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von Eiff D, Yeo J, An AK, Chopra SS. Comparative Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Future Water Supply Mix Scenarios for Hong Kong - A Water Scarce City. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 325:116370. [PMID: 36308784 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 09/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Increasing urbanization and changes in climate have placed increasing stress on urban water supply systems. Policy makers have increasingly adopted alternative water supply sources, such as desalination and water reclamation to meet this challenge, however these technologies may increase the negative environmental impacts of the water supply system. These alternative sources are energy intensive, and more expensive to produce, which raises questions about their sustainability. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a economic portfolio choice model were used to determine the impacts of Hong Kong's long term water policy. The results of our study show that the current water policy will increase the carbon emissions of producing 1 m3 of freshwater by 11% to 1.65 kg CO2-Eq due to the addition of desalination. However, a fit-for-purpose water policy approach only increases emission by 4%, to 1.54 kg CO2-Eq, by instead relying on water reclamation to offset freshwater consumption. Impacts from increased energy consumption were mitigated by improved wastewater treatment, which reduced CH4 emissions. Although, ozone layer impacts increased due to higher NOx and N2O emissions, highlighting the need to consider emissions from wastewater treatment processes when evaluating water reclamation processes. Impacts to water prices were also minimized when reclaimed water was chosen over desalination, due to its lower unit production cost. By considering both cost and environmental impacts of such system level changes, decision makers can more accurately evaluate different water supply approaches for data-driven policymaking.
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Affiliation(s)
- David von Eiff
- School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| | - Joonho Yeo
- School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| | - Alicia Kyoungjin An
- School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
| | - Shauhrat S Chopra
- School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
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2
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Boldrin MTN, Formiga KTM, Pacca SA. Environmental performance of an integrated water supply and wastewater system through life cycle assessment - A Brazilian case study. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2022; 835:155213. [PMID: 35421497 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155213] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2021] [Revised: 04/01/2022] [Accepted: 04/08/2022] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental performance of an integrated water supply and wastewater system that employs a system of ponds at the wastewater treatment system. Additionally, this study aimed to understand the contribution of each stage of the system to the analyzed impact categories, and to evaluate alternative scenarios that consider the reduction of water losses in distribution, as well as the operation of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The evaluation was performed through life cycle assessment (LCA) that considered the stages of water withdrawal, treatment, and distribution along with wastewater collection and treatment. The system was modeled in the OpenLCA software using the Ecoinvent 3.7.1 database. Environmental impacts were assessed using the ReCiPe method and cumulative energy demand. The results show that the water withdrawal stage is the potential source of the greatest environmental impacts. There are exceptions in the categories of climate change and photochemical oxidant formation, which are most impacted by the WWTP. Analysis of alternative scenarios revealed that the decrease in water loss rates during distribution contribute to a linear reduction in potential environmental impacts of the analyzed categories. The operation of a UASB reactor in the WWTP leads to a reduction in impacts on the categories of climate change (41.4%) and formation of photochemical oxidants (11.6%), and to increases in impacts on the other categories analyzed. The data presented provide important information for the improvement of public policies aimed at sanitation in developing countries.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sérgio Almeida Pacca
- Sustainability Program, School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of São Paulo, Arlindo Bettio Street, 1000, Sao Paulo 03828-000, Brazil
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3
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Khalkhali M, Dilkina B, Mo W. The role of climate change and decentralization in urban water services: A dynamic energy-water nexus analysis. WATER RESEARCH 2021; 207:117830. [PMID: 34763280 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117830] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Urban water services, including drinking water supply and wastewater treatment, are highly energy dependent, contributing to the challenges described under the water-energy nexus. Both future climate change and decentralized water system adoptions can potentially influence the energy use of the urban water services. However, the trend and the extent of such influences have not been well understood. In this study, a modeling framework was developed to quantify both the separate and the combined influences of climate change and decentralization on the life cycle energy use of the urban water cycle, using the City of Boston, MA as a testbed. Two types of household decentralized systems were considered, the greywater recycling (GWR) systems and the rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems. This modeling framework integrates empirical models based on multilinear regression analysis, hydrologic modeling, water balance models, and life cycle assessment to capture the complex interactions among centralized water services, decentralized water system adoptions, and climate parameters for cumulative energy demand (CED) assessment, considering all residential buildings in Boston. It was found that climate change alone will slightly increase the energy use of the centralized systems towards the end of the century, due to the cancelation effect amongst changes in water quality, flow rate, and space and water heating demand. When decentralization is considered alone, we found economically viable decentralized systems may not necessarily produce energy savings. In fact, RWH adoptions may increase energy use. When climate change and decentralization are combined, they will increase the water yield and cost savings of the decentralized systems, while reducing the energy use from the centralized systems. When the centralized systems are further added into the picture, the CED of the entire urban water cycle is projected to increase by 0.9% or 2.3% towards the end of the century under climate change if GWR or RWH systems are adopted by respective cost saving positive buildings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Masoumeh Khalkhali
- Computer Science Department at University of Southern California, United States; Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of University of New Hampshire, United States
| | - Bistra Dilkina
- Computer Science Department at University of Southern California, United States.
