Resource and water recovery solutions for Singapore’s water, waste, energy, and food nexus. Part I, Resource recovery from wastewater and sludge

Singapore is a city-island-state in the transition towards a circular economy. The country has already implemented policies and adopted several approaches that contribute to closing loops for e-waste, packaging waste, and food waste. However, other areas that also contribute to a circular economy have not been fully explored in Singapore. One of these areas is resource recovery from wastewater streams. In this report, we review state-of-the-art technologies to recover valuable components from domestic wastewater and sludge. These technologies are analyzed based on technological maturity and applicability for the recovery of phosphate, and organic compounds such as volatile fatty acids, bioplastics, and biomass. The report covers the current status of the recovery of these compounds in the Singaporean context and identifies factors that can promote or prevent the application of the recovery processes.