We present a second-generation wastewater treatment inventory model, WW LCI 2.0, which on many fronts represents considerable advances compared to its previous version WW LCI 1.0. WW LCI 2.0 is a novel and complete wastewater inventory model integrating WW LCI 1.0, i.e. a complete life cycle inventory, including infrastructure requirement, energy consumption and auxiliary materials applied for the treatment of wastewater and disposal of sludge and SewageLCI, i.e. fate modelling of chemicals released to the sewer. The model is expanded to account for different wastewater treatment levels, i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary treatment, independent treatment by septic tanks and also direct discharge to natural waters. Sludge disposal by means of composting is added as a new option. The model also includes a database containing statistics on wastewater treatment levels and sludge disposal patterns in 56 countries. The application of the new model is demonstrated using five chemicals assumed discharged to wastewater systems in four different countries. WW LCI 2.0 model results shows that chemicals such as diethylenetriamine penta (methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMP) and Diclofenac, exhibit lower climate change (CC) and freshwater ecotoxicity (FET) burdens upon wastewater treatment compared to direct discharge in all country scenarios. Results for Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen (more readily degradable) show that the CC burden depends on the country-specific levels of wastewater treatment. Higher treatment levels lead to lower CC and FET burden compared to direct discharge. WW LCI 2.0 makes it possible to generate complete detailed life cycle inventories and fate analyses for chemicals released to wastewater systems. Our test of the WW LCI 2.0 model with five chemicals illustrates how the model can provide substantially different outcomes, compared to conventional wastewater inventory models, making the inventory dependent upon the atomic composition of the molecules undergoing treatment as well as the country specific wastewater treatment levels.
Detailed and comprehensive accounts of waste generation and treatment form the quantitative basis of designing and assessing policy instruments for a circular economy (CE). We present a harmonized multiregional solid waste account, covering 48 world regions, 11 types of solid waste, and 12 waste treatment processes for the year 2007. The account is part of the physical layer of EXIOBASE v2, a multiregional supply and use table. EXIOBASE v2 was used to build a waste-input-output model of the world economy to quantify the solid waste footprint of national consumption. The global amount of recorded solid waste generated in 2007 was approximately 3.2 Gt (gigatonnes), of which 1 Gt was recycled or reused, 0.7 Gt was incinerated, gasified, composted, or used as aggregates, and 1.5 Gt was landfilled. Patterns of waste generation differ across countries, but a significant potential for closing material cycles exists in both high- and low-income countries. The European Union (EU), for example, needs to increase recycling by approximately 100 megatonnes per year (Mt/yr) and reduce landfilling by approximately 35 Mt/yr by 2030 to meet the targets set by the Action Plan for the Circular Economy. Solid waste footprints are strongly coupled with affluence, with income elasticities of around 1.3 for recycled waste, 2.2 for recovery waste, and 1.5 for landfilled waste, respectively. The EXIOBASE v2 solid waste account is based on statistics of recorded waste flows and therefore likely to underestimate actual waste flows.
The aim of this article is to present a new model and tool to calculate life cycle inventories (LCIs) of chemicals discharged down the drain. Exchanges with the technosphere and the environment are attributed for based on the predicted behaviour of individual chemicals in the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and following discharge to the aquatic environment, either through the treated effluent or directly when there is no connection to WWTP. The described model is programmed in a stand-alone spreadsheet, WW LCI.
The model includes treatment in a modern WWTP and sludge disposal as well as the greenhouse gas (GHG) and nutrient emissions from degradation in the environment. The model fundamentals are described, and its application is shown with six industrial chemicals: sodium carbonate, ethanol, tetraacetylethylenediamine (TAED), diethylenetriamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMP), zeolite A and sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP). This application considers two scenarios: Germany, with full connection to WWTP, and a generic direct discharge scenario. The scenario with WWTP connection is assessed with WW LCI as well as with the wastewater treatment model developed for ecoinvent. Results are presented for key LCI flows and for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), focusing on GHG emissions, freshwater ecotoxicity and marine and freshwater eutrophication.
GHG emissions predicted by WW LCI differ to those predicted by the ecoinvent model, with the exception of sodium carbonate. For zeolite A and DTPMP, WW LCI predicts GHG emissions 330 higher and 12.5 times lower, respectively. Eutrophication scores are lower for WW LCI as the German scenario considers more optimistic nutrient removal rates than the default ones from the ecoinvent model. Freshwater ecotoxicity is mainly driven by the magnitude of the USEtox characterization factors; however, the ecoinvent model cannot accommodate chemical-specific toxicity assessments. When WW LCI is used to compare a direct discharge scenario with the German scenario, differences are found in all three impact categories.
WW LCI provides a comprehensive and chemical-specific inventory, constituting an advance over previous models using generic descriptors such as biological oxygen demand. This level of detail comes at the price of an increased effort for collecting input data as well as the need to identify individual chemicals in wastewater prior to the assessment. The LCIs generated through this model can then be applied in the context of LCA studies where each chemical contributes to the total life cycle impacts of a product or service.
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Currently packaging MSW in Spain is mainly collected through separate kerbside collection of paper/cardboard, glass, and light packaging (plastics, cans, liquid packaging board). Packaging waste not separated at the source is also recovered to some extent in mixed waste treatment facilities such as mechanical-biological treatment plants. However there is public debate on the possibility of implementing a DRS, similar to those in Denmark, Sweden or Germany. In this project the consequences of such an implementation was assessed by means of life cycle assessment, financial cost assessment, social assessment and social footprint. The system under study included the collection, transport, recycling and disposal of the amounts of packaging waste originated in Spain in one year. This project was led by the Cátedra UNESCO de Ciclo de Vida y Cambio Climático (ESCI-UPF). Final report available here (pdf download). See also the project poster for overview:
There is a video in Spanish available that present the result of the project: 'Estudio de sostenibilidad sobre la introducción de un SDDR obligatorio para envases de bebidas: análisis ambiental, social y económico comparativo con la situación actual'.
