How Sustainable Is Our Wastewater Treatment? ()
Abstract
The sanitation and environmental problems related to human activities can be traced at least around 2 500 years back, with written evidences both in the Old Testimony and the Greek culture. Thus in this perspective the matter is by convention an acknowledged problem since long. On the other hand our modern treatment systems of wastewater have far more recent roots. As an example, this year the very widespread biological treatment based on activated sludge celebrates it 100 year anniversary. In this perspective we may see a fundamental need to discuss and scrutinize the current systems in a “sustainable” perspective. A challenge for the technical society is to provide some “quantified” criteria on the concept sustainability. The wastewater treatment systems as we know them and develop them may be addressed by applying four major “sustainability” criteria: 1) The sustainability from major sanitation viewpoints; 2) The sustainability from environmental viewpoints; 3) The financial sustainability for the technical systems; (4) The sustainability with respect to adopting the systems into a more or less consistently changing society.
Share and Cite:
Morling, S. (2014) How Sustainable Is Our Wastewater Treatment?.
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
6, 1060-1065. doi:
10.4236/jwarp.2014.612101.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
References
|
[1]
|
King James Bible “Authorized Version”.
www.kingjamesbibleonline.org
|
|
[2]
|
Sidwick, J.M. and Murray, J.E. (1976) A Brief History of Sewage Treatment. Effluent and Water Treatment Journal, 65-71.
|
|
[3]
|
Arden, E. and Lockett, W.T. (1915) The Oxidation of Sewage without the Aid of Filters. Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, 827-943.
|
|
[4]
|
European Union (1991) Council Directive 91/271/EEC Concerning Urban Waste Water Treatment.
|
|
[5]
|
Morling, S., Franquiz, A., Mahlgren, J. and Westlund, A (2014) Long Term Experiences of SBR-System and Wetland Treatment from a Municipal WWTP in Sweden, Operated with Low Temperature Wastewater. Water Practise and Technology, 9, 235-242.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wpt.2014.027
|
|
[6]
|
Hu, B., Wang, K., Wu, L.H., Yu, S.H., Antonietti, M. and Titirici, M.M. (2010) Engineering Carbon Materials from the Hydrothermal Carbonization Process of Biomass. Advanced Materials, 22, 813-828.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.200902812
|
|
[7]
|
Lilliestrale, A. (2007) Hydrothermal Carbonization of Biowaste—A Step towards Efficient Carbon Sequestration and Sustainable Energy Production. Master Thesis, Molecular Biotechnology Programme, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
|