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CHAPTER 6

Reorienting Waste Remediation

Towards Harnessing Bioenergy:

A Paradigm Shift

S. Venkata Mohan
Bioengineering and Environmental Science (BEES), CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology
(CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad, India

6.1 INTRODUCTION

A huge quantity of wastewater/waste is continuously being generated from
various industrial and domestic activities and the volume has increased over
time because of rapid and sustained development. Remediation of waste,
being an energy-intensive process, increases the economic burden on indus-
try. Reducing the treatment cost of waste/wastewater and finding ways to
produce value-added products from treatment has gained importance.
Waste material generated from anthropogenic activities has the potential
to meet a good fraction of the world’s energy demand if it could be econom-
ically converted to useful forms of energy. More recently, waste/wastewater
is being considered as a potential feedstock/substrate for harnessing various
forms of bioenergy and for recovering value-added products because of the
biodegradable organic fraction present in wastewater (Venkata Mohan,
2008, 2009; Venkata Mohan and Pandey, 2013; Venkata Mohan et al.,
2013a–d). The regulatory need for wastewater treatment before its disposal
makes it an even more ideal commodity for producing bioenergy through
anaerobic processes. The generation of bioenergy from renewable waste-
water, along with a simultaneous treatment of the wastewater that reduces
the overall cost, makes the whole process environmentally sustainable. The
availability of large quantities of wastewater, the presence of degradable
carbon material, and the cost and need for treatment makes wastewater a
potential substrate.
Environmental scientists are gradually shifting focus from “pollution con-
trol” to “resource exploitation from waste.” Using waste/wastewater as a sub-
strate for its value addition coupled with its simultaneous remediation can lead
to new opportunities for the exploitation of renewable and inexhaustible

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