Assessing Urban Wastewater System Upgrades Using Integrated Modeling, Life Cycle Analysis, and Shadow Pricing

Hadjimichael, Antonia; Morera, Serni; Benedetti, Lorenzo; Flameling, Tony; Corominas, Lluís; Weijers, Stefan; Comas, Joaquím

doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b05845

Cited by 16 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The level of sophistication of a LCA model should reflect the robustness required to support a particular decision-making context (Bare et al, 1999). In typical LCA studies of UWS, only average dryweather conditions are modelled while wet-weather flows originating from UWS are typically not considered, with the exception of Hadjimichael et al (2016) who proposes to account for reduced wet-weather discharges in the LCA of different UWS upgrades in terms of nutrient inputs to the receiving waters. By nature, wet-weather flows are highly variable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts from urban water systems on receiving waters – How to account for severe wet-weather events in LCA?

et al. 2018

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Sewage systems are a vital part of the urban infrastructure in most cities. They provide drainage, which protects public health, prevents the flooding of property and protects the water environment around urban areas. On some occasions sewers will overflow into the water environment during heavy rain potentially causing unacceptable impacts from releases of untreated sewage into the environment. In typical Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies of urban wastewater systems (UWS), average dry-weather conditions are modelled while wet-weather flows from UWS, presenting a high temporal variability, are not currently accounted for. In this context, the loads from several storm events could be important contributors to the impact categories freshwater eutrophication and ecotoxicity. In this study we investigated the contributions of these wet-weather-induced discharges relative to average dry-weather conditions in the life cycle inventory for UWS. In collaboration with the Paris public sanitation service (SIAAP) and Observatory of Urban Pollutants (OPUR) program researchers, this work aimed at identifying and comparing contributing flows from the UWS in the Paris area by a selection of routine wastewater parameters and priority pollutants. This collected data is organized according to archetypal weather days during a reference year. Then, for each archetypal weather day and its associated flows to the receiving river waters (Seine), the parameters of pollutant loads (statistical distribution of concentrations and volumes) were determined. The resulting inventory flows (i.e. the potential loads from the UWS) were used as LCA input data to assess the associated impacts. This allowed investigating the relative importance of episodic wet-weather versus "continuous" dry-weather loads with a probabilistic approach to account for pollutant variability within the urban flows. The analysis at the scale of one year showed that storm events are significant contributors to the impacts of freshwater eutrophication and ecotoxicity compared to those arising from treated effluents. At the rain event scale the wet-weather contributions to these impacts are even more significant, accounting for example for up to 62% of the total impact on freshwater ecotoxicity. This also allowed investigating and discussing the ecotoxicity contribution of each class of pollutants among the broad range of inventoried substances. Finally, with such significant contributions of pollutant loads and associated impacts from wet-weather events, further research is required to better include temporally-differentiated emissions when evaluating eutrophication and ecotoxicity. This will provide a better understanding of how the performance of an UWS system affects the receiving environment for given local weather conditions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts from urban water systems on receiving waters – How to account for severe wet-weather events in LCA?

et al. 2018

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“…1 and anaerobic digestion model no. 1, − BioWin, ,− WEST, ,, Mantis series from GPS-X, − design and simulation of activated sludge systems, − decision support system, , and dynamic supply chain system model . In addition, there are biological models that have been integrated to LCA .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Standardized Stoichiometric Life-Cycle Inventory for Enhanced Specificity in Environmental Assessment of Sewage Treatment

Alvarado

Hsu

et al. 2019

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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In recent years, many life-cycle assessments (LCAs) have been applied to the field of sewage treatment (ST). However, most LCAs lack systematic data collection (DC) and processing methods for inventories of conventional ST (CST), much less for recently developed technologies. In addition, the use of site-generic databases results in LCAs that lack the representativeness and understanding of the regional environmental impacts and trade-offs between different impact categories, especially nutrient enrichment and toxicity-related categories. These shortcomings make comparative evaluation and implementation more challenging. In order to assist in the decision-making process, a novel stoichiometric life-cycle inventory (S-LCI) for ST was developed. In the S-LCI, biochemical pathways derived from elemental analyses combined with process-engineering calculations enable steady-state comparison of the water, air, and soil emissions of any sewage and sludge sample treated through the ST configurations analyzed herein. The DC required for the estimation of the foreground data for a CST is summarized in a 41-item checklist. Moreover, the S-LCI was validated for CST by comparing the S-LCI with actual ST plant operations performed in Hong Kong. A novel energy-derived ST inventory is developed and compared here with the CST. The resulting inventories are ready to be integrated into the SimaPro software for life cycle impact assessment as illustrated by the case study. Using the S-LCI not only helps to standardize the DC and processing, but it also enhances the level of specificity by using sample characterization and site-specific data. The EcoInvent database, which contains a single sample characterization per Swiss and global average ST plant class could be expanded by using the S-LCI.

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Energy and resource recovery from a future aerobic granular sludge wastewater treatment plant and benefit analysis

Chen,

Wang,

Wang

et al. 2024

Chemical Engineering Journal

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Assessing Urban Wastewater System Upgrades Using Integrated Modeling, Life Cycle Analysis, and Shadow Pricing

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

Impacts from urban water systems on receiving waters – How to account for severe wet-weather events in LCA?

Impacts from urban water systems on receiving waters – How to account for severe wet-weather events in LCA?

A Standardized Stoichiometric Life-Cycle Inventory for Enhanced Specificity in Environmental Assessment of Sewage Treatment

Energy and resource recovery from a future aerobic granular sludge wastewater treatment plant and benefit analysis

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