Life Cycle Assessment of the Mesophilic, Thermophilic, and Temperature-Phased Anaerobic Digestion of Sewage Sludge

In this study the environmental impact of the anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge within an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was investigated. Three alternative AD systems (mesophilic, thermophilic, and temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD)) were compared to determine which system may have the best environmental performance. Two life cycle assessments (LCA) were performed considering: (i) the whole WWTP (for a functional unit (FU) of 1 m3 of treated wastewater), and (ii) the sludge line (SL) alone (for FU of 1 m3 of produced methane). The data for the LCA were obtained from previous laboratory experimental work in combination with full-scale WWTP and literature. According to the results, the WWTP with TPAD outperforms those with mesophilic and thermophilic AD in most analyzed impact categories (i.e., Human toxicity, Ionizing radiation, Metal and Fossil depletion, Agricultural land occupation, Terrestrial acidification, Freshwater eutrophication, and Ozone depletion), except for Climate change where the WWTP with mesophilic AD performed better than with TPAD by 7%. In the case of the SL alone, the production of heat and electricity (here accounted for as avoided environmental impacts) led to credits in most of the analyzed impact categories except for Human toxicity where credits did not balance out the impacts caused by the wastewater treatment system. The best AD alternative was thermophilic concerning all environmental impact categories, besides Climate change and Human toxicity. Differences between both LCA results may be attributed to the FU.

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Kajian Dampak Lingkungan pada Sistem Produksi Listrik dari Limbah Buah Menggunakan Life Cycle Assessment

Jurnal Rekayasa Proses ◽

10.22146/jrekpros.36425 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 27 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fajar Marendra ◽

Anggun Rahmada ◽

Agus Prasetya ◽

Rochim Bakti Cahyono ◽

Teguh Ariyanto

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Electricity Generation ◽

Human Toxicity ◽

Toxicity Potential ◽

Fruit Waste ◽

Acidification Potential ◽

Human Toxicity Potential

A B S T R A C TProducing biogas by anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising process that can simultaneously provide renewable energy and dispose solid waste safely. However, this process could affect environment e.g. due to greenhouse gas emissions. By life cycle assessment (LCA), we assessed the environmental impact (EI) of an integrated fruit waste-based biogas system and its subsystems of Biogas Power Plant Gamping. Data were collected from an actual plant in Gamping, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia that adopted a wet AD process at mesophilic condition. The results showed that the global warming potential (GWP) emission of the system reached 81.95 kgCO2-eq/t, and the acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), human toxicity potential (HTPinf) and fresh water ecotoxicity (FAETPinf) emissions were low. The EI was mainly generated by two subsystems, namely, the electricity generation and the digestate storage. A comparison analysis showed that the GWP become the main contributor of environmental loads produced by Biogas Plant Gamping, Suazhou Biogas Model, Opatokun Biogas Model, Opatokun Pyrolisis Model, dan Opatokun Integrated System Anaerobic Digestion and Pyrolisis. The GWP impact control and reduction could significantly reduce the EI of the system. It has been shown that improving the technology of the process, the electricity generation and the digestate storage will result in the reduction of EI of the biogas system.Keywords: environmental impact; fruit waste; life cycle assessment (LCA); renewable energyA B S T R A KProduksi listrik dari biogas dengan anaerobic digestion (AD) merupakan proses yang menjanjikan karena dapat menghasilkan energi listrik dan penanganan limbah padat dengan aman. Namun, proses ini mempengaruhi lingkungan akibat emisi gas rumah kaca. Penilaian dampak lingkungan (environmental impact atau EI) sistem biogas berbasis limbah terpadu dan subsistemnya terhadap Biogas Power Plant Gamping (BPG) dilakukan dengan metode life cycle assesement atau LCA. Data dikumpulkan dari plant yang sebenarnya di Gamping, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia yang mengadopsi proses AD basah pada kondisi mesofilik. Potensi pemanasan global (global warming potential atau GWP) dari sistem mencapai 81,95 kgCO2-eq/t, sedangkan potensi keasaman (acidification potential atau AP), potensi eutrofikasi (eutrophication potential atau EP), potensi toksisitas manusia (human toxicity potential atau HTPinf) dan ekotoksisitas air (fresh water ecotoxicity atau FAETPinf) potensi emisinya cukup rendah. Potensi EI terutama dihasilkan oleh dua subsistem, yaitu, pembangkit listrik dan penyimpanan digestate. Analisis perbandingan menunjukkan bahwa dampak GWP menjadi kontributor utama dari beban lingkungan yang dihasilkan oleh Biogas Plant Gamping, biogas model Suazhou, biogas model Opatokun, model pirolisis Opatokun, serta model integrasi AD dan pirolisis Opatokun. Pengendalian dan pengurangan dampak GWP secara signifikan dapat mengurangi EI dari sistem. Telah terbukti bahwa peningkatkan teknologi proses, pembangkit listrik dan penyimpanan digestate akan menghasilkan pengurangan EI dari sistem biogas.Kata kunci: dampak lingkungan; energi terbarukan; life cycle assessment (LCA); limbah buah

