Characterization of implementation limits and identification of optimization strategies for sustainable water resource recovery through life cycle impact analysis

Life cycle environmental impacts of urban water systems in China

Urban water systems in China are facing multiple challenges, including rapid urbanisation, climate change and infrastructure ageing. It is crucial to evaluate their environmental performance from a holistic perspective in planning and management processes. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of nationwide life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on China's urban water systems that cover all system stages. Therefore, this study aims to present a comprehensive and nationwide LCA analysis that pinpoints the environmental hotspots and their major sources across China. This study was conducted based on water utility databases at the province level, covering water abstraction and treatment, waterwork sludge treatment, water distribution, sewage collection, stormwater drainage, wastewater treatment and sewage sludge treatment. Nine environmental impact categories were calculated and analysed. The results reveal the inequity of environmental impacts across provinces, with overall impacts geographically higher in the east and south, lower in the west and north. However, at the functional unit level, the impacts in the northern and northeastern provinces are higher than other regions. Most environmental categories are dominated by multiple water system stages. The analyses of underlying drivers found that purchased electricity is the primary source of several environmental impacts. This study provides a holistic understanding of the environmental performance of China's urban water systems, offers some insights for comprehensive decision-making support on sustainable water system management, and can also serve as a benchmark for future scenario analysis to explore options for reducing environmental impact.

Wastewater recovery for sustainable agricultural systems in the circular economy - A systematic literature review of Life Cycle Assessments

Water availability and quality are known to affect agricultural production and nutrition. The aim of this study was to elaborate a systematic literature review of the most sustainable ways of wastewater treatment towards achieving circular economy (CE) in agro-industry activities. From the SLR, the authors selected twenty-seven papers that they classified into the three research themes of recovery of wastewater into irrigation water, extraction of sludge for production of bio-based compounds, and recovery of nutrients for soil amendment, including recovering of feeds for aquaculture, and recovery of nutrient biosolids for soil amendment. Results underlined that the recovery of nutrients biosolids for soil amendment can generate a GWP gain up to - 37 kg CO2-eq. So, the review highlighted that wastewater recovery for multiple purposes can be truly effective for the environmental sustainability of agricultural systems, and that LCA is a valid tool to assess and improve that sustainability. Under this perspective, this SLR's findings can stimulate public administrations at national and local scales in their planning and funding activities towards implementing circular bioeconomy paths based upon wastewater recovery for a sustainable, resilient agriculture. Overall, the authors believe that their article was effective in overviewing the current wastewater recovery paths in the CE context, and in highlighting key methodological aspects and findings of the reviewed LCAs, to advance the specialised literature and knowledge, and to guide practitioners for future LCA applications in the field. Finally, through its main findings, the article effectively contributes to the whole research project which it is part of and which the authors are deeply involved in. That research is performed under the Progetto GRINS "Growing Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable" thanks to a PNRR M4C2- Investment 1.3 - GRINS with the aim of "Building a dataset for the circular economy of the main Italian production systems".

Environmental impact and optimization suggestions of pig manure and wastewater treatment systems from a life cycle perspective

With the rapid development of the pig farming industry in China, a large amount of pig manure is inevitably generated. The management and utilization of pig manure in a sustainable approach require a systematic analysis of the environmental impacts generated from the existing pig manure treatment and disposal routes. In this study, three typical pig manure treatment and disposal routes: pig manure solid-liquid separation, i) wastewater biological treatment, direct land application of manure/sludge; ii) black-film anaerobic digestion of wastewater, mono-composting of manure/sludge and land use; iii) wastewater biological treatment, co-composting of manure/sludge and land use, were comparatively assessed in terms of their environmental impacts using the life cycle assessment. The results show that the added chemicals in wastewater treatment and the consumed electricity in composting the manure/sludge are the two main contributors to all environmental impacts. Thus, using green chemicals, controlling the dosage of added chemicals accurately, and selecting composting types with low energy consumption will significantly reduce the environmental burden of pig manure treatment and disposal routes. For the global warming potential of the evaluated three pig manure treatment and disposal routes, direct emissions of greenhouse gases during the composting process contribute the most, accounting for 77 %, 95 %, and 79 %, respectively. Furthermore, the struvite recovery with anaerobic digestion from pig manure will bring excellent environmental benefits, which will markedly offset the toxicity impacts and carbon emissions derived from pig manure treatment and disposal process. Overall, this work quantitatively evaluates the potential environmental impacts of the existing pig manure treatment and disposal routes, providing insights on optimization for future technical improvement and development.

