Abstract

Wastewater reuse is a relevant strategy for confronting water scarcity. Several technologies have been proposed for water reclamation, but only some of them have been successfully implemented at real scale. Against this backdrop, the present review aims to compare the performance of the main technologies that have been implemented at pilot and industrial scale for sewage reuse. In order to do so, we conducted a search for scientific articles in Web of Science, using different search strings and focusing exclusively in studies at pilot and industrial scale. A bibliometric analysis of the retrieved works was performed, followed by a critical review of their main findings regarding the removal efficiency of regulated and emerging pollutants, and their compliance with in-ternational reuse guidelines. The bibliometric analysis suggests that public policies promoting wastewater reuse is a relevant driver behind the research and development of water reclamation technologies, and shows that most of the published research has been oriented towards technical assessments, with less reports dealing with social issues. Many of the identified processes show significant removals of conventionally regulated pollutants, and allow to meet the quality standards of international guidelines. Among those, membrane technologies present significant and consistent removal of several contaminants. However, the removal of organic micropollutants remains an important challenge for reuse technologies, and the importance of identifying and optimizing the operational conditions necessary to provide an efficient, safe, and consistent removal, both in terms of the presence of the aforementioned contaminants and challenges such as antibiotic resistant microorganisms, is emphasized.