The Future of Sustainable Water Management: Using a Value Chain Analysis to Achieve a Zero Waste Society

Membrane Engineering for Water Engineering

“…ZLD or near-ZLD systems consist mainly of thermal methods (such as brine concentrators, crystallizers, thermal evaporators, and spray driers) that are capable of recovering 95–99% high purity distillate from the waste streams. , Moreover, these processes reduce concentrate to a slurry that can be disposed of in landfills or produce/generate solid mineral salts. Although attractive for volume minimization, these processes are typically not used because their capital and operating costs often exceed the cost of the desalting facility. ,− …”

Full Cost Accounting for Wastewater Utilities

“…Michael Porter's Value Chain analysis helps enterprises innovate by accounting for all of the activities upstream, in process, and downstream of the core system. A concept of the Value Chain as it applies to the wastewater treatment process is presented in Figure 1 (Whitlock, Daigger, and McCoy, 2007). Supply-chain and in-process activities have been fairly well quantified; however, the value of downstream processes or products of wastewater treatment needs more work.…”

“…According to the World Health Organization, the benefit-cost ratio of water and sanitation interventions is high when all benefits are included, standing between five and eleven U.S. dollars of economic benefit per one dollar invested, for most developing world sub-regions and for most interventions (Hutton and Haler, 2004). Table 1 presents the logical products of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and proposes units of measurement of those products (Whitlock, Daigger, and McCoy, 2007). For this concept to be applied, it is critical to develop a system of measurements that can be applied to any system universally.…”