Application of LCA and LCC in the early stages of wastewater treatment design

Application of LCA and LCC in the early stages of wastewater treatment design: A multiple case study of brine effluents

Harris, Steve (IVL Svenska Miljoinstitutet)
Tsalidis, G.A. (TU Delft BT/Biotechnology and Society)
Corbera, Joan Berzosa (Eurecat, Technology Centre of Catalonia)
Espi Gallart, Jose Jorge (Eurecat, Technology Centre of Catalonia)
Tegstedt, Fredrik (IVL Svenska Miljoinstitutet)

2021

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.

By-product recovery
Circular economy
Life cycle costing
Prospective life cycle assessment
Wastewater treatment

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:baa7ca43-8739-4b26-b9e1-2bb85ac3a59b

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127298

0959-6526

Journal of Cleaner Production, 307

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2021 Steve Harris, G.A. Tsalidis, Joan Berzosa Corbera, Jose Jorge Espi Gallart, Fredrik Tegstedt