Advancing Water Resource Recovery Hubs Through Biopolymers
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Wastewater Treatment and Reuse".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 137
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Wastewater treatment plants are increasingly being redefined as water resource recovery facilities. Similarly, sludge is no longer viewed as a waste byproduct, but rather as a resource of valuable biopolymers. Among the most relevant targets are extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), which offer significant opportunities for more circular wastewater management. Recent advances have improved strategies to enhance PHA production and accumulation in mixed microbial cultures, as well as to maximize EPS recovery from sludge. At the same time, increasing attention has been given to downstream recovery and purification, polymer characterization, and material performance, broadening the potential of sludge-derived polymers beyond conventional valorization pathways. Nevertheless, important challenges remain, including how to increase polymer content during biological production, improve extraction efficiency and product purity, preserve polymer quality during downstream processing, and integrate these recovery routes into full-scale WWTPs in a technically, economically, and environmentally sustainable way.
Dr. Antonio Mineo
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- advanced wastewater treatment
- biopolymers
- extracellular polymeric substances
- polyhydroxyalkanoate
- sludge valorization
- water resource recovery
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