Environmental impacts and optimizing strategies of municipal sludge treatment and disposal routes in China based on life cycle analysis

The management and utilization of sludge in a sustainable approach require a systematic analysis of the environmental impacts generated from diverse sludge treatment and disposal processes. This study systematically assessed 12 common sludge treatment and disposal routes based on the existing operating and construction conditions of representative sludge disposal projects in China. We evaluated their environmental impacts using a life cycle assessment following the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044), and found that the routes of co-incineration, mono-incineration, and anaerobic digestion with or without thermal hydrolysis may be useful in terms of simultaneously controlling environmental pollution and carbon emissions in China. Therein, the route of co-incineration was recommended as the best one because its human toxicity potential (-152.31 kg dichlorobenzene (1,4-DB) eq/ton dry solid (t DS)), freshwater ecotoxicity potential (FEP, -127.40 kg 1,4-DB eq/t DS), terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TEP, -0.81 kg 1,4-DB eq/t DS), and global warming potential (-27.26 kg CO2 eq/t DS) were all negative (environmental benefits). Furthermore, the toxicity impacts of the mono-incineration route were also negative, but it still needed to further enhance energy recovery to reduce carbon emissions. Despite the routes of anaerobic digestion and thermal hydrolysis in combination with anaerobic digestion had the excellent negative carbon emission attributes (-572.44 kg CO2 eq/t DS, -474.92 kg CO2 eq/t DS), they showed serious FEP and TEP owing to the heavy metals pollution caused by subsequent land use of anaerobic digested sludge. Overall, this study selected the most suitable sludge treatment and disposal routes to simultaneously satisfy the requirements of carbon emission reduction and pollution control in China and proposed optimizing suggestions for future technical improvement and development.

Water reclamation and reuse

Literature published in 2019 pertinent to water reclamation and reuse has been classified into five sections: safe reuse, treatment technologies, management, assessment, and case studies. Membranes have been widely applied in integrated processes to polish secondary effluent and achieve high-quality reclaimed water. Increased efforts have also been made to facilitate feasible and safe water reuse. PRACTITIONER POINTS: This article summarizes literature published in 2019 pertinent to water reclamation and reuse. Water reclamation and reuse can be classfied into five sections: safe reuse, treatment technology, management, assessment, and case studies. Membranes were widely used in integrated processes for the production of high-quality reclaimed water.

The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to wastewater treatment: A best practice guide and critical review

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in the wastewater industry, but inconsistencies in assumptions and methods have made it difficult for researchers and practitioners to synthesize results from across studies. This paper presents a critical review of published LCAs related to municipal wastewater management with a focus on developing systematic guidance for researchers and practitioners to conduct LCA studies to inform planning, design, and optimization of wastewater management and infrastructure (wastewater treatment plants, WWTPs; collection and reuse systems; related treatment technologies and policies), and to support the development of new technologies to advance treatment objectives and the sustainability of wastewater management. The paper guides the reader step by step through LCA methodology to make informed decisions on i) the definition of the goal and scope, ii) the selection of the functional unit and system boundaries, iii) the selection of variables to include and their sources to obtain inventories, iv) the selection of impact assessment methods, and v) the selection of an effective approach for data interpretation and communication to decision-makers.

Nature-based solutions as enablers of circularity in water systems: A review on assessment methodologies, tools and indicators

Water has been pushed into a linear model, which is increasingly acknowledged of causing cumulative emissions of pollutants, waste stocks, and impacting on the irreversible deterioration of water and other resources. Moving towards a circular model in the water sector, the configuration of future water infrastructure changes through the integration of grey and green infrastructure, forming Nature-based Solutions (NBS) as an integral component that connects human-managed to nature-managed water systems. In this study, a thorough appraisal of the latest literature is conducted, providing an overview of the existing tools, methodologies and indicators that have been used to assess NBS for water management, as well as complete water systems considering the need of assessing both anthropogenic and natural elements. Furthermore, facilitators and barriers with respect to existing policies and regulations on NBS and circularity have been identified. The study concludes that the co-benefits of NBS for water management are not adequately assessed. A holistic methodology assessing complete water systems from a circularity perspective is still needed integrating existing tools (i.e. hydro-biogeochemical models), methods (i.e. MFA-based and LCA) and incorporating existing and/or newly-developed indicators.