Black Annesley, Newhart Kathryn, Linvill Chelsea, Pytlar Alex, Galaitsi Stephanie, Fairfield Christiana, Wait Marley, Bennett Elle, Butkus Michael, Pfluger Andrew R
Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA.
United States Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research & Development Center, Environmental Lab, Concord, MA, USA.
Water Sci Technol. 2025 Mar;91(6):671-683. doi: 10.2166/wst.2025.036. Epub 2025 Mar 5.
Recent wastewater treatment research has focused on technologies that can recover resources such as energy from the influent waste stream. Many unrelated studies have introduced or used energy-related terms to describe changes to wastewater treatment plant energy balances based on these technological innovations. Unfortunately, these wastewater energy-related terms are not well defined in the literature, with many used interchangeably and/or inconsistently. To address this shortcoming, this study (1) identified and defined the most prominent energy-related terms in academic literature, (2) proposed a classification schema, and (3) explored trends in term usage over time. Energy-related terms identified from the literature were defined and classified based on the term's functional role in the context of wastewater treatment plant energy use. Specifically, each term was classified as a wastewater treatment plant's long-term energy 'state', a descriptive short-term energy 'condition' at the plant, or an energy 'mechanism' that drives a plant from one state to another. The trend analysis concluded that the development of energy-related wastewater literature has generally outpaced the baseline rate of academic publishing in all fields. The results of this study can ensure clear communication between actors in the wastewater treatment sector by standardizing definitions for energy-related terms.
近期的废水处理研究聚焦于能够从进水废物流中回收能源等资源的技术。许多不相关的研究引入或使用了与能源相关的术语，以描述基于这些技术创新的废水处理厂能量平衡的变化。不幸的是，这些与废水能源相关的术语在文献中并未得到很好的定义，许多术语被交替使用和/或使用不一致。为解决这一缺陷，本研究（1）识别并定义了学术文献中最突出的与能源相关的术语，（2）提出了一种分类架构，（3）探究了术语使用随时间的趋势。从文献中识别出的与能源相关的术语，根据其在废水处理厂能源使用背景下的功能作用进行定义和分类。具体而言，每个术语被归类为废水处理厂的长期能源“状态”、该厂描述性的短期能源“状况”，或驱使该厂从一种状态转变为另一种状态的能源“机制”。趋势分析得出结论，与能源相关的废水文献的发展总体上超过了所有领域学术出版的基线速度。本研究结果可通过规范与能源相关术语的定义，确保废水处理领域各行为主体之间的清晰沟通。
