Effect of Nutrient Removal and Resource Recovery on Life Cycle Cost and Environmental Impacts of a Small Scale Water Resource Recovery Facility

Abstract

To limit effluent impacts on eutrophication in receiving waterbodies, a small community water resource recovery facility (WRRF) upgraded its conventional activated sludge treatment process for biological nutrient removal, and considered enhanced primary settling and anaerobic digestion (AD) with co-digestion of high strength organic waste (HSOW). The community initiated the resource recovery hub concept with the intention of converting an energy-consuming wastewater treatment plant into a facility that generates energy and nutrients and reuses water. We applied life cycle assessment and life cycle cost assessment to evaluate the net impact of the potential conversion. The upgraded WRRF reduced eutrophication impacts by 40% compared to the legacy system. Other environmental impacts such as global climate change potential (GCCP) and cumulative energy demand (CED) were strongly affected by AD and composting assumptions. The scenario analysis showed that HSOW co-digestion with energy recovery can lead to reductions in GCCP and CED of 7% and 108%, respectively, for the upgraded WRRF (high feedstock-base AD performance scenarios) relative to the legacy system. The cost analysis showed that using the full digester capacity and achieving high digester performance can reduce the life cycle cost of WRRF upgrades by 15% over a 30-year period. deteriorating water quality in water bodies due to eutrophication and pollution from point-sources such as effluents from wastewater treatment facilities. In response, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has implemented more stringent effluent quality standards [2]. In addition, much of the wastewater treatment infrastructure is in dire need of improvement due to age, wear, and tear. In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers' Infrastructure Report Card assigned both drinking water and wastewater infrastructures a grade of D + , indicating a considerable backlog of overdue maintenance and a pressing need for modernization [3]. With a growing population facing increased regulatory requirements, resource constraints, and financial challenges, communities are seeking more comprehensive and sustainable solutions to address multiple environmental challenges and maximize the recovery of water, energy, nutrients, and materials [1,4,5]. Municipal wastewater and other high strength organic wastes (HSOW) generated in cities are now regarded as a resource for water, energy, and nutrients [6-10].However, the environmental sustainability of wastewater systems goes beyond the treatment plants. It has been argued that many impacts occur at a larger watershed level or along upstream supply chains during energy, chemical, and material production [11,12]. These complex water issues are inherently intertwined and cannot be solved by traditional siloed water management approaches [1]. It is necessary to apply system-based tools or metrics and integrated assessment frameworks such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) to measure trade-offs and develop op...

Sustainable and conventional banking in Europe

“…Despite the loss of credibility in the banking system after the financial crisis, ethical banking has experienced a spectacular increase of funding, unlike conventional banking where they have decreased. This is a proof that depositors support sustainable banking [43]. The growth of funding could be a problem if there was no correspondence with the increase of loans, since savings should be invested in projects aimed to real economy and useful goals, such as social and environmental initiatives.…”

“…We do not have found evidence, in the analyzed period and for the case of study Triodos and its competitors, that profitability is significantly different between conventional and ethical banking. On the contrary, two previous studies state that ethical banks experience less profit than conventional banks [5,43]; however, the first one only includes two banks (Triodos and Banco Santander) to make the comparison [43] and the second one also includes alleviate-poverty banks [5], which perform different patterns. The GABV [8] states that ethical banks have resilient financial returns and this lower level of volatility leads to more stability in crisis periods, due to its link with the real economy and its rejection of toxic or complex financial products [10].…”

“…However, eight of the conventional banks have diminished their investment and only two banks have increased, but only by 6.16% (HSBC Holdings) and 8.88% (Banco Santander). With respect to the distribution between current and non-current assets, we can observe that Triodos is between the three banks whose current assets exceed 96%, namely Triodos has a high commitment with the short-term investment [43]. In fact, this entity shows the largest increase in current assets, by 32.56%.…”

“…The first methodology to be applied has consisted in a comparative financial and economic analysis of cases, based on their balance sheet and statement of income [42,43]. The data have been obtained from the annual reports published in the corporative webs of the involved companies (see "Conventional" sheet in S1 File).…”

The work of the digital undead: digital capitalism and the suspension of communicative death

“…If it had unlimited supply of, access to, and coercive power over labour power, it would pay no wages at all and make workers toil for 24 hours a day in order to maximise profits.' (Fuchs 2016, 350) In the neo-marxist discussion, peoples' living activity captured by online platforms is usually referred to as digital labour (Johanssen 2019, p. 94-97;Fumagalli et al 2018;Terranova 2013). It is the commons of our lives that are privatized to create revenue.…”