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The impact of the consumer’s decision on the life cycle assessment of organic pasta

SN Applied Sciences ◽

10.1007/s42452-021-04822-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (11) ◽

Author(s):

Anna Elisabeth Gnielka ◽

Christof Menzel

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Grocery Store ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽

Last Mile ◽

The Impact ◽

Freshwater Eutrophication

AbstractEvery consumer’s decision has an impact on the environment, and even basic food products such as pasta have an impact due to their high consumption rates. Factors that can be influenced by the consumer include the preparation (cooking), last mile and packaging phases. The last mile has not been considered in most studies but contributes considerably to the environmental impact of pasta. The three phases and their environmental impact on the life cycle of pasta are analyzed in this cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The focus of the study lies on the impact categories climate change, agricultural land occupation, fossil depletion, water depletion, freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity. Inventory data were taken from other studies, were collected in cooperation with a zero-packaging organic grocery store in Germany or were gained in test series. Our results show that the preparation of pasta has the greatest environmental impact (over 40% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion and over 50% in the impact category freshwater eutrophication), followed by the last mile (over 20% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion) and lastly the packaging (nearly 9% in the impact categories freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity). Based on our study´s results, we provide some recommendations for minimizing the environmental impacts of pasta.

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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Analysis of Sewage Sludge Recycling Systems in China

Nature Environment and Pollution Technology ◽

10.46488/nept.2021.v20i05.027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 20 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Jiawen Zhang ◽

Toru Matsumoto

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Sewage Sludge ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Building Materials ◽

Sludge Treatment ◽

Heat Utilization ◽

Sludge Recycling ◽

Recycling Systems

With the acceleration of economic development and urbanization in China, sewage sludge generation has sharply increased. To maximize energy regeneration and resource recovery, it is crucial to analyze the environmental impact and sustainability of different sewage sludge recycling systems based on life cycle assessment. This study analyzed four sewage sludge recycling systems in China through life cycle assessment using the ReCipe method, namely aerobic composting, anaerobic digestion and biomass utilization, incineration, and heat utilization and using for building materials. In particular, the key pollution processes and pollutants in sewage sludge recycling systems were analyzed. The results demonstrated that aerobic composting is the most environmentally optimal scenario for reducing emissions and energy consumption. The lowest environmental impact and operating costs were achieved by making bricks and using them as building materials; this was the optimal scenario for sludge treatment and recycling. In contrast, incineration and heat utilization had the highest impact on health and marine toxicity. Anaerobic digestion and biomass utilization had the highest impact on climate change, terrestrial acidification, photochemical oxidant formation, and particulate matter formation. In the future, policy designers should prioritize building material creation for sludge treatment and recycling.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Solid Recovered Fuel Gasification in the State of Qatar

ChemEngineering ◽

10.3390/chemengineering5040081 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 81

Author(s):

Ahmad Mohamed S. H. Al-Moftah ◽

Richard Marsh ◽

Julian Steer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Natural Gas ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Electricity Generation ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Fossil Resource ◽

