The overall aim of BIOTREAT was to develop new technologies for bioremediation of drinking water resources contaminated with micropollutants such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals.
Micropollutants are organic pollutants that occur in contaminated water at extremely low concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10 microgram/l, but still above the EU limit values. The basis of the proposed technologies was bioaugmentation, which in the context was the introduction of specific degrading microorganisms or microbial consortia into existing sand filters at waterworks, mobile biofilters placed close to groundwater abstraction wells, sand barriers between surface waters and abstraction wells, and subterranean protective barriers established to prevent micropollutants from entering into aquifers.
With the view to developing a water purification technology that is also competitive it was necessary to analyse both the financial and the environmental aspects of its further exploitation, including management, safety and regulatory aspects.
A new technology has to be competitive both in relation to 1) the environment, where all unwanted emissions have to be taken into account 2) to human health and 3) financially. The best approach to assessing the competitiveness of the technology was to combine the environmental LCA, the costs related to technology implementation and the water quality achieved. Some of the results of this project are published in an article: 'Prospective environmental and economic assessment for biotreatment of micropollutants in drinking water resources in Denmark'.
Commonly, life cycle assessment (LCA), input-output analysis (IOA) and mass flow analysis (MFA) are seen as separate assessment tools each with specific application areas. Recent and ongoing EU 6th and 7th framework projects are creating and integrating several different national accounts enabling for a full integration of the above mentioned assessment tools. The following projects together have led to the creation of the, to date, most detailed and complete set of integrated model for LCA, IO analysis and MFA: FORWAST [1], EXIOPOL [2], CREEA [3] and DESIRE [4]. The integrated model, which is called the exiobase, is a global multi-regional hybrid IO database which is based on fully balanced monetary, mass and energy accounts (supply use tables). The database has several application areas for use as an assessment tool for policy development at different levels of scopes like product, corporate, project, program and policy impact assessment, at different levels of organization from individual company to government/ intergovernmental, and at different geographical scales from local to global.
This paper outlines the results of the project HAZTRAIN, in particular the Hazardous Waste Identification Tool (HWIT) developed as part of that project. HAZTRAIN was co-funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Commission and comprises partners from Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain (The Basque Region). The HWIT builds upon two previously developed identification tools for the classification of waste from the Clean Technology Centre (Ireland) and DAKOFA (Denmark). It is web based in format and takes a step by step approach to the identification of the hazardous components of waste in accordance with EU law. The HWIT provides a number of online screens whereby the user enters information about their waste and can thus identify if their waste is hazardous, using a 3 stage process.
....
In a study for the EU commission (DG-JRC), a new method for monetarisation of life cycle impacts has been developed and applied to different waste treatment scenarios, using the most recent generic data sources for the different technologies.
The objectives of the study were:
* To provide life cycle assessment data, results and strategy recommendations for municipal waste management in the new EU member states, with Malta and Krakow as specific cases.
*To provide background insights for the development of a common European reference system for life cycle assessment (LCA).
The study applies a mainstream “bottom-up” life cycle assessment method, supplemented by data for background processes from “top-down” input-output matrices, based on national accounting statistics combined with national emission statistics.
....
The waste hierarchy is being widely discussed these days, not only by cost-benefit analysts, but a growing number of life cycle assessments (LCA) have also begun to question it. In this article, we investigate the handling of waste paper in Denmark and compare the present situation with scenarios of more waste being recycled, incinerated or consigned to landfill. The investigations are made in accordance with ISO 14040-43 and based on the newly launched methodology of consequential LCA and following the recent guidelines of the European Centre on Waste and Material Flows. The LCA concerns the Danish consumption of paper in 1999, totalling 1.2 million tons. The results of the investigation indicate that the waste hierarchy is reliable; from an environmental point of view recycling of paper is better than incineration and landfilling.
For incineration, the reason for the advantage of landfilling mainly comes from the substitution of fossil fuels, when incinerators provide heat and electricity. For recycling, the advantage is related to the saved wood resources, which can be used for generating energy from wood, i.e., from renewable fuel which does not contribute to global warming.
This deliverable reviews existing macro-economic forecasting studies and models and based on this recommends how best to develop the three macro-economic scenarios for WP5 of the FORWAST project.
We recommend that the baseline scenario presented in the European Energy and Transport: Trends to 2030 be used as the basis from which the FORWAST baseline be generated. This scenario is similar both spatially and temporally, and the data are aggregated to a level of detail such that it can be readily integrated into an input/output table.
