scholarly journals Life Cycle and Economic Analyses of the Removal of Pesticides and Pharmaceuticals from Municipal Wastewater by Anodic Oxidation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3669
Author(s):  
Elena Surra ◽  
Manuela Correia ◽  
Sónia Figueiredo ◽  
Jaime Gabriel Silva ◽  
Joana Vieira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Anodic Oxidation ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Boron Doped Diamond ◽  
Removal Technologies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Environmental Burdens

Several pesticides and pharmaceuticals (PP) have been detected in the effluent of a full-scale Portuguese Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Their presence contributed to the environmental burdens associated with the existing treatment of the Municipal Wastewater (MWW) in the impact categories of Human Carcinogenicity, Non-Carcinogenicity, and Freshwater toxicities on average by 85%, 60%, and 90%, respectively (ReciPe2016 and USEtox methods). The environmental and economic assessment of the installation of an Anodic Oxidation (AO) unit for PPs’ removal was performed through Life Cycle and Economic Analysis, considering two types of anodes, the Boron-Doped Diamond (BDD) and the Mixed Metal Oxides (MMO). The operation of the AO unit increased the environmental burdens of the system by 95% on average (USEtox), but these impacts can be partially compensated by the avoided the production of non-renewable energy in the Portuguese electricity mix by biogas cogeneration at the WWTP. If the construction of the AO unit and the manufacturing of the electrodes are considered, the Human and Freshwater Toxicities are often higher than the environmental benefits derived from the PPs’ removal. On the economic side, the MMO configuration is clearly more advantageous, whereas BDD is environmentally more favorable. The issue of the presence of PP in MWW effluents has to be addressed as an integrated solution both improving upstream PP’s management and adopting PP’s removal technologies strongly supported by renewable energies. Further insights are needed for the assessment of fate and of the environmental effects of PP in the sludge.

Life cycle assessment of introducing an anaerobic digester in a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Blanco ◽  
Sergio Collado ◽  
Adriana Laca ◽  
Mario Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Impact Category ◽  
Treatment Scenario ◽  
The Impact

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is being established as a standard technology to recover some of the energy contained in the sludge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as biogas, allowing an economy in electricity and heating and a decrease in climate gas emission. The purpose of this study was to quantify the contributions to the total environmental impact of the plant using life cycle assessment methodology. In this work, data from real operation during 2012 of a municipal WWTP were utilized as the basis to determine the impact of including AD in the process. The climate change human health was the most important impact category when AD was included in the treatment (Scenario 1), especially due to fossil carbon dioxide emissions. Without AD (Scenario 2), increased emissions of greenhouse gases, mostly derived from the use of electricity, provoked a rise in the climate change categories. Biogas utilization was able to provide 47% of the energy required in the WWTP in Scenario 1. Results obtained make Scenario 1 the better environmental choice by far, mainly due to the use of the digested sludge as fertilizer.

scholarly journals Modelling Sustainable Industrial Symbiosis

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1172
Author(s):  
Hafiz Haq ◽  
Petri Välisuo ◽  
Seppo Niemi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Waste Management ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Industrial Symbiosis ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
Network Connections

Industrial symbiosis networks conventionally provide economic and environmental benefits to participating industries. However, most studies have failed to quantify waste management solutions and identify network connections in addition to methodological variation of assessments. This study provides a comprehensive model to conduct sustainable study of industrial symbiosis, which includes identification of network connections, life cycle assessment of materials, economic assessment, and environmental performance using standard guidelines from the literature. Additionally, a case study of industrial symbiosis network from Sodankylä region of Finland is implemented. Results projected an estimated life cycle cost of €115.20 million. The symbiotic environment would save €6.42 million in waste management cost to the business participants in addition to the projected environmental impact of 0.95 million tonne of CO2, 339.80 tonne of CH4, and 18.20 tonne of N2O. The potential of further cost saving with presented optimal assessment in the current architecture is forecast at €0.63 million every year.