Environmental Impact Categories

Gas products from gasified solid recovered fuel (SRF) have been proposed as a replacement for natural gas to produce electricity in future power generation systems. In this work, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of SRF air gasification to energy was conducted using the Recipe2016 model considering five environmental impact categories and four scenarios in Qatar. The current situation of municipal solid waste (MSW) handling in Qatar is landfill with composting. The results show that using SRF gasification can reduce the environmental impact of MSW landfills and reliance on natural gas in electricity generation. Using SRF gasification on the selected five environmental impact categories—climate change, terrestrial acidification, marine ecotoxicity, water depletion and fossil resource depletion—returned significant reductions in environmental degradation. The LCA of the SRF gasification for the main four categories in the four scenarios gave varying results. The introduction of the SRF gasification reduced climate change-causing emissions by 41.3% because of production of renewable electricity. A reduction in water depletion and fossil resource depletion of 100 times were achieved. However, the use of solar technology and SRF gasification to generate electricity reduced the impact of climate change to almost zero emissions. Terrestrial acidification showed little to no change in all three scenarios investigated. This study was compared with the previous work from the literature and showed that on a nominal 10 kg MSW processing basis, 5 kg CO2 equivalent emissions were produced for the landfilling scenarios. While the previous studies reported that 8 kg CO2 produced per 10 kg MSW is processed for the same scenario. The findings indicate that introducing SRF gasification in solid waste management and electricity generation in Qatar has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission load and related social, economic, political and environmental costs. In addition, the adoption of the SRF gasification in the country will contribute to Qatar’s national vision 2030 by reducing landfills and produce sustainable energy.

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Assessment of the Life Cycle Environmental Impact of the Olive Oil Extraction Solid Wastes in the European Union

The Open Waste Management Journal ◽

10.2174/1876400220131014001 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 12-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Angela Cossu ◽

Stefania Degl’Innocenti ◽

Monica Agnolucci ◽

Caterina Cristani ◽

Stefano Bedini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Power Generation ◽

European Union ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Oil Extraction ◽

Solid Wastes ◽

Impact Categories ◽

The European Union

There is an increasing interest in developing sustainable systems in the European Union (EU) to recover and upgrade the solid wastes of the olive oil extraction process, i.e. wet husk. A Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment (LCIA) of wet husk has been carried out aiming at facilitating an appropriate Life Cycle Management of this biomass. Three scenarios have been considered, i.e. combustion for domestic heat, generation of electric power, and composting. The Environmental Product Declaration and the ReCiPe method were used for Life Cycle Impact Assessment. Domestic heating and power generation were the most important impact factors in damaging human health, ecosystems, and natural resources depletion. Composting was 2-4 orders of magnitude less impacting than domestic heat and power generation. Considering human health, the impact of climate change, human toxicity and particulate matter formation represented the main impact categories. Considering ecosystems, climate change and natural land transformation were the main impact categories. Within natural resources, fossil fuel depletion was impacted three orders more than metal depletion. Within domestic heating and power generation scenarios, storage of wet husk along with the extraction by organic solvent, and the waste treatment were the most impacting phases for global warming potential, ozone layer depletion, acidification and non renewable fossil resources depletion. The results obtained for the waste disposal have been comparatively assessed with respect to the environmental impact of the olive oil production chain.

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Excellent environmental performance of beet sugar production in the Netherlands

Sugar Industry ◽

10.36961/si24156 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 161-165

Author(s):

Bertram de Crom ◽

Jasper Scholten ◽

Janjoris van Diepen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Cane Sugar ◽

Sugar Production ◽

Beet Sugar ◽

Glucose Syrup

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.

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Sludge minimization by disintegration at different wastewater treatment plants

Water Practice & Technology ◽

10.2166/wpt.2008.010 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Luchien Luning ◽

Paul Roeleveld ◽

Victor W.M. Claessen

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Sewage Sludge ◽

New Technologies ◽

Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽

Treatment Plant ◽

Biological Degradation ◽

Ongoing Research ◽

Sludge Minimization

In recent years new technologies have been developed to improve the biological degradation of sewage sludge by anaerobic digestion. The paper describes the results of a demonstration of ultrasonic disintegration on the Dutch Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Land van Cuijk. The effect on the degradation of organic matter is presented, together with the effect on the dewatering characteristics. Recommendations are presented for establishing research conditions in which the effect of sludge disintegration can be determined in a more direct way that is less sensitive to changing conditions in the operation of the WWTP. These recommendations have been implemented in the ongoing research in the Netherlands supported by the National Institute for wastewater research (STOWA).

