TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of LCA and LCC in the early stages of wastewater treatment design
T2 - A multiple case study of brine effluents
AU - Harris, Steve
AU - Tsalidis, George
AU - Corbera, Joan Berzosa
AU - Espi Gallart, Jose Jorge
AU - Tegstedt, Fredrik
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Technological developments are opening new avenues to facilitate the circular economy through resource recovery from industrial wastewater. This paper presents the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in the development of technology solutions for the treatment of brine wastewater and recovery of by-products. Four industrial case studies are assessed that apply different innovative technology configurations, to treat the brines and recover the water, salts and mineral compounds. The assessment focusses on identifying hotspots and potential design improvements for the four case studies. In addition, the development of a unified approach for prospective LCA and LCC is illustrated to promote robustness and consistency in the analysis of the four systems. The analysis reveals that the impact and cost of treatment is highly dependent on the wastewater composition. Critically, whether the recovery of compounds and deionised water can counteract the impact and cost of the treatment systems. The early analysis suggests that this is possible for two of the cases studies. Estimates of the GHG emissions for the initial system analysis, range from 10 to 17 kg CO2e/m3, whilst costs range from €10/m3 to €25/m3. However, both are expected to decrease at full scale and are sensitive to costs of energy, chemicals and revenue from recovered by-products. The LCA's highlight chemical and energy consumption as critical hotspots. Design considerations therefore focus on the reduction of chemicals, reuse or switching to lower impact chemicals, and maximising by-product recovery, and using renewable energy.
AB - Technological developments are opening new avenues to facilitate the circular economy through resource recovery from industrial wastewater. This paper presents the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) in the development of technology solutions for the treatment of brine wastewater and recovery of by-products. Four industrial case studies are assessed that apply different innovative technology configurations, to treat the brines and recover the water, salts and mineral compounds. The assessment focusses on identifying hotspots and potential design improvements for the four case studies. In addition, the development of a unified approach for prospective LCA and LCC is illustrated to promote robustness and consistency in the analysis of the four systems. The analysis reveals that the impact and cost of treatment is highly dependent on the wastewater composition. Critically, whether the recovery of compounds and deionised water can counteract the impact and cost of the treatment systems. The early analysis suggests that this is possible for two of the cases studies. Estimates of the GHG emissions for the initial system analysis, range from 10 to 17 kg CO2e/m3, whilst costs range from €10/m3 to €25/m3. However, both are expected to decrease at full scale and are sensitive to costs of energy, chemicals and revenue from recovered by-products. The LCA's highlight chemical and energy consumption as critical hotspots. Design considerations therefore focus on the reduction of chemicals, reuse or switching to lower impact chemicals, and maximising by-product recovery, and using renewable energy.
KW - By-product recovery
KW - Circular economy
KW - Life cycle costing
KW - Prospective life cycle assessment
KW - Wastewater treatment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105494349&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127298
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127298
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105494349
VL - 307
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
SN - 0959-6526
M1 - 127298
ER -