Combining Process Modelling and LCA to Assess the Environmental Impacts of Wastewater Treatment Innovations

Alternative wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies with lower environmental impacts seem to be the way forward in the pursuit of sustainable wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Process modelling of material and energy flows together with life-cycle assessment (LCA) can help to better understand th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water (Basel) 2021-05, Vol.13 (9), p.1246
Main Authors: Paulu, Aleš, Bartáček, Jan, Šerešová, Markéta, Kočí, Vladimír
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical oxygen demand
Climate change
Emissions
Energy flow
Environmental impact
Environmental indicators
Eutrophication
Force and energy
Global warming
Global warming potential
Nitrogen
Purification
Sewage
Sludge
Technological change
Toxicity
Wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment plants
Water treatment
Water treatment plants
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Alternative wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies with lower environmental impacts seem to be the way forward in the pursuit of sustainable wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Process modelling of material and energy flows together with life-cycle assessment (LCA) can help to better understand these impacts and show the right direction for their development. Here, we apply this combined approach to three scenarios: conventional WWT; conventional WWT + chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT); conventional WWT + CEPT + side stream partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A). For each scenario, equations were developed to calculate chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen flow (solid and dissolved form) through the WWTP and to estimate the energy demands of its unit operations. LCA showed that the main environmental impact categories for all scenarios were global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP) and marine aquatic eco-toxicity potential (MAETP). Compared with conventional WWT, CEPT and CEPT combined with PN/A resulted in a higher sum of normalized and weighed environmental indicators, by 19.5% and 16.4%, respectively (20.0% and 18.3% including biogenic carbon). Interestingly, the environmentally positive features of the alternative scenarios were often traded-off against other increased negative impacts. This suggests that further development is needed to consider these technologies a sustainable alternative.
ISSN:2073-4441
2073-4441
DOI:10.3390/w13091246