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The potential of bio-methane as bio-fuel/bio-energy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions: a qualitative assessment for Europe in a life cycle perspective

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.2008.039 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 57 (11) ◽

pp. 1683-1692 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Andrea Tilche ◽

Michele Galatola

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Industrial Wastewater ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Energy Crops ◽

Qualitative Assessment ◽

Potential Contribution ◽

Ghg Reduction

Anaerobic digestion is a well known process that (while still capable of showing new features) has experienced several waves of technological development. It was “born” as a wastewater treatment system, in the 1970s showed promise as an alternative energy source (in particular from animal waste), in the 1980s and later it became a standard for treating organic-matter-rich industrial wastewater, and more recently returned to the market for its energy recovery potential, making use of different biomasses, including energy crops. With the growing concern around global warming, this paper looks at the potential of anaerobic digestion in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The potential contribution of anaerobic digestion to GHG reduction has been computed for the 27 EU countries on the basis of their 2005 Kyoto declarations and using life cycle data. The theoretical potential contribution of anaerobic digestion to Kyoto and EU post-Kyoto targets has been calculated. Two different possible biogas applications have been considered: electricity production from manure waste, and upgraded methane production for light goods vehicles (from landfill biogas and municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sludges). The useful heat that can be produced as by-product from biogas conversion into electricity has not been taken into consideration, as its real exploitation depends on local conditions. Moreover the amount of biogas already produced via dedicated anaerobic digestion processes has also not been included in the calculations. Therefore the overall gains achievable would be even higher than those reported here. This exercise shows that biogas may considerably contribute to GHG emission reductions in particular if used as a biofuel. Results also show that its use as a biofuel may allow for true negative GHG emissions, showing a net advantage with respect to other biofuels. Considering also energy crops that will become available in the next few years as a result of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, this study shows that biogas has the potential of covering almost 50% of the 2020 biofuel target of 10% of all automotive transport fuels, without implying a change in land use. Moreover, considering the achievable GHG reductions, a very large carbon emission trading “value” could support the investment needs. However, those results were obtained through a “qualitative” assessment. In order to produce robust data for decision makers, a quantitative sustainability assessment should be carried out, integrating different methodologies within a life cycle framework. The identification of the most appropriate policy for promoting the best set of options is then discussed.

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Analysis of the Characteristics of Environmental Impacts According to the Cut-Off Criteria Applicable to the Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) of Apartment Buildings in South Korea

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052898 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2898

Author(s):

Rakhyun Kim ◽

Myung-Kwan Lim ◽

Seungjun Roh ◽

Won-Jun Park

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Impact Analysis ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Environmental Impact Analysis ◽

Apartment Buildings ◽

Environmental Impact Categories ◽

Weight Percentile

This study analyzed the characteristics of the environmental impacts of apartment buildings, a typical housing type in South Korea, as part of a research project supporting the streamlined life cycle assessment (S-LCA) of buildings within the G-SEED (Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design) framework. Three recently built apartment building complexes were chosen as study objects for the quantitative evaluation of the buildings in terms of their embodied environmental impacts (global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone layer depletion potential, photochemical oxidant creation potential, and abiotic depletion potential), using the LCA approach. Additionally, we analyzed the emission trends according to the cut-off criteria of the six environmental impact categories by performing an S-LCA with cut-off criteria 90–99% of the cumulative weight percentile. Consequently, we were able to present the cut-off criterion best suited for S-LCA and analyze the effect of the cut-off criteria on the environmental impact analysis results. A comprehensive environmental impact analysis of the characteristics of the six environmental impact categories revealed that the error rate was below 5% when the cut-off criterion of 97.5% of the cumulative weight percentile was applied, thus verifying its validity as the optimal cut-off criterion for S-LCA.

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Anaerobic digestion life cycle assessment (LCA)

Technium: Romanian Journal of Applied Sciences and Technology ◽

10.47577/technium.v2i5.1066 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (5) ◽

pp. 92-104

Author(s):

Farhad Sakhaee

Keyword(s):

Wastewater Treatment ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Anaerobic Digestion ◽

Training Center ◽

Treatment Facility ◽

Practical Solution ◽

Treatment Facilities ◽

Management Report

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.

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