Assessment of a Heat Pump-Based Wastewater Heat Recovery System for a Canadian University Campus

Chow, C.-Y.; Duquette, Jean

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-00105-6_9

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Environmental burdens associated with products and processes based on material and energy uses and releases to the environment can be quantified using life cycle assessment (LCA), which has commonly been used to assess wastewater treatment and resource recovery systems [18][19][20][21] and building heating [22]. Recent research has generally found positive environmental performances from the recovery of heat energy from municipal sewage, with limitations attributed to supply distances and regulations/policies [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Community-Based Sewer Mining: Integrated Heat Recovery and Fit-For-Purpose Water Reuse

et al. 2020

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Municipal sewage contains significant embedded resources in the form of chemical and thermal energy. Recent developments in sustainable technology have pushed for the integration of resource recovery from household wastewater to achieve net zero energy consumption and carbon-neutral communities. Sewage heat recovery and fit-for-purpose water reuse are options to optimize the resource recovery potential of municipal wastewater. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) focused on global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EUP), and human health carcinogenic potential (HHCP) of an integrated sewage heat recovery and water reuse system for a hypothetical community of 30,000 people. Conventional space and water heating components generally demonstrated the highest GWP contribution between the different system components evaluated. Sewage-heat-recovery-based district heating offered better environmental performance overall. Lower impact contributions were demonstrated by scenarios with a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and chlorination prior to water reuse applications compared to scenarios that use more traditional water and wastewater treatment technologies and discharge. The LCA findings show that integrating MBR wastewater treatment and water reuse into a district heating schema could provide additional environmental savings at a community scale.

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