Selecting sewage sludge treatment alternatives in modern wastewater treatment plants using environmental decision support systems

Garrido-Baserba, Manel; Molinos-Senante, María; Abelleira-Pereira, Jose M.; Fdez-Güelfo, L.A.; Poch, Manel; Hernández-Sancho, Francesc

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.021

Cited by 106 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Three main variants of this process are used: incineration in dedicated plants, coincineration with municipal solid wastes, and incineration in cement kilns. The environmental cost related to those systems is mostly related to the high energy consumption and production of harmful gaseous emissions (i.e., dioxins and furans) (Garrido-Baserba et al, 2015). Moreover, the ashes coming from the process can be considered a concentrated pollutant that accumulates chemical contaminants.…”

Section: Thermal Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sanitary and environmental aspects of sewage sludge management

Rorat

Courtois

Vandenbulcke

et al. 2019

Industrial and Municipal Sludge

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Section: Thermal Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sanitary and environmental aspects of sewage sludge management

Rorat

Courtois

Vandenbulcke

et al. 2019

Industrial and Municipal Sludge

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“…Gomez-Lopez et al (2009) used the TOPSIS technique select the best WWT technology for disinfection of treated wastewater. Garrido-Baserba et al (2010) developed a complex decision support system (DSS) based on knowledge base for selecting WWT alternative considering 88 factors. Similar to Zeng et al (2007), Pophali et al (2011) used AHP in combination with GRA to select the most suitable WWT option.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MCDM techniques are very useful to deal with such complex decision-making problems, as they use a structured and logical approach to model the problems (Avramenko et al 2010;Kalbar et al 2012a, b;Molinos-Senante et al 2014;Dursan 2016a, b). Hence, it is necessary to develop a MCDM framework that provide the rationale behind selecting the appropriate technology incorporating sustainability indicators and decisive factors such as LCA and LCC that are suitable for use in the context of a growing economy and increasing burdens on existing environmental resources (Bani et al 2009;Hamouda et al 2009;Garrido-Baserba et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A hybrid life cycle assessment based fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach for evaluation and selection of an appropriate municipal wastewater treatment technology

Kamble

Singh

Kharat

2017

Euro-Mediterr J Environ Integr

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Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) has become a main area of research for dealing with complex environmental decision-making problems. In this paper, a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) based fuzzy MCDM methodology is developed for the evaluation and selection of appropriate municipal wastewater treatment (WTT) technology based on expert opinion and questionnaires. Further, the study also aims to identify the key evaluation criteria in the process of selecting WTT from a sustainability perspective. The use of fuzzy MCDM in wastewater management has the advantage of rendering subjective and implicit decision-making more objective and analytical, with its ability to accommodate both qualitative and quantitative data. This study provides a systematic approach towards WWT technology selection, in which four-phase procedure is proposed. First, the appropriate technology evaluation and selection criteria were derived from the literature, LCA and experts' opinion. Next, in the second stage, the fuzzy Delphi method was used to evaluate and screen the critical factors for the evaluation of technology alternatives by interviewing the experts. Twelve criteria including sustainability and those derived from LCA and life cycle costing were obtained consisting of both qualitative and quantitative criteria. In the third stage, the weights of the selection criteria as the measurable indices of the WWT technologies were determined by fuzzy pairwise comparison matrices of analytic hierarchy process. Finally, the fuzzy the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution technique was used for ranking the alternatives. The six most commonly used WWT technologies, viz. sequencing batch reactors (SBR), membrane bioreactor (MBR), moving bed bio-film reactor (MBBR), soil biotechnology, facultative aerated lagoon and activated sludge process were evaluated. The present study is the first study of its kind to develop a hybrid LCA-based fuzzy MCDM methodology for the selection of best WWT alternatives. Results illustrated that advanced technologies, MBR, SBR and MBBR are the preferred options with MBR the most preferred one followed by SBR and MBBR. The developed technology assessment framework enables decision makers to understand the complete evaluation and selection process better and provide a more accurate, effective, and systematic decision support framework. The framework is superior to existing methods since it has the capability of representing vague qualitative data and presenting all possible results with different degrees of membership. The framework developed and applied in this work will help identify appropriate WWT technologies for various decision-making situations faced while managing wastewaters.

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“…Its production increases every year, especially in developing countries. While excess sludge production in Europe has doubled over the last 20 years, in China it has increased twofold in the last 5 years [1–4]. European statistics show that one inhabitant contributes to the production of 90 g of dry mass of excess sludge daily.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical and legislative challenges of sewage sludge processing and management

2018

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This article presents the most popular methods of sewage sludge management and analytical techniques which could be a powerful tool in designing new sewage sludge management methods. Chemical analysis is also described as a vital point at the subsequent stages of technological processes control and sewage sludge quality assessment. It is also an instrument essential to maintaining control of processed sewage sludge introduced to the environment as ready-to-use materials. The sludge management method is conditioned by the compliance with legal acts concerning sludge management. The most important of these contain information regarding allowable concentrations of pollutants which can be released into the environment, and the most important declarations concerning sewage sludge management. Various analytical techniques and preparation methods that can be used during the monitoring of the managed and processed sewage sludge are described. The most important are chromatographic techniques, methods based on inductively coupled plasma, and mass spectrometry based methods.Graphical abstract

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Selecting sewage sludge treatment alternatives in modern wastewater treatment plants using environmental decision support systems

Cited by 106 publications

References 53 publications

Sanitary and environmental aspects of sewage sludge management

Sanitary and environmental aspects of sewage sludge management

A hybrid life cycle assessment based fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach for evaluation and selection of an appropriate municipal wastewater treatment technology

Analytical and legislative challenges of sewage sludge processing and management

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