1. Life Cycle Assessment of Community-Based Sewer Mining: Integrated Heat Recovery and Fit-for-Purpose Water Reuse
- Author
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Ludwig Paul B. Cabling, Yang Liu, Evan G.R. Davies, Yumi Kobayashi, Nicholas J. Ashbolt, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Future Sustainable Food Systems, Department of Agricultural Sciences, and Plant Production Sciences
- Subjects
NUTRIENT RECOVERY ,ANAEROBIC MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR ,0211 other engineering and technologies ,WASTE ,Sewage ,02 engineering and technology ,010501 environmental sciences ,Reuse ,water reuse ,BLACKWATER ,7. Clean energy ,01 natural sciences ,membrane bioreactor ,lcsh:TD1-1066 ,12. Responsible consumption ,life cycle assessment ,SYSTEMS ,Heat recovery ventilation ,11. Sustainability ,MANAGEMENT ,BIOGAS PRODUCTION ,021108 energy ,lcsh:Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering ,Life-cycle assessment ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,1172 Environmental sciences ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,General Environmental Science ,Resource recovery ,Zero-energy building ,Waste management ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,business.industry ,ENERGY EFFICIENCY ,218 Environmental engineering ,GREYWATER ,6. Clean water ,Wastewater ,13. Climate action ,heat recovery ,Environmental science ,Sewage treatment ,business ,community-based wastewater treatment ,RECLAMATION - Abstract
Municipal sewage contains significant embedded resources in the form of chemical and thermal energy. Recent developments in sustainable technology have pushed for the integration of resource recovery from household wastewater to achieve net zero energy consumption and carbon-neutral communities. Sewage heat recovery and fit-for-purpose water reuse are options to optimize the resource recovery potential of municipal wastewater. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) focused on global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EUP), and human health carcinogenic potential (HHCP) of an integrated sewage heat recovery and water reuse system for a hypothetical community of 30,000 people. Conventional space and water heating components generally demonstrated the highest GWP contribution between the different system components evaluated. Sewage-heat-recovery-based district heating offered better environmental performance overall. Lower impact contributions were demonstrated by scenarios with a membrane bioreactor (MBR) and chlorination prior to water reuse applications compared to scenarios that use more traditional water and wastewater treatment technologies and discharge. The LCA findings show that integrating MBR wastewater treatment and water reuse into a district heating schema could provide additional environmental savings at a community scale.
- Published
- 2020
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