| | - Weiwei Mo
- Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of University of New Hampshire, United States.
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4
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Chen Z, Wang D, Dao G, Shi Q, Yu T, Guo F, Wu G. Environmental impact of the effluents discharging from full-scale wastewater treatment plants evaluated by a hybrid fuzzy approach. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 790:148212. [PMID: 34380271 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2021] [Revised: 05/30/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Increasing attention is being paid to the environmental impacts of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. In this study, comprehensive environmental impact analyses (EIAs) were performed for the secondary treatment processes, tertiary treatment processes, and entire plants at five full-scale WWTPs in Kunming, China. The EIAs took into account greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, potential for the effluent to cause eutrophication, ecological risks posed by endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in treated effluent, and the risks posed by heavy metals in excess sludge. A comprehensive assessment toward environmental sustainability was performed using a fuzzy approach. The results indicated that the biological treatment process made the largest contribution (>68% of the total) of the secondary treatment processes to GHG emissions and that electricity consumption made the largest contribution (>64% of the total) of the tertiary treatment processes to GHG emissions. Large numbers of EDCs were removed during the secondary treatment processes, but the potential ecological risks posed by EDCs still require attention. High mercury concentrations were found in excess sludge. The plant that removed the largest proportion of pollutants and produced effluent posing the least ecological risks gave the best comprehensive EIA performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhuo Chen
- Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (SMARC), Beijing Laboratory for Environmental Frontier Technologies, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
| | - Dan Wang
- Integrated Research of Energy, Environment and Society (IREES), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute (ESRIG), University of Groningen, Groningen 9747 AG, the Netherlands; Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
| | - Guohua Dao
- Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, PR China
| | - Qi Shi
- Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (SMARC), Beijing Laboratory for Environmental Frontier Technologies, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
| | - Tong Yu
- School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266000, PR China
| | - Fang Guo
- Kunming Dianchi Water Treatment Co. Ltd., Kunming 650228, PR China
| | - Guangxue Wu
- Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, PR China; Civil Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Galway H91 TK33, Ireland.
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5
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Rebello TA, Roque RP, Gonçalves RF, Calmon JL, Queiroz LM. Life cycle assessment of urban wastewater treatment plants: a critical analysis and guideline proposal. WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY : A JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION ON WATER POLLUTION RESEARCH 2021; 83:501-514. [PMID: 33600357 DOI: 10.2166/wst.2020.608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
In its 30 years of existence, there are still many improvement possibilities in studies performing the life cycle assessment (LCA) of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Hence, this paper aims to start a guideline development for LCA of urban WWTPs based on the information available in the scientific literature on the topic. The authors used the ProKnow-C systematic review methodology for paper selection and 111 studies were analyzed. The most significant points that can be improved are caused by missing essential information (e.g. functional unity and input data). Other important methodological aspects are covered: allocation process, functional unit choice, sensitivity analysis, and important fluxes to be considered. Many opportunities within the LCA of WWTPs were identified, such as optimization of WWTP operational aspects and resource recovery. Furthermore, LCA should be combined with other methodologies such as big data, data envelopment analysis, life cycle cost assessment, and social life cycle assessment. To achieve this potential, it is clear that the scientific and technical community needs to converge on a new protocol to ensure that LCA application becomes more reliable and transparent.
