Industrial wastewater treatment: Current trends, bottlenecks, and best practices

Rapid urbanization and industrialization have inextricably linked to water consumption and wastewater generation. Mining resources from industrial wastewater has proved to be an excellent source of secondary raw materials i.e., proficient for providing economic and financial benefits, clean and sustainable resilient environment, and achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Treatment of industrial wastewater for reusable resources has become a tedious task for decision-makers due to several bottlenecks and barriers, such as inefficient treatment options, high-cost expenditure, poor infrastructure, lack of financial support, and technical know-how. Most of the existing methods are conventional and fails to provide an economic benefit to the industries and have certain disadvantages. Also, the untreated industrial wastewater is discharged into the open drains, lakes, and rivers that lead to environmental pollution and severe health hazards. This paper has consolidated information about the current trends, opportunities, bottlenecks, and best practices associated with wastewater treatment and scope for the advancement in the existing technologies. Along with the efficient resource recovery, the wastewater could be ideally explored in the development of value-added materials, energy, and product recovery. The concepts, such as the circular economy (CE), partitions-release-recover (PRR), and transforming wastewater into bio factory are anticipated to be more convenient options to tackle the industrial wastewater menace.