Life cycle assessment in wastewater treatment plants: challenges, strategies and suggested guidelines

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran

2 Graduated from Tehran University Faculty of Environment

Abstract

According to the criteria considered in this research, the articles were selected based on the evaluation indicators on the urban sewage treatment plant, the review of LCA criteria and the integration of life cycle assessment knowledge in the urban sewage treatment plant. The present study has presented the most important points to help the management of wastewater treatment through the LCA process, which include encouraging studies in developing countries, developing guidelines and standard frameworks, better defining goals, Scope, performance function, life cycle inventory, appropriate use of national and regional life cycle databases, inclusion of construction phase, interpretation of land use change impacts and direct greenhouse gas emissions. The guidelines presented in this study are extracted from the most important deficiencies and good practices identified, and its main goal is to help develop the application of LCA in the WWTPs and start a path to prepare a final standard or protocol.

Keywords


Smiley face

  1. Nizam, N.U.M.; Hanafiah, M.M.; Mahmoudi, E.; Halim, A.A.; Mohammad, A.W. The removal of anionic and cationic dyes from an aqueous solution using biomass-based activated carbon. Sci. Rep. 2021, 11, 8623.
  2. Harun, S.N.; Hanafiah, M.M.; Noor, N.M. Rice Straw Utilisation for Bioenergy Production: A Brief Overview. Energies 2022, 15, 5542.
  3. Dahiya, S.; Katakojwala, R.; Ramakrishna, S.; Venkata Mohan, S. Biobased products and life cycle assess-ment in the context of circular economy and sustainability. Mat. Circ. Econ. 2020, 2, 7.
  4. Hanafiah, M.M.; Leuven, R.S.E.W.; Sommerwerk, N.; Tockner, K.; Huijbregts, M.A.J. Including the introduction of exotic species in life cycle impact assessment: The case of inland shipping. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2013, 47, 13934–13940.
  5. Campos-Guzmán, V.; García-Cáscales, M.S.; Espinosa, N.; Urbina, A. Life Cycle Analysis with Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A review of approaches for the sustainability evaluation of renewable energy technologies. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2019, 104, 343–366.
  6. Roy P, Nei D, Orikasa T, Xu Q, Okadome H, Nakamura N, Shiina T: A review of life cycle assessment (LCA) on some food products. J Food Eng 2009, 90:1–10.
  7. ISO: International Organization for Standardization, 2006. ISO 14040:2006(E) environmental management – life cycle assessment – principles and framework. 2006.
  8. Roberto Parra-Saldivar, Muhammad Bilal, Hafiz M.N. Iqbal, Life cycle assessment in wastewater treatment technology, Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, Volume 13, 2020, Pages 80-84, ISSN 2468-5844.
  9. Campos, J.L.; Valenzuela-Heredia, D.; Pedrouso, A.; Del Río, A.V.; Belmonte, M.; Mosquera-Corral, A. Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Wastewater Treatment Plants: Minimization, Treatment, and Prevention. J. Chem. 2016, 2016, 3796352.
  10. Rashid, Siti & Harun, Siti Norliyana & Hanafiah, Mm & Razman, Khalisah Khairina & Liu, Yongqiang & Tholibon, Duratul. (2023). Life Cycle Assessment and Its Application in Wastewater Treatment: A Brief Overview. Processes. 11. 10.3390/pr11010208.
  11. Piao, W.; Kim, Y.; Kim, H.; Kim, M.; Kim, C. Life cycle assessment and economic efficiency analysis of integrated management of wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 2016, 113, 325–337.
  12. Awasthi, M.K.; Sarsaiya, S.; Wainaina, S.; Rajendran, K.; Awasthi, S.K.; Liu, T.; Duan, Y.; Jain, A.; Sindhu, R.; Binod, P.; et al. Techno-economics and life-cycle assessment of biological and thermochemical treatment of bio-waste. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2021, 144, 110837.
  13. Meneses, M.; Concepción, H.; Vrecko, D.; Vilanova, R. Life Cycle Assessment as an environmental evaluation tool for control strategies in wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 2015, 107, 653–661.
  14. Escobar, N.; Laibach, N. Sustainability check for bio-based technologies: A review of process-based and life cycle approaches. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 2020, 135, 110213.