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Aziz NIHA, Hanafiah MM. Application of life cycle assessment for desalination: Progress, challenges and future directions. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 268:115948. [PMID: 33187839 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 10/02/2020] [Accepted: 10/24/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The sustainability performance of the desalination processes has received increasing attention in recent years. In this study, the current progress and future perspective of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of desalination technology in 62 previous studies have been reviewed for the period 2004-2019. It was found that the number of LCA studies related to seawater reverse osmosis has gained popularity compared to other types of desalination technologies. The review emphasized the application of LCA to desalination by means of research objective, scope of study, life stages, and impact assessment. Although previous LCA studies were conducted to assess the environmental performance of the desalination technology, little attention was given to evaluating the impact of other sustainability aspects (i.e., economic and social). The latter part of this study discusses the challenges, feasibility, and recommendations for future LCA studies on desalination technology. The integration of the LCA approach with other approaches allows a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability performance of desalination technology. Thus, the combined approaches should be explored in future studies to gain insight into the sensitivity and uncertainty of the data to make an assessment that can be useful in policy-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nur Izzah Hamna A Aziz
- Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Marlia M Hanafiah
- Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia; Centre for Tropical Climate Change System, Institute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
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7
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Corominas L, Byrne DM, Guest JS, Hospido A, Roux P, Shaw A, Short MD. The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to wastewater treatment: A best practice guide and critical review. WATER RESEARCH 2020; 184:116058. [PMID: 32771688 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116058] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2020] [Accepted: 06/13/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in the wastewater industry, but inconsistencies in assumptions and methods have made it difficult for researchers and practitioners to synthesize results from across studies. This paper presents a critical review of published LCAs related to municipal wastewater management with a focus on developing systematic guidance for researchers and practitioners to conduct LCA studies to inform planning, design, and optimization of wastewater management and infrastructure (wastewater treatment plants, WWTPs; collection and reuse systems; related treatment technologies and policies), and to support the development of new technologies to advance treatment objectives and the sustainability of wastewater management. The paper guides the reader step by step through LCA methodology to make informed decisions on i) the definition of the goal and scope, ii) the selection of the functional unit and system boundaries, iii) the selection of variables to include and their sources to obtain inventories, iv) the selection of impact assessment methods, and v) the selection of an effective approach for data interpretation and communication to decision-makers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lluís Corominas
- Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Emili Grahit 101, 17003, Girona, Spain; Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain.
| | - Diana M Byrne
- Department of Civil Engineering, University of Kentucky, 161 Raymond Building, Lexington, KY, 40506, United States
| | - Jeremy S Guest
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2331 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 N. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61801, United States
| | - Almudena Hospido
- CRETUS Institute, Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa, S/n., 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
| | - Philippe Roux
- ITAP, Univ Montpellier, Irstea, Montpellier SupAgro, ELSA Research Group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair, Montpellier, France
| | - Andrew Shaw
- Black & Veatch, 4400 Post Oak Parkway, Suite 1200, Houston, TX, 77027, USA
| | - Michael D Short
- Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, South Australia, 5095, Australia
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8
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Nika CE, Gusmaroli L, Ghafourian M, Atanasova N, Buttiglieri G, Katsou E. Nature-based solutions as enablers of circularity in water systems: A review on assessment methodologies, tools and indicators. WATER RESEARCH 2020; 183:115988. [PMID: 32683049 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.115988] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 05/26/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Water has been pushed into a linear model, which is increasingly acknowledged of causing cumulative emissions of pollutants, waste stocks, and impacting on the irreversible deterioration of water and other resources. Moving towards a circular model in the water sector, the configuration of future water infrastructure changes through the integration of grey and green infrastructure, forming Nature-based Solutions (NBS) as an integral component that connects human-managed to nature-managed water systems. In this study, a thorough appraisal of the latest literature is conducted, providing an overview of the existing tools, methodologies and indicators that have been used to assess NBS for water management, as well as complete water systems considering the need of assessing both anthropogenic and natural elements. Furthermore, facilitators and barriers with respect to existing policies and regulations on NBS and circularity have been identified. The study concludes that the co-benefits of NBS for water management are not adequately assessed. A holistic methodology assessing complete water systems from a circularity perspective is still needed integrating existing tools (i.e. hydro-biogeochemical models), methods (i.e. MFA-based and LCA) and incorporating existing and/or newly-developed indicators.
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Affiliation(s)
- C E Nika
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK
| | - L Gusmaroli
- Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - M Ghafourian
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK
| | - N Atanasova
- Faculty of Civic and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Hajdrihova 28, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - G Buttiglieri
- Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
| | - E Katsou
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK.
