Resource recovery technologies as microbial risk barriers: towards safe use of excreta in agriculture based on hazard analysis and critical control point

Agricultural use of human excreta contributes to sustainable nutrient resource management. In contrast, resource recovery from human excreta is associated with the risk of infection by pathogenic microorganisms. The microbial risk associated with human excreta needs to be properly managed. Pathogen inactivation efficacy of resource recovery technologies should be evaluated so that individual resource recovery processes can be monitored as health risk barriers. To this end, we reviewed the sanitization potential of resource recovery technologies from human excreta and identified the monitoring parameters of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP). We describe the inactivation of surrogate microorganisms in selected technologies in terms of the physicochemical conditions of matrices, different tolerances among surrogate microorganisms, and inactivation mechanisms. The estimated storage/operating time required to achieve the target log reduction values (LRVs) is shortened in thermal processes such as thermophilic storage, drying, composting, microwaving, and thermophilic digestion. In most processes, phage and helminth eggs were found to be appropriate indicators for conservative estimation. Finally, we argue that sanitization is congruent with decomposition of readily degradable organic matter and resource recovery. The barrier efficacy of resource recovery technologies should be validated using a pathogen inactivation kinetics model so that the exposure risk to infectious pathogens is sufficiently reduced through a reasonable combination of non-treatment and non-technical health risk barriers.

Automated summary

The use of human excreta in agriculture contributes to sustainable nutrient resource management, but resource recovery from excreta carries the risk of pathogenic microorganism infection. Proper management of microbial risk associated with excreta is necessary. This study reviewed the potential of resource recovery technologies to sanitize human excreta, and identified parameters for monitoring hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP). It also discussed the inactivation of surrogate microorganisms in various technologies and proposed the validation of barrier efficacy using a pathogen inactivation kinetics model.