Recent Advances in the Reuse of Wastewaters for Promoting Sustainable Development

Substantial research and development as well as application have been devoted to wastewater. This includes wastewater minimization and treatment, environmental assessment of wastewater, minimization of the environmental impact, and life cycle assessment. The primary reason for these efforts is that wastewater generation constitutes one of the major environmental issues encountered by production industries. Wastewater management through end-of-pipe processes has traditionally been aimed solely at reducing the concentration of pollutants. However, in a world of increasing water demand, wastewater reclamation and reuse are becoming a popular practice worldwide, thus mirroring rapid changes in environmental policies for promoting sustainability in water resource management. From a theoretical point of view, reuse of wastewater addresses both water supply and pollution issues, thus reducing the net demand and discharges into environment. In addition, if the reuse management is properly planned and implemented, an acceptably low risk to human health can also be achieved. Therefore, it is worth considering the potential value of wastewater prior to its treatment through the introduction of wastewater reuse. This chapter discusses various technically feasible and economically beneficial ways of transforming wastewater into low- or preferably high-value-added products, such as industrial and irrigation waters, fermentative metabolites, fertilizers, and animal feeds.