Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Case Study of Tehran, Iran

Tabesh, Massoud; Masooleh, Maryam Feizee; Roghani, Bardia; Motevallian, Seyed Sajed

doi:10.1007/s40999-018-0375-z

Cited by 64 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Since wastewater treatment processes constitute a significant environmental issue and affect the quality of freshwater and human health, their role is getting more and more important in the framework of Sustainable Development Goals [ 3 ]. Nevertheless, their operation has often been connected to several environmental impacts throughout their life cycle, such as emissions, soil and water pollution, and odor problems [ 4 ]. Energy consumption, use of chemical substances, land use and sludge production are some of the aspects of the processes of wastewater treatment plants that may harm the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The evaluation of the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of wastewater treatment plants including MBR technology has been studied in several research papers [ 4 , 9 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. LCA seems to be an appropriate environmental assessment tool [ 21 , 22 ] that can also streamline the decision-making process in the wastewater treatment industry [ 4 ] and be used to design and construct the most appropriate wastewater treatment plants [ 20 ]. LCA has been implemented either to assess and minimize the effects from wastewater treatment units [ 4 , 16 ] or even to evaluate how different weather conditions, such as comparison of wet and dry weather, affect the treatment parameters, in order to decide about the best configuration [ 23 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LCA seems to be an appropriate environmental assessment tool [ 21 , 22 ] that can also streamline the decision-making process in the wastewater treatment industry [ 4 ] and be used to design and construct the most appropriate wastewater treatment plants [ 20 ]. LCA has been implemented either to assess and minimize the effects from wastewater treatment units [ 4 , 16 ] or even to evaluate how different weather conditions, such as comparison of wet and dry weather, affect the treatment parameters, in order to decide about the best configuration [ 23 ]. Moreover, comparison of alternative MBR configurations and selection of the most effective [ 9 ] has been carried out by the quantitative definition of the resources consumed and the estimation of the emissions produced during the construction, operation and end-of-life demolition of an MBR pilot unit [ 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

LCA of a Membrane Bioreactor Compared to Activated Sludge System for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

et al. 2020

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Membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems are connected to several advantages compared to the conventional activated sludge (CAS) units. This work aims to the examination of the life cycle environmental impact of an MBR against a CAS unit when treating municipal wastewater with similar influent loading (BOD = 400 mg/L) and giving similar high-quality effluent (BOD < 5 mg/L). The MBR unit contained a denitrification, an aeration and a membrane tank, whereas the CAS unit included an equalization, a denitrification, a nitrification, a sedimentation, a mixing, a flocculation tank and a drum filter. Several impact categories factors were calculated by implementing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, including acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential and photochemical ozone creation potential of the plants throughout their life cycle. Real data from two wastewater treatment plants were used. The research focused on two parameters which constitute the main differences between the two treatment plants: The excess sludge removal life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.50 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 2.67 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without sludge removal—and the wastewater treatment plant life cycle contribution—where GWPMBR = 0.002 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 and GWPCAS = 0.14 kg CO2-eq*FU−1 without land area contribution. Finally, in all the examined cases the environmental superiority of the MBR process was found.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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LCA of a Membrane Bioreactor Compared to Activated Sludge System for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

et al. 2020

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“…Today, despite the ever-increasing environmental concerns over the dependency on non-renewable energy resources, the major global energy systems still depend on fossil fuels (Florio et al, 2019;Lim & Biswas, 2019;Nosratabadi et al, 2019;Sharma, Ansari, Pal, Singh, & Lalhriatpuia, 2019;Škapa & Vochozka, 2019;Tabesh, Feizee Masooleh, Roghani, & Motevallian, 2019;Torabi, Hashemi, Saybani, Shamshirband, & Mosavi, 2019). However, because of environmental concerns, the world is shifting towards renewable energy resources (Afsharzade et al, 2016;Baena-Moreno et al, 2019;Eder & Mahlberg, 2018;Lyytimäki, 2018;Nethengwe, Uhunamure, & Tinarwo, 2018;Rosa et al, 2018;Vochozka, Maroušková, & Šuleř, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limiting factors for biogas production from cow manure: energo-environmental approach

Jafari-Sejahrood

Najafi

Ardabili

et al. 2019

Engineering Applications of Computational Fluid Mechanics

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The main innovation of the study is the use of a novel energo-environmental approach for investigation of biogas production, and analysis of the amount of methane and biogas produced in terms of energy production and global warming potential (GWP). Two types of reactors (laboratory-scale and semi-industrial reactors) were prepared for biogas production to perform a detailed study and for exact consideration of treatments in terms of production. Based on the results, the maximum methane production in the laboratory-scale set-up was related to a carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 30 at mesophilic temperature (35,967 ml/kg volatile solids). Accordingly, the C/N ratio in the semiindustrial reactor was considered to be 30; methane production was equal to 14/489m3 at loading rates of 237.5, 2.580 and 234.92 kg for cow manure, wheat straw and water content, respectively. The maximum biogas production occurred on day 65, from the viewpoint of energetic analysis. The highest daily net electricity production occurred on day 12, with a positive energy balance. However, considering GWP effects in the production and use of biogas, it would be better to stop production on day 48, in which case methane production would be equal to 77% of the final limit of biogas production. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…Tabesh et al (2018) evaluated LCA of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Tehran, Iran. They suggested that the availability of sufficient and reliable data is an important role for LCA [27]. This dataset is referred to as the original life cycle inventory (LCI) dataset for the study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Environmental Performances of Ferritization Method for the Treatment of Copper-ammonia Wastewater under the Optimized Condition via RSM

2019

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Copper-ammonia wastewater from industrial processes is an important form of hazardous waste that can contaminate water resources. The conventional hydroxide precipitation method used to remove copper complexes produces a large volume of unstable precipitates which still require further treatment. Ferritization is a powerful technique to remove bivalent cations from wastewater in the form of metal ferrites. This method is highly efficient in removal of metal complex ions; in addition, sludge resulting from this method is stable. The objective of this study was to investigate optimum conditions for ferritization using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). After optimal conditions were determined, the environmental performance of ferritization compared with hydroxide precipitation was compared using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The IMPACT 2002+ method was used to calculate midpoints and damage levels. The experiment found that the model obtained from RSM was accurate and reliable with R2=98.37, Adj-R2=96.91, Pred-R2= 91.40, S=1.45 and PRESS =110.859. The optimal conditions for the pH, reaction temperature, and reaction time were found to be 10.8, 69 ºC, and 115 min, respectively. In addition, the actual experiment showed that the efficiency of copper-ammonia removal was 98.413.18%. The LCA results indicate that hydroxide precipitation shows more impact at midpoint levels than ferritization, except for aquatic acidification and global warming effects. On the other hand, the endpoint analysis showed that the ferritization has a higher performance in regard to human health, ecosystem quality, and resource consumption. Ferritization had a greater impact on climate change than hydroxide precipitation because the process requires electricity. Without the use of recycling sludge as catalyst, the endpoint of natural resources from ferritization could be higher than for hydroxide precipitation. In conclusion, ferritization demonstrated better performance both in terms of its efficiency of copper-ammonia removal and its environmental performance.

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Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Case Study of Tehran, Iran

Cited by 64 publications

References 38 publications

LCA of a Membrane Bioreactor Compared to Activated Sludge System for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

LCA of a Membrane Bioreactor Compared to Activated Sludge System for Municipal Wastewater Treatment

Limiting factors for biogas production from cow manure: energo-environmental approach

Analysis of Environmental Performances of Ferritization Method for the Treatment of Copper-ammonia Wastewater under the Optimized Condition via RSM

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