{rfName}
To

Indexed in

License and use

Icono OpenAccess

Citations

199

Altmetrics

Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Guerra-Rodríguez SAuthorRodriguez EAuthorRodríguez-Chueca JCorresponding Author

Share

June 16, 2020
Publications
>
Article
Sí

Towards the implementation of circular economy in the wastewater sector: Challenges and opportunities

Publicated to:Water (Water-Sui). 12 (5): 1431-1431 - 2020-05-01 12(5), DOI: 10.3390/w12051431

Authors: Guerra-Rodríguez S; Oulego P; Rodríguez E; Singh DN; Rodríguez-Chueca J

Affiliations

Indian Inst Technol, Dept Civil Engn, Mumbai 400076, Maharashtra, India - Author
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay - Author
Univ Oviedo, Dept Chem & Environm Engn, C Julian Claveria S-N, E-33071 Oviedo, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Dept Ind Chem Engn & Environm, Escuela Tecn Super Ingenieros Ind, Calle Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, Madrid 28006, Spain - Author
Universidad de Oviedo - Author
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author
See more

Abstract

© 2020 by the authors. The advancement of science has facilitated increase in the human lifespan, reflected in economic and population growth, which unfortunately leads to increased exploitation of resources. This situation entails not only depletion of resources, but also increases environmental pollution, mainly due to atmospheric emissions, wastewater euents, and solid wastes. In this scenario, it is compulsory to adopt a paradigm change, as far as the consumption of resources by the population is concerned, to achieve a circular economy. The recovery and reuse of resources are key points, leading to a decrease in the consumption of raw materials, waste reduction, and improvement of energy efficiency. This is the reason why the concept of the circular economy can be applied in any industrial activity, including the wastewater treatment sector. With this in view, this review manuscript focuses on demonstrating the challenges and opportunities in applying a circular economy in the water sector. For example, reclamation and reuse of wastewater to increase water resources, by paying particular attention to the risks for human health, recovery of nutrients, or highly added-value products (e.g., metals and biomolecules among others), valorisation of sewage sludge, and/or recovery of energy. Being aware of this situation, in the European, Union 18 out of 27 countries are already reusing reclaimed wastewater at some level. Moreover, many wastewater treatment plants have reached energy self-sufficiency, producing up to 150% of their energy requirements. Unfortunately, many of the opportunities presented in this work are far from becoming a reality. Still, the first step is always to become aware of the problem and work on optimizing the solution to make it possible.

Keywords

Activated-sludgeAdvanced oxidation processesAnaerobic-digestionBiodiesel productionCircular economyClean water and sanitationEnergy recoveryMicrobial fuel-cellsPhosphorus recoverySewage-sludgeSludge-based adsorbentsSubstances recoverySustainable development goalsTreatment plantsWastewater reuseZero energyZero waste

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Water (Water-Sui) due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Geography, Planning and Development.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 9.35, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 19.21 (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-27, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 23
  • Scopus: 144
  • Open Alex: 159

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-27:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 520.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 516 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.75.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 6 - Clean water and sanitation, with a probability of 79% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: India.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (GUERRA RODRIGUEZ, SONIA) and Last Author (RODRIGUEZ CHUECA, JORGE JESUS).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been RODRIGUEZ CHUECA, JORGE JESUS.