Comparative evaluation of different operation scenarios for a full-scale wastewater treatment plant: Modeling coupled with life cycle assessment

Daskiran, Filiz; Gülhan, Hazal; Güven, Hüseyin; Özgün, Hale; Erşahin, Mustafa Evren

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130864

Cited by 17 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Since many emissions are released from the WWT and associated operations that influence the environment's health in a way, reducing these detrimental impacts is the focus and primary objective of many studies. A common thing among LCA research on environmental burdens related to WWT is that most of the studies identified energy consumption as the greatest contributor to environmental impacts such as in Phelan et al, (2014), Moussavi et al, (2021), and Daskiran et al, (2022). In an effort to reduce energy usage for the sustainability of WWT systems, Daskiran et al, (2022) evaluated a biological nutrient removal facility using mathematical modeling, LCA, and three scenarios that would lower the facility's net power usage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A common thing among LCA research on environmental burdens related to WWT is that most of the studies identified energy consumption as the greatest contributor to environmental impacts such as in Phelan et al, (2014), Moussavi et al, (2021), and Daskiran et al, (2022). In an effort to reduce energy usage for the sustainability of WWT systems, Daskiran et al, (2022) evaluated a biological nutrient removal facility using mathematical modeling, LCA, and three scenarios that would lower the facility's net power usage. They created three scenarios by combining various values for DO concentration, SRT, and internal recirculation parameters.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…DO concentrations were found to have a critical role in effluent quality and energy consumption (Drewnowski et al, 2018;Cao et al, 2021;Daskiran et al, 2022). In particular, Cao et al, (2021) found that nitrogen removal was significantly increased by lowering the DO.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the modeling software now in use comprises activated sludge models (ASMs) or models based on ASMs, including BioWin, GPS-X, and others (Mu'azu et al, 2020). In particular, GPS-X is one of the most common simulation software containing a comprehensive model library that includes biological, chemical, and physical equations (Daskiran et al, 2022). When assessing the performance of already-existing plants, it must be verified that the developed computer model appropriately reflects the physical plant by calibrating and validating the created model using actual on-site data.…”

Section: Computer Simulation Of Wwtpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To evaluate and understand the mechanisms occurring in treatment trains, mathematical modeling of WWT processes are established. Computer model simulation software packages are utilized to produce data, such as GHG emissions, that is challenging to get from actual WWTPs (Daskiran et al, 2022). In the past years, the assessment of WWT facilities has been widely done to examine their environmental effects using LCA methodology and assist in their development and optimization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparative Environmental and Economic Assessment of the Zahle Wastewater Treatment Plant in Lebanon under Different Scenarios. (c2022)

Ghosn¹

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Assessing the environmental impacts of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is a growing concern that needs to be addressed. Although several studies have been published on the environmental performance of WWTPs, few have been reported from developing countries, especially in Lebanon. In this study, the environmental and economical performance of an oxidation ditch-based secondary treatment technology in Zahle, Lebanon, was evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) in conjunction with computer modeling. The current plant was calibrated and validated using GPS-X v. 8.0 software and three hypothetical scenarios were suggested and compared with its current state. The first scenario (S1) included adding anaerobic sludge digestion. The second scenario (S2) included using extended aeration. The third scenario (S3) included using a five-stage Bardenpho (FSB) process. For this purpose, a series of LCAs were performed using SimaPro 9.3.0.3 together with the ecoinvent 3.8 database, and the ReCiPe midpoint (H) and endpoint (H/A) methodologies. A functional unit of 1 m3 of treated wastewater was used as a basis. The WWTPs costs were estimated using the CapdetWorks v4.0 software. Further, LCA was monetized using external costs. The analysis revealed that the environmental categories were primarily influenced by energy consumption. The current plant had a global warming effect of 0.678 kgCO2 eq/m3. Normalized results showed that the first scenario was the most environmentally friendly alternative in the human carcinogenic toxicity impact category quantified as follows: S2 < S0 < S3 < S1. Normalized results also showed that freshwater ecotoxicity and human carcinogenic toxicity were the main impact categories. The economic evaluation revealed that the addition of anaerobic digestion led to more expenses, while S0 process was found to be the most cost-effective. The descending order concerning environmental costs was as follows: S2(0.171$/m3) > S0(0.159$/m3) > S3 (0.147$/m3) > S1 (0.117$/m3). Considering the collective evaluation, scenario S1 was chosen as a potential enhancement for the Zahle WWTP (ZWWTP). This study emphasized the importance of the environmental impact assessment in the wastewater treatment (WWT) sector and contributed to the growing body of literature related to WWT in Lebanon. Further research is needed to provide a clear data collection process that will increase the modeling precision of an existing plant and accurately reflect the outcomes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%