Advancement in bioprocessing has brought 3rd generation biorefineries closer to becoming environmentally and economically sustainable. However, due to the costs and supply reliability of feedstocks, energy consumption, and byproducts cleanup/disposal, it is still economically unfeasible to construct and operate a profitable commercial-scale biorefinery. Integration of microbial biomass within an established distributed infrastructure could provide the foundation of a biorefining industry if numerous products are developed and commercialized. Current peer-reviewed literature offers various technologies to transform microbial biomass from wastewater treatment operations into numerous high-value products and energy. This paper describes some of these opportunities with the goal of envisioning more sustainable and cost-effective wastewater treatment systems. The recovery of resources from waste could be extended to many other systems.

生物处理技术的进步使第三代生物精炼厂更接近于环境和经济可持续发展。然而，由于原料的成本和供应可靠性，能量消耗以及副产物的净化/处置，在经济上仍然不可行的是建设和运营有利可图的商业规模的生物精炼厂。如果开发和商品化许多产品，则将微生物生物量整合到已建立的分布式基础架构中可以为生物精炼行业奠定基础。当前经过同行评审的文献提供了各种技术，可将微生物生物量从废水处理操作转化为众多高价值的产品和能源。本文介绍了其中一些机会，目的是构想更可持续和更具成本效益的废水处理系统。从废物中回收资源可以扩展到许多其他系统。