Can municipal wastewater treatment systems be carbon neutral?

Mo, Weiwei; Zhang, Qiong

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.08.014

Cited by 91 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Biogas recovery and wastewater-nutrient utilization would reduce 23-55% of the total GHGs emission (Fine and Hadas, 2012;Mo and Zhang, 2012). This result harmonizes with the conclusions from Bani Shahabadi et al (2010).…”

Section: Water Use Controlsupporting

confidence: 82%

A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

Ngo

Guo

et al. 2014

Science of The Total Environment

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To tackle current water insecurity concerns, wastewater reclamation and reuse has appeared as a promising candidate to conserve the valuable fresh water sources whilst increasing the efficiency of material utilization. The climate change, nevertheless, poses both opportunities and threats to the wastewater reclamation industry. Whereas it elevates the social perception on water-related issues and fosters an emerging water-reuse market, the climate change simultaneously presents adverse impacts on the water reclamation scheme, either directly or indirectly. These effects were studied fragmentally in separate realms. Hence, this paper aims to link these studies for providing a thorough understanding about the consequences of the climate change on the wastewater reclamation and reuse. It initially summarizes contemporary treatment processes and their reuse purposes before carrying out a systematic analysis of available findings.

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Section: Water Use Controlsupporting

confidence: 82%

A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

Ngo

Guo

et al. 2014

Science of The Total Environment

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“…The treatment and disposal of raw sludge with increasing production from wastewater treatment process not only brings about potential pollution to the environment, i.e., metals and trace pollutants contained might pollute underground water and soil, but also require energy and chemicals during the process. In previous studies on GHG accounting, most are focused on the GHG emissions from the liquor treatment [4,[10][11][12][13] or sludge treatment [14][15][16] separately; less attention has been paid to quantify GHG emissions to a larger extent, with the integration of both wastewater and sludge treatment in the system boundary. The measurement of GHG emissions including both the wastewater and sludge treatment process could shed light on the water-energy-GHG nexus relationship and contribute to the GHG mitigation efforts in WWTPs with synergy effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Footprint Analyses of Mainstream Wastewater Treatment Technologies under Different Sludge Treatment Scenarios in China

Chai

Zhang

et al. 2015

Water

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Abstract:With rapid urbanization and infrastructure investment, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Chinese cities are putting increased pressure on energy consumption and exacerbating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A carbon footprint is provided as a tool to quantify the life cycle GHG emissions and identify opportunities to reduce climate change impacts. This study examined three mainstream wastewater treatment technologies: Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic (A-A-O), Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) and Oxygen Ditch, considering four different sludge treatment alternatives for small-to-medium-sized WWTPs. Following the life cycle approach, process design data and emission factors were used by the model to calculate the carbon footprint. Results found that direct emissions of CO2 and N2O, and indirect emissions of electricity use, are significant contributors to the carbon footprint. Although sludge anaerobic digestion and biogas recovery could significantly OPEN ACCESSWater 2015, 7 919 contribute to emission reduction, it was less beneficial for Oxygen Ditch than the other two treatment technologies due to its low sludge production. The influence of choosing "high risk" or "low risk" N2O emission factors on the carbon footprint was also investigated in this study. Oxygen Ditch was assessed as "low risk" of N2O emissions while SBR was "high risk". The carbon footprint of A-A-O with sludge anaerobic digestion and energy recovery was more resilient to changes of N2O emission factors and control of N2O emissions, though process design parameters (i.e., effluent total nitrogen (TN) concentration, mixed-liquor recycle (MLR) rates and solids retention time (SRT)) and operation conditions (i.e., nitrite concentration) are critical for reducing carbon footprint of SBR. Analyses of carbon footprints suggested that aerobic treatment of sludge not only favors the generation of large amounts of CO2, but also the emissions of N2O, so the rationale of reducing aerobic treatment and maximizing anaerobic treatment applies to both wastewater and sludge treatment for reducing the carbon footprint, i.e., the annamox process for wastewater nutrient removal and the anaerobic digestion for sludge treatment.

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“…Unit electricity intensity was calculated by dividing the total electricity consumption (kW h) with treatment capacity (m 3 ). This intensity (kW h/m 3 ) was multiplied by emission factors (kg CO 2 e/ kW h) to calculate the GHG emissions (kg CO 2 e/m 3 ) of these WWTPs.…”

Section: Electricity Intensity Calculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We investigated two typical industries: a printed circuit board (PCB) industry and a textile industry ( Table 7). The PCB WWTP has a capacity of 300 m 3 Table 7. It should be noted that electricity used for sludge disposal is not included because most of the industrial sludge is handled and disposed of as a hazardous waste in appropriate landfills or incineration.…”

Section: Ghg Emission In Wastewater Treatment In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of energy intensity and carbon emissions in wastewater treatment in USA, Germany, China and South Africa

et al. 2016

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Can municipal wastewater treatment systems be carbon neutral?

Cited by 91 publications

References 23 publications

A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

A mini-review on the impacts of climate change on wastewater reclamation and reuse

Carbon Footprint Analyses of Mainstream Wastewater Treatment Technologies under Different Sludge Treatment Scenarios in China

Comparative analysis of energy intensity and carbon emissions in wastewater treatment in USA, Germany, China and South Africa

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