Evaluating Sustainable Development Pathways for Protein- and Peptide-Based Bioadsorbents for Phosphorus Recovery from...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Phosphate recovery from wastewater is crucial for mitigating eutrophication and promoting a circular economy.
• Protein/peptide bioadsorbents offer high specificity for capturing phosphate (P) to meet ultralow discharge limits (<100 μg P L⁻¹).

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the financial and environmental sustainability of protein/peptide bioadsorbents against conventional anion exchange resin for phosphate recovery.
• To identify research priorities for optimizing bioadsorbent performance in wastewater treatment.

Main Methods:

• Life cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) were used to evaluate different scenarios.
• Scenarios included baseline performance, improved bioadsorbent designs (smaller peptides, nanoparticle materials), and reuse strategies.

Main Results:

• Baseline bioadsorbent scenarios were significantly more expensive than current wastewater treatment.
• Optimized bioadsorbent scenarios achieved median impacts of $1.06 m⁻³ and 0.001 kg CO₂ equiv m⁻³, comparable to current treatment and lower than LayneRT anion exchange resin ($4.04 m⁻³ and 0.19 kg CO₂ equiv m⁻³).

Conclusions:

• While capturing low phosphate concentrations presents financial challenges, optimizing bioadsorbent capacity and implementing reuse are key to economic and environmental viability.
• Considering environmental externalities can incentivize ultralow phosphate capture, supporting sustainable resource management.