Spatial optimization for decentralized non-potable water reuse

Kavvada, Olga; Nelson, Kara L.; Horvath, Arpad

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aabef0

Cited by 36 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Costs for water distribution and wastewater collection in the municipal and manufacturing sectors are estimated based on average cost data compiled by the World Health Organization [38], combined with the modeled withdrawal and returnflow volumes (supplementary information, section S1.3). This approach aligns closely with previous work that quantified costs to achieve universal access to clean water and sanitation [38,41,42], but also smooths out some of the known cost variability for distribution systems under diverse topographic conditions [43], and thus results do not provide detailed cost-level information at the municipal-or city-scale.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 70%

Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation trade-offs

Parkinson

Krey

Huppmann

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Energy systems support technical solutions fulfilling the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal for clean water and sanitation (SDG6), with implications for future energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. The energy sector is also a large consumer of water, making water efficiency targets ingrained in SDG6 important constraints for long-term energy planning. Here, we apply a global integrated assessment model to quantify the cost and characteristics of infrastructure pathways balancing SDG6 targets for water access, scarcity, treatment and efficiency with long-term energy transformations limiting climate warming to 1.5°C. Under a mid-range human development scenario, we find that approximately 1 trillion USD2010 per year is required to close water infrastructure gaps and operate water systems consistent with achieving SDG6 goals by 2030. Adding a 1.5°C climate policy constraint increases these costs by up to 8%. In the reverse direction, when the SDG6 targets are added on top of the 1.5°C policy constraint, the cost to transform and operate energy systems increases 2%-9% relative to a baseline 1.5°C scenario that does not achieve the SDG6 targets by 2030. Cost increases in the SDG6 pathways are due to expanded use of energy-intensive water treatment and costs associated with water conservation measures in power generation, municipal, manufacturing and agricultural sectors. Combined global spending (capital and operational expenditures) to 2030 on water, energy and land systems increases 92%-125% in the integrated SDG6-1.5°C scenarios relative to a baseline 'no policy' scenario. Evaluation of the multi-sectoral policies underscores the importance of water conservation and integrated water-energy planning for avoiding costs from interacting water, energy and climate goals.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 70%

Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation trade-offs

Parkinson

Krey

Huppmann

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Engström et al 42 Guo et al 38 Kavvada et al 28 Lafortezza et al 41 Liu et al 39 Wu et al 40 Market system flexibility in real-time i. Incentives for water efficiency solutions that enable automated response to electricity pricing ii.…”

Section: Save Water At End-use To Avoid Embodied Energy and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, industrial processing, power plant cooling, and park/garden irrigation can be supported with urban wastewater 17,27 . Pumping distances and GHG impacts are minimized by focusing on applications located within the same building, industry, or neighborhood 28 . In the reverse direction, the expansion of distributed low-carbon thermal power generation in response to the Paris Agreement has the potential to create a new source of waste heat.…”

Section: Save Water At End-use To Avoid Embodied Energy and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding urban water management towards 1.5 °C

Parkinson

2021

npj Clean Water

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Reliable access to clean and affordable water is prerequisite for human well being, but its provision in cities generates environmental externalities including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As policy-makers target opportunities to mitigate GHGs in line with the Paris Agreement, it remains vague how urban water management can contribute to the goal of limiting climate warming to 1.5 °C. This perspective guides policy-makers in the selection of innovative technologies and strategies for leveraging urban water management as a climate change mitigation solution. Recent literature, data and scenarios are reviewed to shine a light on the GHG mitigation potential and the key areas requiring future research. Increasing urban water demands in emerging economies and over-consumption in developed regions pose mitigation challenges due to energy and material requirements that can be partly offset through end-use water conservation and expansion of decentralized, nature-based solutions. Policies that integrate urban water and energy flows, or reconfigure urban water allocation at the river basin-level remain untapped mitigation solutions with large gaps in our understanding of potentials.

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“…The influence of treatment system capacity, degree of decentralization and treatment system technology has been evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA) [23][24][25], LCA and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) [26] and QMRA [10]. Both Cashman et al [26] and Kavvada et al [24,25] found that design flow or capacity economies of scale strongly influenced cost and environmental performance of decentralized membrane bioreactors (MBRs), with clear advantages for larger systems. However, they only evaluated larger, community-scale NPR systems, which have different distribution and collection requirements and pathogen risk profiles than single building systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Health, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Onsite Non-Potable Water Reuse Systems for a Large, Mixed-Use Urban Building

Arden

Morelli

Schoen³

et al. 2020

Sustainability

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Onsite non-potable reuse (NPR) is being increasingly considered as a viable option to address water scarcity and infrastructure challenges, particularly at the building scale. However, there are a range of possible treatment technologies, source water options, and treatment system sizes, each with its unique costs and benefits. While demonstration projects are proving that these systems can be technologically feasible and protective of public health, little guidance exists for identifying systems that balance public health protection with environmental and economic performance. This study uses quantitative microbial risk assessment, life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis to characterize the human health, environmental and economic aspects of onsite NPR systems. Treatment trains for both mixed wastewater and source-separated graywater were modeled using a core biological process—an aerobic membrane bioreactor (AeMBR), an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) or recirculating vertical flow wetland (RVFW)—and additional treatment and disinfection unit processes sufficient to meet current health-based NPR guidelines. Results show that the graywater AeMBR system designed to provide 100% of onsite non-potable demand results in the lowest impacts across most environmental and human health metrics considered but costs more than the mixed-wastewater version due to the need for a separate collection system. The use of multiple metrics also allows for identification of weaknesses in systems that lead to burden shifting. For example, although the RVFW process requires less energy than the AeMBR process, the RVFW system is more environmentally impactful and costly when considering the additional unit processes required to protect human health. Similarly, we show that incorporation of thermal recovery units to reduce hot water energy consumption can offset some environmental impacts but result in increases to others, including cumulative energy demand. Results demonstrate the need for additional data on the pathogen treatment performance of NPR systems to inform NPR health guidance.

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Spatial optimization for decentralized non-potable water reuse

Cited by 36 publications

References 31 publications

Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation trade-offs

Balancing clean water-climate change mitigation trade-offs

Guiding urban water management towards 1.5 °C

Human Health, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Onsite Non-Potable Water Reuse Systems for a Large, Mixed-Use Urban Building

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