Life Cycle Assessment of Urban Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse Alternatives

Abstract

Continuous population growth is causing increased water contamination. Uneven distribution of water resources and periodic droughts have forced governments to seek new water sources: reclaimed and desalinated water. Wastewater recovery is a tool for better management of the water resources that are diverted from the natural water cycle to the anthropic one.The main objective of this work is to assess the stages of operation of a Spanish Mediterranean wastewater treatment plant to identify the stages with the highest environmental impact, to establish the environmental loads associated with wastewater reuse, and to evaluate alternative final destinations for wastewater. Tertiary treatment does not represent a significant increment in the impact of the total treatment at the plant. The impact of reclaiming 1 cubic meter (m 3 ) of wastewater represents 0.16 kilograms of carbon dioxide per cubic meter (kg CO 2 /m 3 ), compared to 0.83 kg CO 2 /m 3 associated with basic wastewater treatment (primary, secondary, and sludge treatment). From a comparison of the alternatives for wastewater final destination, we observe that replacing potable water means a freshwater savings of 1.1 m 3 , whereas replacing desalinated water means important energy savings, reflected in all of the indicators. To ensure the availability of potable water to all of the population-especially in areas where water is scarce-governments should promote reusing wastewater under safe conditions as much as possible.

Eco-efficiency analysis of Spanish WWTPs using the LCA + DEA method

“…In the case of the CC category, the average impact resulted in 4.5E-01 kg CO 2 eq/m 3 ; similar results were found in Rodríguez-Garcia et al (2011a), with values for the global warming potential (GWP) category ranging from 2.0E-01 to 4.5E-01 kg CO 2 eq/m 3 or in the studies conducted by Pasqualino et al (2009Pasqualino et al ( , 2011. Although the outcome of the present work matches the upper limit of the cited study it should be noted that the results were obtained throughout different assessment methodologies.…”

Life Cycle Assessment as an environmental evaluation tool for control strategies in wastewater treatment plants

“…According to the existing literature (Amores et al, 2013;Hospido et al, 2004;Lemos et al, 2013;Mahgoub et al, 2010;Meneses et al, 2010;Pasqualino et al, 2009;Pasqualino et al, 2011;Renou et al, 2008) the following impact categories were selected for this purpose (Guinée et al, 2001):…”

“…The literature reflects studies on different aspects of the water cycle, such as potable water treatment plants ( Barrios et al, 2008;Hospido et al, 2004), as well as several LCA studies focusing on the treatment of residual water and the technology that this required (Houillon and Jolliet, 2005;Niero, et al, 2014;Palme et al, 2005;Pasqualino et al, 2009;Renou et al, 2008;Tidaker et al, 2006) and the environmental assessment of urban wastewater reuse (Lim and Park, Meneses et al, 2010;Muñoz et al, 2009;Pasqualino et al, 2011). Some studies have also carried out an environmental analysis of the urban water cycle in a city (Amores et al, 2013;Lemos et al, 2013;Mahgoub et al, 2010,).…”

Removal of organic compounds from water: life cycle environmental impacts and economic costs of the Arvia process compared to granulated activated carbon

“…Dennison et al, 1998Dennison et al, , 1999Barrios et al, 2008;Hospido et al, 2008;Vince et al, 2008;Foley et al, 2010;Pasqualino et al, 2011;Gabarrell et al, 2012;Amores et al, 2013;Corominas et al, 2013;Borghi et al, 2013;Igos et al, 2014;Mery et al, 2014) but most have focused on treatment plants, mainly to assess the impacts of different treatment stages or strategies. Several studies have also examined the environmental impacts associated with specific treatment technologies or processes to remove organic contaminants such as GAC, nanofiltration, membrane filtration (RomeroHernandez, 2005;Bayer et al, 2005;Muñoz et al, 2007Muñoz et al, , 2009Marín et al, 2011;Bonton et al, 2012;Manda et al, 2014).…”