  15. Aziz, N.I.H.A.; Hanafiah, M.M. Application of life cycle assessment for desalination: Progress, challenges and future directions. Environ. Pollut. 2020, 268, 115948.
  16. Rashid, S.S.; Liu, Y.Q.; Mokhtar, H.; Zainudin, M.R.; Muda, M.F. The review of toxicity emission from municipal wastewater treatment by life cycle assessment. Gading J. Sci. Technol. 2020, 5, 10–18.
  17. Teodosiu, C.; Barjoveanu, G.; Sluser, B.R.; Popa, S.A.E.; Trofin, O. Environmental assessment of municipal wastewater discharges: A comparative study of evaluation methods. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 2016, 21, 395–411.
  18. Shanmugam, K.; Gadhamshetty, V.; Tysklind, M.; Bhattacharyya, D.; Upadhyayula, V.K. A sustainable performance assessment framework for circular management of municipal wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 2022, 339, 130657.
  19. Dahiya, S.; Katakojwala, R.; Ramakrishna, S.; Venkata Mohan, S. Biobased products and life cycle assess-ment in the context of circular economy and sustainability. Mat. Circ. Econ. 2020, 2, 7.
  20. Singh, A., Kamble, S.J., Sawant, M., Chakravarthy, Y., Kazmi, A., Aymerich, E., Starkl, M., Ghangrekar, M., Philip, L., 2018. Technical, hygiene, economic, and life cycle assessment of full-scale moving bed biofilm reactors for wastewater treatment in India. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int. 25 (3): 2552-2569.
  21. Razman, K.K.; Mohammad, A.W.; Hanafiah, M.M. Life cycle design and efficiency strategy for sustainable membrane technology. In Proceedings of the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science; IOP Publishing: Bristol, UK, 2021; Volume 880, p. 012053.
  22. Al-Anbari, M.A.; Altaee, S.A.; Kareem, S.L. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Appraisal Sustainability Indicators of Najaf Wastewater Treatment Plant. Egypt. J. Chem. 2022, 65, 9.
  23. Shanmugam, K.; Gadhamshetty, V.; Tysklind, M.; Bhattacharyya, D.; Upadhyayula, V.K. A sustainable performance assessment framework for circular management of municipal wastewater treatment plants. J. Clean. Prod. 2022, 339, 130657.
  24. Coats, E.R.;Watkins, D.L.; Kranenburg, D. A Comparative Environmental Life-Cycle Analysis for Removing Phosphorus from Wastewater: Biological versus Physical/Chemical Processes. Water Environ. Res. 2011, 83, 750–760.
  25. Hao, X.; Wang, X.; Liu, R.; Li, S.; Van Loosdrecht, M.C.; Jiang, H. Environmental impacts of resource recovery from wastewater treatment plants. Water Res. 2019, 160, 268–277.
  26. Teodosiu, C.; Barjoveanu, G.; Sluser, B.R.; Popa, S.A.E.; Trofin, O. Environmental assessment of municipal wastewater discharges: A comparative study of evaluation methods. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 2016, 21, 395–411.
  27. Zang, Y.; Li, Y.; Wang, C.; Zhang, W.; Xiong, W. Towards more accurate life cycle assessment of biological wastewater treatment plants: A review. J. Clean. Product. 2015, 107, 676–692.
  28. Lin, Y.; Guo, M.; Shah, N.; Stuckey, D.C. Economic and environmental evaluation of nitrogen removal and recovery methods from wastewater. Bioresour. Technol. 2016, 215, 227–238.
  29. Renou, S.; Thomas, J.; Aoustin, E.; Pons, M. Influence of impact assessment methods in wastewater treatment LCA. J. Clean. Prod. 2008, 16, 1098–1105.
  30. Gallego, A.; Rodríguez-Lado, L.; Hospido, A.; Moreira, M.T.; Feijoo, G. Development of regional characterization factors for aquatic eutrophication. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 2009, 15, 32–43.
  31. Yoshida, H.; Clavreul, J.; Scheutz, C.; Christensen, T.H. Influence of data collection schemes on the Life Cycle Assessment of a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Water Res. 2014, 56, 292–303.
  32. Rashid, S.S.; Liu, Y.Q.; Zhang, C. Upgrading a large and centralised municipal wastewater treatment plant with sequencing batch reactor technology for integrated nutrient removal and phosphorus recovery: Environmental and economic life cycle performance. Sci. Total Environ. 2020, 749, 141465.

Razman, K.K.; Mohammad, A.W.; Hanafiah, M.M. Life cycle design and efficiency strategy for sustainable membrane technology. In Proceedings of the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science; IOP Publishing: Bristol, UK, 2021; Volume 880, p. 012053