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Romeiko XX. Assessing Health Impacts of Conventional Centralized and Emerging Resource Recovery-Oriented Decentralized Water Systems. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2020; 17:ijerph17030973. [PMID: 32033234 PMCID: PMC7038023 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17030973] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2019] [Revised: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Energy shortage and climate change call for sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure capable of simultaneously recovering energy, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and protecting public health. Although energy and greenhouse gas emissions of water and wastewater infrastructure are extensively studied, the human health impacts of innovative infrastructure designed under the principles of decentralization and resource recovery are not fully understood. In order to fill this knowledge gap, this study assesses and compares the health impacts of three representative systems by integrating life cycle and microbial risk assessment approaches. This study found that the decentralized system options, such as on-site septic tank and composting or urine diverting toilets, presented much lower life cycle cancer and noncancer impacts than the centralized system. The microbial risks of decentralized systems options were also lower than those of the centralized system. Moreover, life cycle cancer and noncancer impacts contributed to approximately 95% of total health impacts, while microbial risks were associated with the remaining 5%. Additionally, the variability and sensitivity assessment indicated that reducing energy use of wastewater treatment and water distribution is effective in mitigating total health damages of the centralized system, while reducing energy use of water treatment is effective in mitigating total health damages of the decentralized systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaobo Xue Romeiko
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, USA
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Landa-Cansigno O, Behzadian K, Davila-Cano DI, Campos LC. Performance assessment of water reuse strategies using integrated framework of urban water metabolism and water-energy-pollution nexus. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2020; 27:4582-4597. [PMID: 31129899 PMCID: PMC7028841 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-019-05465-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
This paper evaluates the metabolism-based performance of a number of centralised and decentralised water reuse strategies and their impact on integrated urban water systems (UWS) based on the nexus of water-energy-pollution. The performance assessment is based on a comprehensive and quantitative framework of urban water metabolism developed for integrated UWS over a long-term planning horizon. UWS performance is quantified based on the tracking down of mass balance flows/fluxes of water, energy, materials, costs, pollutants, and other environmental impacts using the WaterMet2 tool. The assessment framework is defined as a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) within the context of the water-energy-pollution nexus. The strategies comprise six decentralised water reuse configurations (greywater or domestic wastewater) and three centralised ones, all within three proportions of adoption by domestic users (i.e. 20, 50, and 100%). This methodology was demonstrated in the real-world case study of San Francisco del Rincon and Purisima del Rincon cities in Mexico. The results indicate that decentralised water reuse strategies using domestic wastewater can provide the best performance in the UWS with respect to water conservation, green house gas (GHG) emissions, and eutrophication indicators, while energy saving is almost negligible. On the other hand, centralised strategies can achieve the best performance for energy saving among the water reuse strategies. The results also show metabolism performance assessment in a complex system such as integrated UWS can reveal the magnitude of the interactions between the nexus elements (i.e. water, energy, and pollution). In addition, it can also reveal any unexpected influences of these elements that might exist between the UWS components and overall system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oriana Landa-Cansigno
- Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Gower St, London, WC1E6BT, UK
| | - Kourosh Behzadian
- School of Engineering and Computing, University of West London, St. Mary's Rd, London, W55RF, UK
| | - Diego I Davila-Cano
- Sistema Integrado de Tratamiento en los municipios de Rincón SITRATA, Camino a San Jerónimo s/n, col. San Jeronimo, 36407, Purisima, Guanajuato, Mexico
| | - Luiza C Campos
- Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, Gower St, London, WC1E6BT, UK.
