Rethinking Wastewater-Treatment Infrastructure: Case Study Using Life-Cycle Cost and Life-Cycle Assessment to Highlight Sustainability Considerations

Author(s):  
Scott Glick ◽  
Angela Acree Guggemos
Author(s):  
Farhad Sakhaee

Abstract: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to evaluate environmental impacts based on products of a process. This research is a case study of wastewater treatment facilities of ERTC (Environmental Resources Training Center), SIUE University, based on available data for two semi-annual sludge quantities (year 2015) from sludge management report. The aim of this study is to compare set of possibilities for a wastewater treatment facility at ERTC. The simulation has been done through SimaPro model. Electricity and methane were considered and the cumulative weight of their impacts has been investigated. Total solids for two semi-annual sludge has been fed to the model in kilogram and different production (electricity and methane) configuration were investigated. The most plausible configuration based on the cumulative environmental impact proposed as best practical solution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 104535
Author(s):  
Valentina Innocenzi ◽  
Federica Cantarini ◽  
Alessia Amato ◽  
Barbara Morico ◽  
Nicolò Maria Ippolito ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Thais Ayres Rebello ◽  
Regiane Pereira Roque ◽  
Ricardo Franci Gonçalves ◽  
João Luiz Calmon ◽  
Luciano Matos Queiroz

Abstract In its 30 years of existence, there are still many improvement possibilities in studies performing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP). Hence, this paper aims to start a guideline development for LCA of urban WWTP based on the information available in the scientific literature on the topic. The authors used the Proknow-C systematic review methodology for paper selection and 111 studies were analyzed. The most significant points that can be improved are caused by missing essential information (e.g. functional unity and input data). Other important methodological aspects are covered: allocation process, functional unit choice, sensitivity analysis, and important fluxes to be considered. Many opportunities within the LCA on WWTP were identified, such as optimization of WWTP operational aspects and resource recovery. Furthermore, LCA should be combined with other methodologies such as Big Data, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Life Cycle Cost Assessment, and Social Life Cycle Assessment. To achieve this potential, it is clear that the scientific and technical community needs to converge into a new protocol to ensure that LCA application becomes more reliable and transparent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4377
Author(s):  
Wesam Salah Alaloul ◽  
Muhammad Altaf ◽  
Muhammad Ali Musarat ◽  
Muhammad Faisal Javed ◽  
Amir Mosavi

Development of the pavement network systems, which is inevitable due to the rapid economic growth, has increasingly become a topic of significant concern because of the severe environmental impacts of road expansion. For achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the policies and actions towards the pavements’ life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) must be carefully assessed. Consequently, the purpose of this review is to present an overview of LCA and LCCA used in pavement engineering and management. Through the quality control of PRISMA, fifty-five most relevant documents were extracted for a thorough investigation. The state of the art review reveals that a limited number of the papers considered environmental impacts of the pavements. Consequently, to assess the environmental impact cost, a conceptual framework was developed to better consider the LCA and LCCA on various aspects of the pavement projects including the sustainability aspects. Besides, a case study was given to validate the literature review towards proposing a novel framework for the incorporation of environmental impact cost.


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