Anticipating the next century of wastewater treatment

Mark C. M. van Loosdrecht and Damir Brdjanovic

Science 344, 1452 (2014);
DOI: 10.1126/science.1255183

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INSIGHTS | P E R S P E C T I V E S

and the observed anisotropy could only be

modeled if that boundary extended to the
size of the crystallites.
Liu et al. therefore provide evidence
that disproportionation is not the dominant mechanism during fast cycling of
nanosized LiFePO4. Instead, a metastable
nonstoichiometric phase exists throughout the transition state accessed via the
applied overpotential. Hence, instead of a
local phase change, involving a progressive
structural reorganization near a moving
phase boundary, there exists a cooperative
structural rearrangement across a wide region of compositional variation as the structure changes continuously from one form to
the other with only a small degree of lattice
strain. The latter fact explains why it is fast
and reversible for thousands of cycles.
The above model seems reasonable; instead of a phase boundary, there are continuous variations in both the lithium
concentration and the chemical potential
(energy) of lithium in a one-phase material, as observed for normal electrodes. One
problem remains: The spinodal region near
the energy maximum still exists and can
cause havocthe diffusion coefficient can
become negative, promoting rapid diffusion
up concentration gradients and thereby forcing disproportionation. Maybe this effect is
too weak or too slow to make a difference.
However, there is another stabilizing influence, which is that the moving species is a
charged lithium ion; as a result, the electric
potential, which increases with the current
during discharge, adds another energy term
to the equation (4). If the current is high
enough, the miscibility gap, spinodal region,
and anomalous diffusion effect all vanish
and the behavior returns to normal as for a
nonphase-transforming electrode.
The value of the discovery by Liu et al.
lies not only in the already optimized
LiFePO4 but also in the prediction of how
it can be used to make better materials.
The hope is that the single-phase transformation pathway can be enabled in other
phase-transforming electrode materials
with high energy density, to reap the associated benefits of higher power and longer
cycle life.

WATER TREATMENT

Anticipating the next century

of wastewater treatment
Advances in activated sludge sewage treatment can
improve its energy use and resource recovery
By Mark C. M. van Loosdrecht1 and
Damir Brdjanovic1,2

apid urbanization and industrialization in the 19th century led to

unhealthy environments and widespread epidemic diseases. In response, research was undertaken
that led to the development of sanitation technology. Exactly 100 years since
the activated sludge process was presented
(1), it is still at the heart of current sewage
treatment technology. Activated sludge is a
mixture of inert solids from sewage combined with a microbial population growing
on the biodegradable substrates present in
the sewage. The settling and recycling of
sludge inside treatment plants was the invention of Ardern and Lockett. The current
demands from a rapidly growing human
population and the need for a more sustainable society are pushing forward new
developments for sewage handling. These
developments have two main drivers: general process improvements and the contribution to the recycling of resources (2, 3).
The activated sludge process, combined
with a better drinking water supply, was
the main factor behind the increase in average life span in the previous century and
for minimizing the environmental impact of
human activities. Wastewater treatment is
in itself a relatively low-cost process (in the
Netherlands, 50 to 70 EUR per person per

year), consuming limited energy (<7 W per

person); its main limitations are the large
upfront investment costs (usually to be recovered from inhabitants within 20 years)
and land area requirements (mainly needed
for the gravity-based separation of flocculent
activated sludge and treated wastewater).
Attempts to intensify the separation process,
e.g., by membrane separation of the sludge,
have been technologically successful (4) but
not widely used because of the additional energy demand and capital costs.
The morphogenesis of the microbial communities in activated sludge is a complex
process based on the interaction of microbiological, chemical, and physical processes
(5). Only in recent years has it become possible to engineer these microbial structures
to allow bacteria to form a stable granular
sludge instead of flocculent sludge (see the
first figure) (6). This form of sludge makes
gravity-based separation a compact process
that can be integrated inside the treatment
reactor and greatly reduces area requirements and costs (by roughly 75 and 25%,
respectively) (7).
Activated sludge technology is based on
a complex microbial ecology process, in
100 years of activated sludgequo vadis?
Two reactors at the wastewater treatment plant
Garmerwolde in the Netherlands (A) using aerobic
granular sludge technology (B) are treating the
wastewater of 235,000 persons.

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The main constraint identified

as contributing to or causing the
numerous failures of CAS systems
in the developing world is poor
governance by the responsible
institutions (14). However, most
of these developing regions now
have an economic and technical
level well above those in Europe
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Struvite (A), polyhydroxyalkanonate bioplastic (B), and alginate biopolymers (C) are examples of recycled materials produced
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With the recent advance of Anammox techThe solutions for these issues may be the
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construction of smaller and simpler, decenover, in granular sludge technology, these
plant, including effective nutrient removal,
tralized systems that are community-manactivities have been integrated inside the
is becoming feasible (11).
aged, thus minimizing costs (e.g., anaerobic
granules. With the different redox condiAlthough the recuperation and productreatment or aerobic granular sludge needs
tions present inside the granule, the transtion of energy at sewage works is currently
much less mechanical equipment and fewer
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Sewage treatment by activated sludge
age is increasingly being used, and other
water reclamation plant for the pioneering
is a technology that allows for closing cyoptions for the production of valuable maproduction of potable water from treated
cles and reuse of resources such as water
terials from sludge are also emerging, e.g.,
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the recovery of cellulose fibers (12) and the
lowed by maturation ponds and advanced
an increasing global population demandproduction of bioplastics (2) and biopolymultibarrier treatment system) is used. Its
ing more resources, this aspect is becommers (13). The initial results show that valurealization confirms that advanced treating even more important. Effective sewage
able products can be produced in quantities
ment technology combined with proper
treatment makes the recovery of water
and at costs that match the current market
governance can be successfully applied in
by the use of membrane technology feademand and prices (see the second figure).
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Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology,

Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, Netherlands. 2UNESCO-IHE
Institute for Water Education, Westvest 7, 2611 AX Delft,
Netherlands. E-mail: m.c.m.vanLoosdrecht@tudelft.nl
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