Impact of a wastewater treatment plant on Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts occurring in a surface water

2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (7) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Carraro ◽  
E. Fea ◽  
S. Salva ◽  
G. Gilli
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plant ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Cryptosporidium Oocysts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Receiving Water ◽  
Giardia Cysts

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWTP) on the occurrence of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts in the receiving water. All MWTP effluent samples were Giardia and Cryptosporidium contaminated, although low mean values were found for both parasites (0.21±0.06 oocysts/L; 1.39±0.51 cysts/L). Otherwise, in the raw sewage a greater concentration was detected (4.5±0.3 oocysts/L; 53.6±6.8 cysts/L). The major occurrence of Giardia over Cryptosporidium, both in the influent and in the effluent of the MWTP, is probably related to the human sewage contribution to the wastewater. Data on protozoa contamination of the receiving water body demonstrated similar concentrations in the samples collected before (0.21±0.07 oocysts/L; 1.31±0.38 cysts/L) and after (0.17±0.09 oocysts/L and 1.01±1.05 cysts/L) the plant effluent discharge. The results of this study suggest that the MWTP has no impact related to Giardia and Cryptosporidium river water contamination, and underline the need for investigation into the effectiveness of these protozoa removal by less technologically advanced MWTPs which are the most widespread and could probably show a lower ability to reduce protozoa.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Maize-Germ Oil Production and The Use of Bioenergy to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: A Gate-To-Gate Case Study

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Gaglio ◽  
Elena Tamburini ◽  
Francesco Lucchesi ◽  
Vassilis Aschonitis ◽  
Anna Atti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Industrial Processing ◽  
The Impact

The need to reduce the environmental impacts of the food industry is increasing together with the dramatic increment of global food demand. Circulation strategies such as the exploitation of self-produced renewable energy sources can improve ecological performances of industrial processes. However, evidence is needed to demonstrate and characterize such environmental benefits. This study assessed the environmental performances of industrial processing of maize edible oil, whose energy provision is guaranteed by residues biomasses. A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied for a large-size factory of Northern Italy to describe: (i) the environmental impacts related to industrial processing and (ii) the contribution of residue-based bioenergy to their mitigation, through the comparison with a reference system based on conventional energy. The results showed that oil refinement is the most impacting phase for almost all the considered impact categories. The use of residue-based bioenergy was found to drastically reduce the emissions for all the impact categories. Moreover, Cumulative Energy Demand analysis revealed that the use of biomass residues increased energy efficiency through a reduction of the total energy demand of the industrial process. The study demonstrates that the exploitation of residue-based bioenergy can be a sustainable solution to improve environmental performances of the food industry, while supporting circular economy.

Sustainability of municipal wastewater treatment

1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (10) ◽  
pp. 221-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Roeleveld ◽  
A. Klapwijk ◽  
P. G. Eggels ◽  
W. H. Rulkens ◽  
W. van Starkenburg
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
National Level ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
High Nutrient

In this study the insustainability of the treatment of municipal wastewater is evaluated with the LCA-methodology. Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) analyze and assess the environmental profile over the entire life cycle of a product or process. The LCA-methodology proved to be a proper instrument to evaluate the wastewater treatment plant on the sustainability. However, environmental impacts which are caused by sludge handling should still be classified. Besides that, the LCA should be carried out on regional level instead of on national level. In a situation of high nutrient removal the contribution of the treatment of municipal wastewater to the total insustainability level in the Netherlands is relatively low. When the sustainability of the WWTP has to be improved, the most attention has to be paid to the minimization of discharge from pollutions with the effluent and minimization of the sludge production. Because the contribution of energy consumption is relatively low, less attention can be paid to the minimization of the energy demand. The building of a WWTP and the use of chemicals are not determining the insustainability of the WWTP.

Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment Method (LCA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Determine the Development of Recycling Unit of Waste Water in Grati CCPP PT Indonesia Power up Perak Grati

2018 ◽  
Vol 874 ◽  
pp. 18-26
Author(s):  
Mila Tartiarini ◽  
Udisubakti Ciptomulyono
Keyword(s):  
Waste Water ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Waste Water Treatment ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Waste Water Treatment Plant ◽  
Service Water ◽  
The Impact

Waste water result from operating activities of Grati Combined Cycled Power Plant (CCPP) is significant amount and has potentially to be reutilized. A recycling unit as the pilot project has been applied in Grati CCPP PT Indonesia Power UP Perak Grati for capacity 4 tons/hour of service water product. Development plant of Grati CCPP up to year 2018 will produce more amounts of waste water, and potentially increase the pollution load in the unit area.Considering the use of alternative development for unit recycled waste water effluent from the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) has implications to the environmental and cost aspects, therefore a proper assessment to decide the alternative is needed. Proposed method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is to measure the impact to the environment. And the Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) is to measure the economic criteria. To integrate the results of the two methods, it is used and calculated by using Hierarcy Analytical Process (AHP).The result of the study about the environmental impact and economic analysis, the development of the recycling unit is required to process all waste water produced by power plants. Focus group by experts in power plant operation using AHP is based on the results of SimaPro 7.0 and CBA. The most beneficial result is with a single score of 0.2314 Pt / 1 ton of water service, the payback period of 2.5 years, 37.5% IRR and NPV US$ 88,577.23 and the MMF-RO unit for total capacity of 14 tons/hour has become the most alternative of development.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rajabi Hamedani ◽  
Tom Kuppens ◽  
Robert Malina ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Andrea Colantoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Pig Manure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
The Impact

It is unclear whether the production of biochar is economically feasible. As a consequence, firms do not often invest in biochar production plants. However, biochar production and application might be desirable from a societal perspective as it might entail net environmental benefits. Hence, the aim of this work has been to assess and monetize the environmental impacts of biochar production systems so that the environmental aspects can be integrated with the economic and social ones later on to quantify the total return for society. Therefore, a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed for two potential biochar production systems in Belgium based on two different feedstocks: (i) willow and (ii) pig manure. First, the environmental impacts of the two biochar production systems are assessed from a life cycle perspective, assuming one ton of biochar as the functional unit. Therefore, LCA using SimaPro software has been performed both on the midpoint and endpoint level. Biochar production from willow achieves better results compared to biochar from pig manure for all environmental impact categories considered. In a second step, monetary valuation has been applied to the LCA results in order to weigh environmental benefits against environmental costs using the Ecotax, Ecovalue, and Stepwise approach. Consequently, sensitivity analysis investigates the impact of variation in NPK savings and byproducts of the biochar production process on monetized life cycle assessment results. As a result, it is suggested that biochar production from willow is preferred to biochar production from pig manure from an environmental point of view. In future research, those monetized environmental impacts will be integrated within existing techno-economic models that calculate the financial viability from an investor’s point of view, so that the total return for society can be quantified and the preferred biochar production system from a societal point of view can be identified.

scholarly journals LCA of a Membrane Bioreactor Compared to Activated Sludge System for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Membranes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Dimitra C. Banti ◽  
Michail Tsangas ◽  
Petros Samaras ◽  
Antonis Zorpas
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Activated Sludge ◽  
Membrane Bioreactor ◽  
Municipal Wastewater ◽  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Municipal Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Conventional Activated Sludge

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems are connected to several advantages compared to the conventional activated sludge (CAS) units. This work aims to the examination of the life cycle environmental impact of an MBR against a CAS unit when treating municipal wastewater with similar influent loading (BOD = 400 mg/L) and giving similar high-quality effluent (BOD < 5 mg/L). The MBR unit contained a denitrification, an aeration and a membrane tank, whereas the CAS unit included an equalization, a denitrification, a nitrification, a sedimentation, a mixing, a flocculation tank and a drum filter. Several impact categories factors were calculated by implementing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, including acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential and photochemical ozone creation potential of the plants throughout their life cycle. Real data from two wastewater treatment plants were used. The research focused on two parameters which constitute the main differences between the two treatment plants: The excess sludge removal life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.50 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 2.67 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without sludge removal—and the wastewater treatment plant life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.002 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 0.14 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without land area contribution. Finally, in all the examined cases the environmental superiority of the MBR process was found.

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