Baseline carbon emission assessment in water utilities in Jordan using ECAM tool

Abstract

This study presents a baseline assessment of carbon emissions in water utilities in Madaba, Jordan. The Energy Performance and Carbon Emissions Assessment and Monitoring Tool (ECAM) is applied in the present study in order to reduce indirect and direct emissions. Input data for the assessment included inter alia, population, water volumes, energy consumption, and type of wastewater treatment. The methodology focuses on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use that is directly associated with the utility operations covering the whole water cycle. The ECAM's Quick Assessment revealed that 89.7% of the energy is consumed in abstraction and distribution systems of water supply, whereas wastewater collection, treatment, and discharge consumed only 10.3% in Madaba. The detailed ECAM tool assessment results showed that total GHG emissions from the entire water and wastewater system in Madaba are approximately 28.122 million kg CO2/year. The water supply is the major contributor to GHG accounting for 62.4%, while 37.6% of GHG emissions result from sewage treatment, and are associated with treatment process requirements considered in this work, in addition to sludge transport from septic tanks to the wastewater treatment plant. The findings of this work can help the utility to undertake energy efficiency and GHG reduction measures.

Energy Self-Sufficiency Aiming for Sustainable Wastewater Systems: Are All Options Being Explored?

“…These projects offer very valuable information, including energy audits and benchmarking data, energy efficiency improvement measures or resources, and energy recovery possibilities. Some of them, such as the European initiatives ENERWATER [17,37,56], POWERSTEP [17,57], or ECAM [58], are specifically focused on energy and associated GHG emissions. Whereas others, like SMART-Plant [17,59] or R3Water [17], have a broader approach and they consider other environmental aspects and their associated impacts, as well as other resources recovery options.…”

Urban Water Security: Definition and Assessment Framework

“…This diagnostic has been elaborated in a recent papers [71,72], which outlined conducting a water balance in the case of a water-scarce city (Madaba, Jordan): Measuring inflow and outflow and examining the causes of the high level of water losses in the distribution network, the vulnerabilities of the water system that cause insecurity, water-related risks, and emerging water-related issues, such as intermittent water supply in the context of changing climate and increasing demand.…”

Assessing Water Security in Water-Scarce Cities: Applying the Integrated Urban Water Security Index (IUWSI) in Madaba, Jordan

“…Ninety-eight percent of people in Madaba have access to the water service, but only 65% are connected to the wastewater network [59]. Water is distributed from the Madaba reservoir to eight main zones on a weekly schedule, with inequality of supply hours due to the intermittent water supply [58,66,67]. Consumers are therefore forced to rely on alternative water sources such as storing water in large tanks and buying water directly from tanker truckers-private water vendors-to meet their water demands and to use for various coping strategies.…”

“…The customers of Madaba Directorate are either supplied by the Madaba Reservoir via gravity supply (35%) or by direct pumping (65%) from the Madaba Pumping Station. The existing distribution pipework in Madaba itself is 433 km in length plus an additional 187 km for the rest of the directorate, with pipe sizes ranging from DN 50 up to DN 600 [58,66].…”

“…The indicators have been chosen based on relativeness, measurability, transparency, and data availability. In this study, all the data required to assess the urban water security in Madaba were secondary data obtained from recent publications assessing the urban water supply and greenhouse gases GHG emissions [58,66], as well as from national reports from bodies such as the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Jordan, the Ministry of Health, and Madaba's Water and Wastewater Utility [56,57,[67][68][69][70]. Table 1.…”