Creating a Circular City–An analysis of potential transportation, energy and food solutions in a case district

Paiho, Satu; Wessberg, Nina; Pippuri-Mäkeläinen, Jenni; Maki, E. R.; Sokka, Laura; Parviainen, Tuure; Nikinmaa, Markus; Siikavirta, Hanne; Paavola, Martta; Antikainen, Maria; Heikkilä, Jouko; Hajduk, Petr; Laurikko, Juhani

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2020.102529

Cited by 38 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The circular economy is a regenerative system in which inputs, waste of resources, gas emissions, and energy leaks are minimized (Geissdoerfer et al, 2016); sustainable societies must be based on the efficient use of these by-products (Pearlmutter et al, 2020 ). Many cities have implemented measures to promote the circular economy (Chrispim et al, 2021 ); however, these measures generally do not integrate the various aspects involved (organic solid waste, sludge, water, energy) (Paiho et al, 2021 ). For this reason, a link must be established between energy, water, and waste systems to make progress toward the goal of achieving sustainable cities (Wang et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants

Michalovicz¹,

Bilotta

2022

Environ Dev Sustain

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This paper analyzes the impact of methane emissions taxation on the recovery of the investments required for implementing technologies that use biogas energy in small wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Brazil. It is based on the hypothesis that the adoption of a national methane emission tax policy would encourage small WWTPs to become sustainable power plants. The procedure involved 173 anaerobic plants to analyze: (a) methane production; (b) available useful energy; (c) investments and avoided costs for implementing STHIL system (thermal drying sludge) and motor generator (electricity generation); (d) financial impact for two scenarios (C1: no emissions tax; C2: with tax). Positive environmental and financial results were observed for WWTPs, varying according to the period of time analyzed for both technologies. Investments must be made in cogeneration in anaerobic WWTPs for achieving satisfactory results. Taxation must not be viewed simply as a punitive instrument; on the contrary, it should be seen as a tool to encourage continuous process improvement. The circular economy may support the enlargement of the wastewater collection and treatment system, guaranteeing widespread sanitation conditions in urban areas. However, the actual implementation of a methane emission tax in Brazil still requires many rounds of discussion among sanitation companies, government, and civil society, to establish emission limits, and unit taxes, as well as to consolidate a carbon trade to follow through with this decision in the sanitation sector.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants

Michalovicz¹,

Bilotta

2022

Environ Dev Sustain

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“…Circular economy strategies are also applied in [107,[158][159][160]179,180], by means of the implementation of circular models supported by KPIs, and in [136,138,140,141,143,147] through LCA. As discussed in [12,14,120,181,182], the life cycle perspective could facilitate the identification of best practices as a glance only at the operational phase could be misleading and lead to a biased assessment.…”

Section: Environemntal Sustainability Actions and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environemntal Sustainability Actions and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More comprehensive case studies of circular urban districts are designed by Paiho et al [158] and Su et al [160]. Paiho et al [158] seek circularity solutions for the sustainable redesign of an urban district located in the city of Espoo, demonstration site of the PED project SPARCS. Actions include share electric mobility, heat recovery from a data center and a wastewater treatment plant, local food production (cultivation of tomatoes within the district) and the concept of "energy as a service", which supports decentralization and the provision of energy flexibility services.…”

Section: Environemntal Sustainability Actions and Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review

et al. 2021

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During the last decade, increasing attention has been paid to the emerging concept of Positive Energy Districts (PED) with the aim of pushing the transition to clean energy, but further research efforts are needed to identify design approaches optimized from the point of view of sustainable development. In this context, this literature review is placed, with a specific focus on environmental sustainability within innovative and eco-sustainable districts. The findings show that some sustainability aspects such as sustainable food, urban heat islands mitigation and co-impacts, e.g., green gentrification, are not adequately assessed, while fragmented thinking limits the potential of circularity. In this regard, targeted strategies should be developed. On the other hand, the Key Performance Indicators framework needs some integrations. In this direction, indicators were suggested, among those defined in the Sustainable Development Agenda, the main European standards and initiatives and the relevant literature experiences. Future outlooks should be directed towards: the harmonization of the Life Cycle Assessment in PEDs with reference to modeling assumptions and analysis of multiple impacts; the development of dynamic environmental analyses taking into account the long-term uncertainty due to climate change, data availability and energy decarbonization; the combination of Life Cycle Assessment and Key Performance Indicators based techniques, from a holistic thinking perspective, for a comprehensive design environment and the analysis of the contribution of energy flexibility approaches on the environmental impact of a project.

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“…Based on the information gathered on the definition of the input and output flows of the bioresources and equivalent materials, even in circular systems, it must be understood that a circular urban system will never be fully self-sufficient: much of the nutrients in cities such as nitrogen and phosphorous enter in the form of food, which is heavily produced outside city boundaries [2,6,22]. Although some food production can be developed inside cities in the form of urban farms or equivalent units [23], the import of food is still and will remain dominant. Therefore, in order to achieve a circular bioresource system in cities, it must be ensured that the flows of nutrients must be subdivided into separate fractions: (i) one that will remain in the city environment and helps in subsisting both the natural ecosystem and some of the human activities; and (ii) another fraction must be adequately exported out of the city for agricultural and other purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

Hullebusch

Bani

Carvalho³

et al. 2021

Water

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Cities are producers of high quantities of secondary liquid and solid streams that are still poorly utilized within urban systems. In order to tackle this issue, there has been an ever-growing push for more efficient resource management and waste prevention in urban areas, following the concept of a circular economy. This review paper provides a characterization of urban solid and liquid resource flows (including water, nutrients, metals, potential energy, and organics), which pass through selected nature-based solutions (NBS) and supporting units (SU), expanding on that characterization through the study of existing cases. In particular, this paper presents the currently implemented NBS units for resource recovery, the applicable solid and liquid urban waste streams and the SU dedicated to increasing the quality and minimizing hazards of specific streams at the source level (e.g., concentrated fertilizers, disinfected recovered products). The recovery efficiency of systems, where NBS and SU are combined, operated at a micro- or meso-scale and applied at technology readiness levels higher than 5, is reviewed. The importance of collection and transport infrastructure, treatment and recovery technology, and (urban) agricultural or urban green reuse on the quantity and quality of input and output materials are discussed, also regarding the current main circularity and application challenges.

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Creating a Circular City–An analysis of potential transportation, energy and food solutions in a case district

Cited by 38 publications

References 30 publications

Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants

Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants

Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review

Nature-Based Units as Building Blocks for Resource Recovery Systems in Cities

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