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Vasilaki V, Massara TM, Stanchev P, Fatone F, Katsou E. A decade of nitrous oxide (N 2O) monitoring in full-scale wastewater treatment processes: A critical review. WATER RESEARCH 2019; 161:392-412. [PMID: 31226538 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2019.04.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2019] [Revised: 04/09/2019] [Accepted: 04/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Direct nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions during the biological nitrogen removal (BNR) processes can significantly increase the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operations. Recent onsite measurement of N2O emissions at WWTPs have been used as an alternative to the controversial theoretical methods for the N2O calculation. The full-scale N2O monitoring campaigns help to expand our knowledge on the N2O production pathways and the triggering operational conditions of processes. The accurate N2O monitoring could help to find better process control solutions to mitigate N2O emissions of wastewater treatment systems. However, quantifying the emissions and understanding the long-term behaviour of N2O fluxes in WWTPs remains challenging and costly. A review of the recent full-scale N2O monitoring campaigns is conducted. The analysis covers the quantification and mitigation of emissions for different process groups, focusing on techniques that have been applied for the identification of dominant N2O pathways and triggering operational conditions, techniques using operational data and N2O data to identify mitigation measures and mechanistic modelling. The analysis of various studies showed that there are still difficulties in the comparison of N2O emissions and the development of emission factor (EF) databases; the N2O fluxes reported in literature vary significantly even among groups of similar processes. The results indicated that the duration of the monitoring campaigns can impact the EF range. Most N2O monitoring campaigns lasting less than one month, have reported N2O EFs less than 0.3% of the N-load, whereas studies lasting over a year have a median EF equal to 1.7% of the N-load. The findings of the current study indicate that complex feature extraction and multivariate data mining methods can efficiently convert wastewater operational and N2O data into information, determine complex relationships within the available datasets and boost the long-term understanding of the N2O fluxes behaviour. The acquisition of reliable full-scale N2O monitoring data is significant for the calibration and validation of the mechanistic models -describing the N2O emission generation in WWTPs. They can be combined with the multivariate tools to further enhance the interpretation of the complicated full-scale N2O emission patterns. Finally, a gap between the identification of effective N2O mitigation strategies and their actual implementation within the monitoring and control of WWTPs has been identified. This study concludes that there is a further need for i) long-term N2O monitoring studies, ii) development of data-driven methodological approaches for the analysis of WWTP operational and N2O data, and iii) better understanding of the trade-offs among N2O emissions, energy consumption and system performance to support the optimization of the WWTPs operation.
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Affiliation(s)
- V Vasilaki
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK
| | - T M Massara
- Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK
| | - P Stanchev
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK
| | - F Fatone
- Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and City Planning, Faculty of Engineering, Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy
| | - E Katsou
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK; Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University London, Uxbridge Campus, Middlesex, UB8 3PH, Uxbridge, UK.
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12
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Domingo-Félez C, Smets BF. Regulation of key N2O production mechanisms during biological water treatment. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2019; 57:119-126. [DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2019.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2018] [Revised: 01/11/2019] [Accepted: 03/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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13
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Xue X, Cashman S, Gaglione A, Mosley J, Weiss L, Ma XC, Cashdollar J, Garland J. Holistic Analysis of Urban Water Systems in the Greater Cincinnati Region: (1) Life Cycle Assessment and Cost Implications. WATER RESEARCH X 2019; 2:100015. [PMID: 30882067 PMCID: PMC6415537 DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2018.100015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2018] [Revised: 11/28/2018] [Accepted: 12/05/2018] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Urban water and wastewater utilities are striving to improve their environmental and economic performances due to multiple challenges such as increasingly stringent quality criterion, aging infrastructure, constraining financial burden, growing urban population, climate challenges and dwindling resources. Growing needs of holistic assessments of urban water systems are required to identify systems-level cross-domain solutions. This study evaluated the life cycle environmental and economic impacts of urban water and wastewater systems with two utilities in Greater Cincinnati region as a case study. The scope of this study includes the entire urban water and wastewater systems starting from raw water acquisition for drinking water to wastewater treatment and discharge. The detailed process-based life cycle models were developed based on the datasets provided by local water and wastewater utilities. The life cycle assessment indicated that the operation and maintenance of drinking water distribution was a dominating contributor for energy consumption (43%) and global warming potential (41%). Wastewater discharge from the wastewater treatment plant contributed to more than 80% of the total eutrophication potential. The cost analysis determined that labor and maintenance cost (19%) for wastewater collection, and electricity cost (13%) for drinking water distribution were major contributors. Electricity purchased by the utility was the driver for the majority of impact categories assessed with the exception of eutrophication, blue water use, and metal depletion. Infrastructure requirements had a negligible influence on impact results, contributing less than 3% to most categories, with the exception of metal depletion where it led to 68% of total burdens. Sensitivity analysis showed that the life cycle environmental results were more sensitive to the choice of the electricity mixes and electricity consumption than the rest of input parameters such as chemical dosages, and infrastructure life time. This is one of the first comprehensive studies of the whole urban water system using real case data. It elucidates a bigger picture of energy, resource and cost distributions in a typical urban centralized water system. Inherent to a modern city as large population centers, a significant expenditure has to be invested to provide water services function (moving water, treating water/wastewater) in order to avoid human and environmental health problems. This study provides insights for optimization potentials of overall treatment efficiency and can serve as a benchmark for communities considering adoption of alternative water systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaobo Xue
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany, 1 University Drive, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA
| | - Sarah Cashman
- Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA
| | - Anthony Gaglione
- Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA
| | - Janet Mosley
- Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA
| | - Lori Weiss
- Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), 110 Hartwell Avenue, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA
| | - Xin Cissy Ma
- National Risk Management Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45268, USA
- Corresponding author.