The commonly used IPAT equation was used as a starting point for identifying parameters that greatly affect the level of environmental impact associated with anthropogenic activity. From this it was identified that the level of affluence and development of eco-efficient technologies were the most relevant variables to reflect in the variant scenarios.
By comparing a number of global scenario studies, linkages were identified between some of these key indicators. From this, two hypotheses are presented. The first is that there exists a strong coupling between the level of international cooperation and the global GDP growth rate, and the second is that there exists a weak coupling between the level of eco-efficiency technology development and the total amount of global CO2 emissions. The second hypothesis was categorized as being weak on the basis that strength of a global economy also greatly contributes to global CO2 emissions.
By varying high and low combinations of the level of affluence and eco-efficient technology development, four future scenarios were suggested, based on the IPAT equation. These scenarios were then compared to the existing global scenarios, in order to develop a better understanding of what realistic macro-economic variations could occur over the time series of the FORWAST projections. Based on this approach, it was determined that the two most plausible variants would be characterized be a low affluent and low eco-efficient society and a high affluent and high eco- efficient society, respectively.
The recommended baseline scenario was ‘bench-marked’ against the Low Trust Globalization scenario produced by Shell International Ltd. The two recommended variant scenarios were also determined to be characteristically similar to the other two scenarios in the same Shell study – Flags and Open Doors. Based on these results, it was recommended that the Shell Global Scenarios to 2025 serve as a primary reference for creating realistic scenario variants for the FORWAST project.
This publication contains the results of an on-line discussion held October 20o7 on the topic of allocation in recycling.
The system boundaries, definitions and classifications recommended by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA) with regard to material flows and especially solid waste are presented. The SEEA provides an internationally agreed conceptual framework to measure the interactions between the economy and the environment and the state of the environment (United nation et al, 2003). Alignment between the SEEA and the CREEA database will increase the usability of the database, espically by national statistical institutes. Alignment can be achieved by directly implementing classifications recommended by SEEA, such as ISIC (Industries) and CPC (products). In other cases alignment with the SEEA terminology can be obtained using conversion or bridge tables.
The applied terminology and framework for MFA and waste accounts in the CREEA project is described in detail. The overall framework for MFA is physical supply-use tables (PSUT) following the same product and activity classification as the monetary supply-use tables (MSUT) in the CREEA project.
Product balance is achived as: supply of products plus imported products which is equal to use of products plus capital formation plus final use plus export of products.
In order to obtain activity balances for the physical supply and use of mass flows some additional inputs and outputs to and from the economy are needed. These are inputs of natural resources and materials for treatment, and outputs of emissions, stock additions and materials for treatment.
PSUTs are constructed in a determined accounting period, usually one year, and for a given geographical area, typically a country.
The Holiwast Decision Support Tool was a tailor-made web-based tool that allowed simultaneous comparisons of up to five stakeholder views or scenarios of municipal waste management policies. It was developed as part of an EU research project. The purpose of the decision support tool was to elucidate differences in understanding and opinions between the different stakeholders involved in municipal waste management decisions. For each scenario or stakeholder, it was possible to model different waste compositions, policy instruments, constraints and acceptable technologies. Results were presented in terms of differences between scenarios or stakeholders and in terms of environmental impacts and economic costs. The results were intended as a starting point for a dialogue between the stakeholders, to open up for an understanding of the differences in opinions, and eventually facilitate an agreement on the factual basis for decision making. The decision support was online for 10 years, and was discontinued due to lack of financing in July 2017.
Environmental results were calculated with data for "best available technologies" and were thus seen as a comparison of potential results for an optimised system. Results were not intended to represent any specific existing system, and the tool was not comparing existing systems with future planned systems. However, using the "Export to Excel" functions under "Feedback", the results of the simulations could be listed alongside similar data for any existing system, when these were available. Compared to technical tools, the decision support tool was not intended for comparing specific technologies, nor to model the impacts from specific combination of technologies. Rather, the decision support tool optimised the combination of pre-defined technologies, based on the user's choice of optimisation criteria and policy instruments. To make the operation simple, the user could not modify the technology data. Specific versions of the software, with other technology data, more representative of specific local situations, could be supplied on request.
The tool provided default data for all entries, in order to allow users to complete calculations, even when they did not have complete knowledge of all details of the local situation. Users could also start from a completely empty scenario. Finally, upon creating a new scenario, users could use this as a template for other scenarios. Especially when several stakeholders were working together on a session, it was practical to create a session scenario template with the local waste composition and other local data predefined, so that all stakeholders used this as their starting point.
