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How Does Scale of Implementation Impact the Environmental Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Integrated with Resource Recovery?
Version 2 2016-06-28, 13:21
Version 1 2016-03-31, 11:20
journal contribution
posted on 2016-03-21, 00:00 authored by Pablo K. Cornejo, Qiong Zhang, James R. MihelcicEnergy and resource consumptions required to treat and transport
wastewater have led to efforts to improve the environmental sustainability
of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Resource recovery can reduce
the environmental impact of these systems; however, limited research
has considered how the scale of implementation impacts the sustainability
of WWTPs integrated with resource recovery. Accordingly, this research
uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate how the scale of implementation
impacts the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment integrated
with water reuse, energy recovery, and nutrient recycling. Three systems
were selected: a septic tank with aerobic treatment at the household
scale, an advanced water reclamation facility at the community scale,
and an advanced water reclamation facility at the city scale. Three
sustainability indicators were considered: embodied energy, carbon
footprint, and eutrophication potential. This study determined that
as with economies of scale, there are benefits to centralization of
WWTPs with resource recovery in terms of embodied energy and carbon
footprint; however, the community scale was shown to have the lowest
eutrophication potential. Additionally, technology selection, nutrient
control practices, system layout, and topographical conditions may
have a larger impact on environmental sustainability than the implementation
scale in some cases.