| | - Jennifer Cashdollar
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45268, USA
| | - Jay Garland
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, 26 W Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH, 45268, USA
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14
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Albertí J, Brodhag C, Fullana-I-Palmer P. First steps in life cycle assessments of cities with a sustainability perspective: A proposal for goal, function, functional unit, and reference flow. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2019; 646:1516-1527. [PMID: 30235636 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Revised: 07/26/2018] [Accepted: 07/26/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This study highlights the need and suggests some basis for working on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of cities with a sustainability perspective. Cities are relevant actors in sustainable development and contribute to the generation of significant environmental impacts upstream and downstream their internal activity. LCA is precise in assessing environmental aspects of sustainability but lacks social and economic inputs. It is important to avoid problem shifting, even between the different dimensions of sustainability. A systematic literature review has been performed so as to extract the procedure for defining the goal, function, functional unit, and reference flow of a complex system. The existing literature is mainly product focused, although services are also considered somehow. The procedure for defining the abovementioned items is previously applied to a relatively simple system, a power generation plant, so as to find parallelisms to define those items for a complex system such as a city. To obtain a feasible (i.e., simplified) city Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, the authors propose to introduce the social and economic aspects through the use of the City Prosperity Index (CPI) as technical performance within the FU of the city LCA. The CPI combined with the number of inhabitants is the normalization factor which is found to be more suitable to avoid problem shifting among sustainability dimensions and to avoid the interference of the number of inhabitants when comparing two different cities. An exemplification of the variation of the results after the application of these two factors in 18 cities' CO2-eq emissions is described. Even though this is not a large sample, it includes cities from different continents and levels of development and, thus it can be useful to see the how the suggested method is affecting cities' ranking.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaume Albertí
- UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, School of International Studies (ESCI-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig Pujades 1, Barcelona 08003, Spain.
| | - Christian Brodhag
- École des Mines de Saint-Étienne (EMSE), 158, cours Fauriel, CS 62362, F-42023 Saint-Étienne cedex 2, France
| | - Pere Fullana-I-Palmer
- UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, School of International Studies (ESCI-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig Pujades 1, Barcelona 08003, Spain
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15
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Reviewing the Long-Term Sustainability of Urban Water System Rehabilitation Strategies with an Alternative Approach. SUSTAINABILITY 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/su10061987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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16
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Wang T, Liu S, Qian X, Shimizu T, Dente SMR, Hashimoto S, Nakajima J. Assessment of the municipal water cycle in China. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2017; 607-608:761-770. [PMID: 28711006 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.07.072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2017] [Revised: 07/04/2017] [Accepted: 07/08/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Water produced from municipal utilities accounts for nearly 10% of the sum water demand in China. The municipal water cycle that integrates processes of urban water supply, water use, sewage treatment, and water reclamation has been assessed for 655 cities across nine drainage areas in mainland China in 2012. These cities in total extracted 55km3 raw water for municipal use from surface waterbodies and ground aquifers, approximate to the countrywide freshwater extraction of Russia or Italy. After purification and transmission, 45km3 water was distributed to industrial, service, and domestic users. 36km3 of post-use sewage was collected and environmentally safely treated; merely 3.2km3 of the treated water was reclaimed. Driven by increasing urbanization, the municipal water demand in cities of China may grow 70% by 2030. The Hai River and the Huai River basins, which harbor 137 cities and occupy a majority of the densely populated North China Plain, are most exposed to physical water scarcity. The municipal water abstraction in these cities can remain constant by promoting demand-side and process conservation in the next two decades. Interbasin transfer and unconventional sources will provide municipal water double than the cities' need. Whereas the urban water security can be technically enhanced, the challenges are to better improve water use efficiency and mitigate economic and environmental costs of the municipal system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Wang
- Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan; Circular Economy Research Institute, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Institute of Science and Technology for Development of Shandong Province, Shandong Academy of Sciences, 19 Keyuan Road, Jinan 250014, China.
