AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR RESOURCES RECOVERY FROM WASTEWATER

The general focus of the present work is strictly related to find technologies for resources recovery from the integrated water cycle. The current need of achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations (UN), is driving the recent research activities in different field of applications. More in detail, in this PhD thesis, three aspects related to three SDGs will be examined: - The recovery of clean water, which is requested by the Goal #6 “Clean water and sanitation”, and which can satisfy the most of the society’s needs. - The recovery of protein-rich alternatives for a sustainable future, which is requested by the Goal #2 “Zero hunger”. - Related to the previous point, the necessity of produce resources, such as novel protein sources, with a lower impact on the Earth in terms of greenhouse gases emissions, water consumption and land occupation; this is requested by the Goal #13 “Climate action”. In order to better understand the field of protein-rich alternatives, during the third year of the PhD, six months were spent in a Belgian company, Avecom NV (Ghent), for its experience in the optimization of microbial processes.