Understanding the greenhouse gas emissions from China’s wastewater treatment plants: Based on life cycle assessment coupled with statistical data

Chen, Wei; Zhang, Qian; Hu, Lulu; Geng, Yong; Liu, Chengqing

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115007

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 38 publications

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“…In addition, works discussing operational conditions affecting biogas production from both technologies were considered as well. While research based on assumed fixed emission factors from the literature may be valuable when performing life cycle assessments or comparing the carbon footprints of decentralized and centralized technologies [35,[49][50][51][52][53][54], it provides only very limited information with respect to the operational conditions potentially affecting the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the investigated technologies. Based on this, these articles were not further considered.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Footprint and Energy Recovery Potential of Primary Wastewater Treatment in Decentralized Areas: A Critical Review on Septic and Imhoff Tanks

Boiocchi,

Mainardis,

Rada

et al. 2023

Energies

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The present work is a critical review on the carbon footprint and energy recovery potential of septic and Imhoff tanks for primary wastewater treatment. From an online search of research papers, a lack of up-to-date research about gas emissions from Imhoff tanks emerged. Additionally, available literature data should be extended to incorporate the effect of seasonal variations, which may be relevant due to the fact that both systems work under environmental conditions. The literature generally agrees on the positive effect of temperature increase on biogas and methane production from both septic and Imhoff tanks. Additionally, sludge withdrawal is an important operational feature for gas production in these reactors. More recently, the application of electrochemical technologies and the installation of photovoltaic modules have been studied to enhance the sustainability of these decentralized solutions; in addition, sludge pretreatment has been investigated to raise the obtainable methane yields due to limited sludge biodegradability. Further research is needed to assess the effective sustainability of biogas collection and valorization from existing septic and Imhoff tanks, considering the limited biogas generation and the implementation of these systems in decentralized wastewater treatment scenarios (rural or mountain areas). Contrary to the intensive research on greenhouse gas mitigation strategies applied to centralized systems, solutions specifically designed for gas emission mitigations from septic and Imhoff tanks have not attracted the same scientific interest up to now. More generally, given the widespread application of these two options and their potential significant contribution to the overall carbon footprint of wastewater treatment technologies, much more research must be performed in the future both on the quantification of gas production and on the applicable strategies to reduce their carbon footprint.

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