Prioritization\nof Early-Stage Research and Development\nof a Hydrogel-Encapsulated Anaerobic Technology for Distributed Treatment\nof High Strength Organic Wastewater

This study aims to\nsupport the prioritization of research and development\n(R&D) pathways of an anaerobic technology leveraging hydrogel-encapsulated\nbiomass to treat high-strength organic industrial wastewaters, enabling\ndecentralized energy recovery and treatment to reduce organic loading\non centralized treatment facilities. To characterize the sustainability\nimplications of early-stage design decisions and to delineate R&D\ntargets, an encapsulated anaerobic process model was developed and\ncoupled with design algorithms for integrated process simulation,\ntechno-economic analysis, and life cycle assessment under uncertainty.\nAcross the design space, a single-stage configuration with passive\nbiogas collection was found to have the greatest potential for financial\nviability and the lowest life cycle carbon emission. Through robust\nuncertainty and sensitivity analyses, we found technology performance\nwas driven by a handful of design and technological factors despite\nuncertainty surrounding many others. Hydraulic retention time and\nencapsulant volume were identified as the most impactful design decisions\nfor the levelized cost and carbon intensity of chemical oxygen demand\n(COD) removal. Encapsulant longevity, a technological parameter, was\nthe dominant driver of system sustainability and thus a clear R&D\npriority. Ultimately, we found encapsulated anaerobic systems with\noptimized fluidized bed design have significant potential to provide\naffordable, carbon-negative, and distributed COD removal from high\nstrength organic wastewaters if encapsulant longevity can be maintained\nat 5 years or above.