Life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery strategies from domestic wastewaters to quantify environmental performance and identification of trade-offs

Increase in anthropogenic activities proliferated the consumption of resources such as phosphorus; and increase the adverse environmental impacts especially eutrophication on water resources such as lakes. Nutrient recovery from domestic wastewaters to produce a fertiliser has been explored to addre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-02, Vol.14 (1), p.3678-3678, Article 3678
Main Authors: Pausta, Carla Mae, Kalbar, Pradip, Saroj, Devendra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/172/169/895
704/172/169/896
704/172/4081
704/844/685
Anthropogenic factors
Climate change
Consumption
Domestic wastewater
Environmental impact
Environmental performance
Eutrophication
Fertilizers
Global warming
Humanities and Social Sciences
Life cycle analysis
Life cycle assessment
Life cycles
Mineral resources
multidisciplinary
Nutrient cycles
Nutrient recovery
Resource consumption
Resource management
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Septage
Wastewater
Wastewater management
Water consumption
Water quality
Water resources
Water resources management
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Summary:Increase in anthropogenic activities proliferated the consumption of resources such as phosphorus; and increase the adverse environmental impacts especially eutrophication on water resources such as lakes. Nutrient recovery from domestic wastewaters to produce a fertiliser has been explored to address these challenges in the context of a sustainable circular nutrient economy. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to holistically assess the impacts of integrating a nutrient recovery system on wastewater and water resource management using Laguna de Bay, Philippines as the geographical boundary. The inventory was developed based on the results of the emerging nutrient recovery reactor operations and the application of the recovered fertiliser on the agricultural crops. The LCA results for the proposed scenario showed environmental benefits of about 83.6% freshwater eutrophication, 102.5% terrestrial ecotoxicity, 26.9% water consumption, 100.7% mineral resource scarcity, while the global warming potential is 95.4% higher than the baseline scenario. Results imply policy review for septage management, system optimisation, and evaluation of alternative methods of wastewater management, in terms of life cycle thinking and sustainability across the globe.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-54060-6