了一种理想的有机物转化废水处理路线，以使废水处理有利可图。