Sustainability in sulfur recovery: sulfur-rich wastewater as a resource in the circular economy framework

Sulfur compound-rich wastewater streams are both an environmental hazard and a resource opportunity. Classical treatment processes primarily focus on pollutant removal while neglecting the potential for sulfur recovery and and valorization. This paper presents a systematic analysis of sulfur recovery technologies for sulfur-rich industrial wastewater treatment, comparing biological, physicochemical, adsorption-based, electrochemical, and hybrid technologies. A bibliometric analysis of literature published between 2015 and 2025 was conducted alongside a qualitative synthesis of these technologies. This evaluation highlights their recovery efficiency, energy consumption, operational feasibility, and scalability.Findings revealed that hybrid technologies, such as bio-electrochemical and membrane-assisted processes excel at achieving in achieving recovery efficiencies up to 98%, while minimizing secondary pollution. These recovered sulfur products, such as elemental sulfur and sulfuric acid, can be valorized into fertilizers, industrial chemicals, and next-generation energy storage systems. However energy intensity and capital cost remain primary barrier to large-scale application. Critical knowledge gaps are the limited integration of sulfur-specific life cycle and techno-economic analyses, and the absence of standardized circular economy performance indicators for recovered sulfur flows and valorization pathways. To address these gaps, this review recommends a comparative framework linking treatment efficiency to sustainability outcomes and measures such as carbon credits, industrial symbiosis, and regulatory incentives that could increase the viability of sulfur recovery in practice. The reviewed literature further demonstrates the role of recovered sulfur within industrial symbiosis networks, particularly in fertilizer production, sulfuric acid manufacturing, and emerging energy storage applications. By reframing sulfur-rich wastewater treatment as a resource recovery method, this study offers pragmatic insights into sustainable sulfur recovery, sulfur valorization, and industrial circularity within circular economy systems.

Text 127596.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11270-026-09745...

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