Recovery of plant nutrients from human excreta and domestic wastewater for reuse in agriculture

Background

Achieving a more circular and efficient use of nutrients found in human excreta and domestic (municipal) wastewater is an integral part of mitigating aquatic nutrient pollution and nutrient insecurity. A synthesis of research trends readily available to various stakeholders is much needed. This systematic map collates and summarizes scientific research on technologies that facilitate the recovery and reuse of plant nutrients and organic matter found in human excreta and domestic wastewater. The authors present evidence in a way that can be navigated easily. They hope this work will help with the uptake and upscaling of new and innovative circular solutions for the recovery and reuse of nutrients.

Methods

The systematic map consists of an extension of two previous related syntheses. Searches were performed in Scopus and Web of Science in English. Records were screened on title and abstract, including consistency checking. Coding and meta-data extraction included bibliographic information, as well as recovery pathways. The evidence from the systematic map is embedded in an online evidence platform that, in an interactive manner, allows stakeholders to visualize and explore the systematic map findings, including knowledge gaps and clusters.

Results

The evidence base includes a total of 10 950 articles describing 11 489 recovery pathways. Most of the evidence base is about recovery technologies (41.9%) and the reuse of recovered products in agriculture (53.4%). A small proportion of the evidence base focuses on the characteristics of recovered products (4.0%) and user acceptance and perceptions of nutrient recovery and reuse (0.7%).

Conclusions

Most studies the authors mapped focused on nutrient recovery from ‘conventional’ systems, that is, from centralized sewer and wastewater treatment systems that produce biosolids and a treated effluent. While they also found substantial research on nutrient recovery from source-separated urine, and to some extent also on nutrient recovery from source-separated excreta (notably blackwater), the body of research on nutrient recovery from source-separated feces was relatively small. Another knowledge gap is the relative lack of research on the recovery of potassium. More research is also needed on user acceptance of different recovery technologies and recovered products.