The general objective of the project is to develop and demonstrate a robust but flexible integrated solution for treating water flows with variable compositions allowing subsequent reuse. Due to the variability of water characteristics the O&G sector is an excellent training station to improve water technologies, even for other industrial or municipal applications.
This new solution will be comprised by innovative treatment technologies effectively operated and optimized through a novel Decision Support System (DSS) which can generate water of enough quality to be reused, increasing the overall sustainability of the O&G sector. The DSS will be accessible remotely through innovative mixed of ICT technology (e.g. long range, short range low-data rate wireless technologies and internet protocol) that enables fast information access, advanced visualization and data analysis, allowing the system to be operated with minimal process understanding and also ensuring the safety of the operational staff at the extraction and refining sites. In summary, the main objectives are:
Read more in our INTEGROIL - flyer or in the publication: Life cycle assessment of wastewater reclamation in a petroleum refinery in Turkey
See film about the solution INTEGROIL is offering
THERBIOR is applicable Europe-wide but is centered on the Mediterranean region. The THERBIOR project aims to provide a solution for the tourism sector, which is characterised by intense seasonal water demand and wastewater discharge.
This project will integrate physical infrastructure such as a highly efficient tubular heat exchanger coupled to a fully off-grid reversible water- source heat pump with a pioneering, novel Sequencing Batch Biofilter Granular Reactor (SBBGR) already installed in the Water Research Institute (CNR-IRSA, Italy), which creates new value through reuse and repurposing.
The main goal is to reuse the heat from the existing novel SBBGR reactor at CNR-IRSA into a low-temperature air conditioning system capable of covering the cooling/heating (CH) and domestic hot water (DHW) demand of an experimental test laboratory; this will be constructed during the project at the CNR-IRSA site. The system will be backed up by short-term storage based on Phase Change Materials (PCM) to ensure year-round coverage of the experimental lab’s CH and DHW demand.
After obtaining satisfactory results from the developed prototype, we will analyse this innovative application’s viability for incorporation into Almeria’s (Spain) and Bari’s (Italy) tourist facility network. Our main goal will be to evaluate how much energy we can gain from a specific urban wastewater network to reduce energy consumption (currently originating mainly from fossil fuels) for cooling/heating purposes in tourist buildings located in the cities.
The project also intends to create new business opportunities, notably by supporting SME involvement in local water and solar-energy supply chains. THERBIOR comprises a consortium of 4 European organisations from Spain, Italy and Denmark, combining a wide range of technical, institutional and business expertise.
Some of the results from the project are published in the Prospective environmental and economic assessment article.
A prospective environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and financial cost assessment is performed to the application of bioaugmentation to sand filters in Danish waterworks, to remove 2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM) from drinking water resources. Based on pilot-scale and laboratory-scale data, we compare bioaugmentation to current alternative strategies, namely granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorption, and well re-location. Both assessments identified well re-location as the least preferred option, however, this result is very sensitive to the distance from the waterworks to the new well. When bioaugmentation is compared to GAC, the former has a lower impact in 13 impact categories, but if immobilized bacteria are used, the impacts are higher than for GAC in all impact categories. On the other hand, from a cost perspective bioaugmentation appears to be preferable to GAC only if immobilized bacteria are used.
Table: Summary of Costs and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions for the four scenarios assessed for a waterworks producing 800,000 m3/year.
Research projects aiming to develop new technologies, products, and services increasingly use life cycle assessment (LCA) as a means of providing information about the potential for sustainability of the technology under development. While using LCA at this early stage clearly provides benefits in terms of steering decisions towards sustainable choices, this collides with the practicalities of LCA, which is a sophisticated and data-demanding method. In this work we give an overview of the main challenges that the LCA practitioner encounters in such prospective assessments and how they can be overcome, with the example of a case study on biotreatment of water resources.
This deliverable described the compilation of CREEA based waste accounts for the Netherlands. A comparison is also made with the Dutch waste accounts that are regularly compiled as part of the Dutch environmental accounting program.
This draft report contains the description of Task 4.3: Compilation of standardized waste tables. Based on the framework in Task 4.1 and the data collection and calculations in Task 4.2, standardized waste tables for the Netherlands are developed in this Task 4.3. These tables show the supply and use (industries according to the NACE classification, households, imports, exports and flows to the environment) of all solid waste flows including dry matter
in waste water of an economy.
In this task waste tables will be developed following the procedure that is followed as part of the PSUT (see task 4.2). Also, Statistics Netherlands has filled the tables with data available from National statistics, based on registrations, in order to be able to compare and assess the results obtained in Task 4.2.
This may provide on the one hand a quality assurance of the CREEA results, but on the other hand may also be used to further improve the Dutch waste accounts.
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Miljøvurderingen omfatter bortskaffelse ved forbrænding med energi-genindvinding som i det eksisterende danske affaldsbehandlingssystem sammenlignet med bortskaffelse ved kompostering. Projektets væsentligste konklusion er, at forbrænding som regel vil være at foretrække, fordi materialernes energiindhold da bedre kan udnyttes.
