Emergy evaluation of water treatment processes

Arbault, Damien; Rugani, Benedetto; Tiruta-Barna, Ligia; Benetto, Enrico

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2013.07.046

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…A previously analyzed (Arbault et al. ) life cycle model of potable water production (hereafter PWP) is proposed here as a case study to serve the objective of the article. As shown in figure , the life cycle of PWP is composed by foreground and background unit processes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

Gutiérrez

Rugani

Pigné

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

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Determining the relevance and importance of a technosphere process or a cluster of processes in relation to the rest of the industrial network can provide insights into the sustainability of supply chains: those that need to be optimized or controlled/safeguarded. Network analysis (NA) can offer a broad framework of indicators to tackle this problem. In this article, we present a detailed analysis of a life cycle inventory (LCI) model from an NA perspective. Specifically, the network is represented as a directed graph and the "emergy" numeraire is used as the weight associated with the arcs of the network. The case study of a technological system for drinking water production is presented. We investigate the topological and structural characteristics of the network representation of this system and compare properties of its weighted and unweighted network, as well as the importance of nodes (i.e., life cycle unit processes). By identifying a number of advantages and limitations linked to the modeling complexity of such emergy-LCI networks, we classify the LCI technosphere network of our case study as a complex network belonging to the scale-free network family. The salient feature of this network family is represented by the presence of "hubs": nodes that connect with many other nodes. Hub failures may imply relevant changes, decreases, or even breaks in the connectedness with other smaller hubs and nodes of the network. Hence, by identifying node centralities, we can rank and interpret the relevance of each node for its special role in the life cycle network. Keywords:complexity drinking water emergy industrial ecology life cycle assessment (LCA) network analysis Supporting information is available on the JIE Web site

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Complexity of Life Cycle Inventory Networks: Role of Life Cycle Processes with Network Analysis

Gutiérrez

Rugani

Pigné

et al. 2015

J of Industrial Ecology

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“…There have been attempts to evaluate separately each unit of the water system with emergy, i.e., drinking water [145,146] and wastewater systems [147]. However, a more comprehensive study that assesses the current system configuration and sustainable alternatives is still needed.…”

Section: The Sustainable Urban Water Systems Case Study: the City Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Water Systems for the City of Tomorrow—A Conceptual Framework

Xue

González-Mejía

et al. 2015

Sustainability

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Urban water systems are an example of complex, dynamic human-environment coupled systems which exhibit emergent behaviors that transcend individual scientific disciplines. While previous siloed approaches to water services (i.e., water resources, drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater) have led to great improvements in public health protection, sustainable solutions for a growing global population facing increased resource constraints demand a paradigm shift based on holistic management to maximize the use and recovery of water, energy, nutrients, and materials. The objective of this review paper is to highlight the issues in traditional water systems including water demand and use, centralized configuration, sewer collection systems, characteristics of mixed wastewater, and to explore alternative solutions such as decentralized water systems, fit for purpose and water reuse, OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 12072 natural/green infrastructure, vacuum sewer collection systems, and nutrient/energy recovery. This review also emphasizes a system thinking approach for evaluating alternatives that should include sustainability indicators and metrics such as emergy to assess global system efficiency. An example paradigm shift design for urban water system is presented, not as the recommended solution for all environments, but to emphasize the framework of system-level analysis and the need to visualize water services as an organic whole. When water systems are designed to maximize the resources and optimum efficiency, they are more prevailing and sustainable than siloed management because a system is more than the sum of its parts.

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“…Although emergy analysis is capable of addressing different scales of systems, it has not been reported for complete community water systems. Rather, emergy studies have largely focused on only one of the subsystems, such as drinking water treatment (Arbault, 2013;Buenfil, 2001), the water distribution system (Buenfil, 2001), wastewater treatment and health effects (Bj€ orklund, 2001), wetland treatment (Arias and Brown, 2009;Nelson, 1998), the natural hydrological cycle (Watanabe, 2014), or watersheds (Romitelli, 1997). In addition, the alternative water systems which incorporate hydrological restoration and resource (energy, carbon, nutrients, and water) recovery should be emphasized in the future research agenda for community water services.…”

Section: A Thermodynamic Approach: Emergy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%