| | - Shuming Liu
- School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Xuepeng Qian
- Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, Oita 874-8577, Japan
| | - Toshiyuki Shimizu
- Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan
| | - Sébastien M R Dente
- Research Organization of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
| | - Seiji Hashimoto
- Department of Environmental Systems Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
| | - Jun Nakajima
- Department of Environmental Systems Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
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17
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Lam KL, Stokes-Draut JR, Horvath A, Lane JL, Kenway SJ, Lant PA. Life-cycle energy impacts for adapting an urban water supply system to droughts. WATER RESEARCH 2017; 127:139-149. [PMID: 29035767 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.10.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2017] [Revised: 10/03/2017] [Accepted: 10/07/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, cities in some water stressed regions have explored alternative water sources such as seawater desalination and potable water recycling in spite of concerns over increasing energy consumption. In this study, we evaluate the current and future life-cycle energy impacts of four alternative water supply strategies introduced during a decade-long drought in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. These strategies were: seawater desalination, indirect potable water recycling, network integration, and rainwater tanks. Our work highlights the energy burden of alternative water supply strategies which added approximately 24% life-cycle energy use to the existing supply system (with surface water sources) in SEQ even for a current post-drought low utilisation status. Over half of this additional life-cycle energy use was from the centralised alternative supply strategies. Rainwater tanks contributed an estimated 3% to regional water supply, but added over 10% life-cycle energy use to the existing system. In the future scenario analysis, we compare the life-cycle energy use between "Normal", "Dry", "High water demand" and "Design capacity" scenarios. In the "Normal" scenario, a long-term low utilisation of the desalination system and the water recycling system has greatly reduced the energy burden of these centralised strategies to only 13%. In contrast, higher utilisation in the unlikely "Dry" and "Design capacity" scenarios add 86% and 140% to life-cycle energy use of the existing system respectively. In the "High water demand" scenario, a 20% increase in per capita water use over 20 years "consumes" more energy than is used by the four alternative strategies in the "Normal" scenario. This research provides insight for developing more realistic long-term scenarios to evaluate and compare life-cycle energy impacts of drought-adaptation infrastructure and regional decentralised water sources. Scenario building for life-cycle assessments of water supply systems should consider i) climate variability and, therefore, infrastructure utilisation rate, ii) potential under-utilisation for both installed centralised and decentralised sources, and iii) the potential energy penalty for operating infrastructure well below its design capacity (e.g., the operational energy intensity of the desalination system is three times higher at low utilisation rates). This study illustrates that evaluating the life-cycle energy use and intensity of these type of supply sources without considering their realistic long-term operating scenario(s) can potentially distort and overemphasise their energy implications. To other water stressed regions, this work shows that managing long-term water demand is also important, in addition to acknowledging the energy-intensive nature of some alternative water sources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ka Leung Lam
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
| | - Jennifer R Stokes-Draut
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States; ReNUWIt Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Arpad Horvath
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States; ReNUWIt Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
| | - Joe L Lane
- Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Steven J Kenway
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
| | - Paul A Lant
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
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18
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Farooqui TA, Renouf MA, Kenway SJ. A metabolism perspective on alternative urban water servicing options using water mass balance. WATER RESEARCH 2016; 106:415-428. [PMID: 27750130 DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2016] [Revised: 09/11/2016] [Accepted: 10/04/2016] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Urban areas will need to pursue new water servicing options to ensure local supply security. Decisions about how best to employ them are not straightforward due to multiple considerations and the potential for problem shifting among them. We hypothesise that urban water metabolism evaluation based a water mass balance can help address this, and explore the utility of this perspective and the new insights it provides about water servicing options. Using a water mass balance evaluation framework, which considers direct urban water flows (both 'natural' hydrological and 'anthropogenic' flows), as well as water-related energy, we evaluated how the use of alternative water sources (stormwater/rainwater harvesting, wastewater/greywater recycling) at different scales influences the 'local water metabolism' of a case study urban development. New indicators were devised to represent the water-related 'resource efficiency' and 'hydrological performance' of the urban area. The new insights gained were the extent to which alternative water supplies influence the water efficiency and hydrological performance of the urban area, and the potential energy trade-offs. The novel contribution is the development of new indicators of urban water resource performance that bring together considerations of both the 'anthropogenic' and 'natural' water cycles, and the interactions between them. These are used for the first time to test alternative water servicing scenarios, and to provide a new perspective to complement broader sustainability assessments of urban water.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tauheed A Farooqui
- International Water Centre, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
| | - Marguerite A Renouf
- School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia.
| | - Steven J Kenway
- School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia.
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