title: Used water and nutrients: Recovery perspectives in a 'panta rhei' context.
abstract: There is an urgent need to secure global supplies in safe water and proteinaceous food in an eco-sustainable manner, as manifested from tensions in the nexus Nutrients-Energy-Water-Environment-Land. This paper is concept based and provides solutions based on resource recovery from municipal and industrial wastewater and from manure. A set of decisive factors is reviewed facilitating an attractive business case. Our key message is that a robust barrier must clear the recovered product from its original status. Besides refined inorganic fertilizers, a central role for five types of microbial protein is proposed. A resource cycling solution for the extremely confined environment of space habitation should serve as an incentive to assimilate a new user mindset. To achieve the ambitious goal of sustainable food security, the solutions suggested here need a broad implementation, hand in hand with minimizing losses along the entire fertilizer-feed-food-fork chain.
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Willy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Verstraete
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clauwaert
authors.affiliation: Center for Microbial Ecology and Technology (CMET), Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Gent, Belgium; Research Group of Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020 Antwerpen, Belgium. Electronic address: Siegfried.Vlaeminck@UAntwerpen.be.
authors.forename: Siegfried E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Vlaeminck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D019149:Bioreactors; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008372:Manure / Q000032:analysis; D059027:Recycling; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D005308:Fertilizers; D008372:Manure; D062065:Wastewater; D014867:Water; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Hydrogen oxidizing bacteria; Methane oxidizing bacteria; Purple non-sulfur bacteria; Single cell protein; Space life support system