Conall Holohan, B.Trego, AnnaKeating, CiaraBressani-Ribeiro, ThiagoChernicharo, Carlos L.Daigger, GlenGaldi, Stephen M.Knörle, UlrichPaissoni, EleonoraRobles, AngelRogalla, FrankShin, ChungheonSoares, AnaSmith, Adam L.Szczuka, AleksandraHughes, DermotO’Flaherty, Vincent2025-06-042025-06-042025-08-01Conall Holohan B, Trego A, Keating C, et al., (2025) Anaerobic microbial core for municipal wastewater treatment — the sustainable platform for resource recovery. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Volume 94, August 2025, Article number 1033170958-1669https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2025.103317https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/23974The requirement for carbon neutrality and bioresource recovery has shifted our views on water treatment from health and pollution avoidance to one of sustainability with water and nutrient circularity. Despite progress, the current process of wastewater treatment is linear, based on core aerobic microbiology, which is unlikely to be carbon neutral due to its large use of energy and production of waste sludge. Here, we outline a shift from aerobic to anaerobic microbiology at the core of wastewater treatment and resource recovery, illustrating the state-of-the-art technologies available for this paradigm shift. Anaerobic metabolism primarily offers the benefit of minimal energy input (up to 50% reduction) and minimal biomass production, resulting in up to 95% less waste sludge compared with aerobic treatment, which is increasingly attractive, given dialogue surrounding emerging contaminants in biosolids. Recent innovative research solutions have made ambient (mainstream) anaerobic treatment a ready substitute for the aerobic processes for municipal wastewater in temperate regions. Moreover, utilising anaerobic treatment as the core carbon removal step allows for more biological downstream resource recovery with several opportunities to couple the process with (anaerobic) nitrogen and phosphorus recovery, namely, potential mainstream anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) and methane oxidation (N-DAMO). Furthermore, these technologies can be mixed and matched with membranes and ion-exchange systems, high-value biochemical production, and/or water reuse installations. As such, we propose the reconfiguration of the wastewater treatment plant of the futurewith anaerobic microbiology. Mainstream anaerobic treatment at the core of a truly sustainable platform for modern municipal wastewater treatment, facilitating circular economy and net-zero carbon goals.Print-ElectronicenAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/30 Agricultural, Veterinary and Food Sciences31 Biological Sciences32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences3106 Industrial Biotechnology3206 Medical Biotechnology3001 Agricultural Biotechnology12 Responsible Consumption and Production7 Affordable and Clean EnergyBiotechnologyArticle1879-042967335110331794