scholarly journals Wastewater Treatment Plant Assessment by Quantifying the Carbon and Water Footprint

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3204
Author(s):  
Eva Gómez-Llanos ◽  
Agustín Matías-Sánchez ◽  
Pablo Durán-Barroso

In the context of efficient and sustainable management of the elements of the urban water cycle as an aim of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the evaluation of indicators such as the water footprint (WF) and the carbon footprint (CF) in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) provides a quantification of the environmental impact, both negative and positive, which implies its exploitation. In this study, in addition to WF and CF quantification, a joint evaluation of both indicators was conducted. Consumption is indicated by the blue water footprint (WFBlue) and emissions by CF. Both are related to the operational grey water footprint (∆WFG,mef) in two ratios, WFR and CFR. In this way, the water consumed and gases emitted are measured according to the reduction range of the pollutant load of the discharge. The results for four WWTPs show operational scenarios for better management in accordance with the WFD.

Author(s):  
Y. Penru ◽  
D. Antoniucci ◽  
M. J. Amores Barrero ◽  
C. Chevauché

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Bonetta ◽  
C Pignata ◽  
S a Bonetta ◽  
E Gasparro ◽  
E Lorenzi ◽  
...  

Abstract The global action plan on antimicrobial resistance reports the necessity to develop standards and guidance for the presence of antimicrobial agents in the environment, especially in wastewater, highlighting its possible role in the antibiotic resistance spreading. In addition, the New European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance underlines the need to support research into knowledge gaps on the release of resistant microorganisms into the environment and their dissemination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria (ARB) and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARG) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). At this scope, untreated sewage and treated effluents of three different WWTPs (A, B and C) were sampled for one year. Sample dilutions were plated on R2Agar added/not-added with 4 different antibiotics (ampicillin 32mg/L; tetracycline 16 mg/L; chloramphenicol 32 mg/L; sulfamethoxazole 50,4 mg/L) to evaluate the percentage of antibiotic resistant bacteria and their WWTPs removal rate (%). DNA extraction on the filter used to concentrate the wastewater samples was performed to reveal the ARG presence; subsequently specific PCRs for ARG (blaTEM, tetA, sul II, sul III) were carried out. ARB were detected in all samples analysed. The highest antibiotic resistance percentage was revealed in the sewage (mean 21,7%±4,8) and effluent (mean 21,1%±3,0) of the three wastewater treatment plants for sulfamethoxazole. Moreover, sul II was the most present gene in the samples (81% of all samples, 89 % of sewages and 72% of effluents). The lower WWTPs removal was recovered in the plant B for the tetracycline (95, 7%). The results obtained underlines the need to monitor WWTP as critical hot spot for the antibiotic resistance spreading also considering the One Health approach. Furthermore, the results obtained could suggest interventions to reduce the spread of the antibiotic resistance in the integrated urban water cycle. Key messages The information obtained could provide usefulness information about the role of wastewater treatment plant in the antibiotic resistance spreading. The results could contribute to suggest the interventions targeted to reduce the antibiotic resistance phenomenon in the integrated urban water cycle.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-144
Author(s):  
Pelin Soyertaş Yapıcıoğlu

Abstract Available fresh water demand of a growing population is a fundamental concern of water resource sustainability. Dairy industry wastewater treatment plants have been considered a major polluter due to the high organic content and large wastewater discharges. Grey water footprint (GWF) was developed by the Water Footprint Network (WFN) as a measure of the water pollution loading. In this study, four treatment scenarios including no treatment process (Scenario-1), primary treatment using Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) (Scenario-2), secondary treatment using DAF and a Upflow Sludge Bed (UASB) reactor (Scenario-3), and a DAF and UASB with a reuse application applying reverse osmosis (RO) (Scenario-4) have been studied for a full-scale dairy industry wastewater treatment plant. For these four scenarios, GWF assessment was undertaken using the WFN method by taking into consideration three pollutant parameters, chemical oxygen demand (COD), fats, oil and grease (FOG) and total suspended solids (TSS). The results show that the GWF of Scenario-4 for COD was lowest with the value of −5,609 m3/d and Scenario-1 has the highest GWF for TSS with the value of 41,026 m3/d. According to the assessment results, reuse applications decrease the GWF values.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document