Maximizing eco-environmental gains: Exploring underground wastewater treatment plants in Beijing for sustainable urban water management

This study assessed the evolution of wastewater systems during the rapid urbanization of Beijing, with special focuses on the carbon footprints and growing underground WWTPs (u-WWTPs). Specifically, the Bishui plant (in situ constructed u-WWTP) was assessed in detail regarding eco-environmental benefits. Our results showed that, the direct...

Corrigendum to “Defining water-related energy for global comparison, clearer communication, and sharper policy”[J. Clean. Prod. 236 (2019) 17502] (Journal of Cleaner Production (2019) 236, (S0959652619323108), (10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.333))

The authors would like to correct the value of water-related electricity consumption at utility as a percentage of total electricity consumption for Australia (2015). The correct value is 1.1% in Figure 2, and Table S1-2 and Figure S1-2 (Supplementary Information 1 of Appendix B). Associated with this error, the water-related electricity...

Life Cycle Environmental Impacts of Wastewater-Derived Phosphorus Products: An Agricultural End-User Perspective

Recovering phosphorus from wastewater in more concentrated forms has potential to sustainably recirculate phosphorus from cities to agriculture. The environmental sustainability of wastewater-based phosphorus recovery processes or wastewater-derived phosphorus products can be evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA). Many LCA studies used a...

Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review

Recovering resources from wastewater systems is increasingly being emphasised. Many technologies exist or are under development for recycling nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater to agriculture. Planning and design methodologies are needed to identify and deploy the most sustainable solutions in given contexts. For the...

Low-Carbon Urban Water Systems: Opportunities beyond Water and Wastewater Utilities?

The provision of urban water and wastewater services contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Urban water supply and wastewater utilities can potentially achieve low-carbon or carbon-neutral operation through many “utility opportunities”. Outside the jurisdiction of water utilities, many water-related “wider opportunities” can also...

Developing an energy satellite for an MRIO virtual laboratory

Carbon accounting for households – a case study of a community’s emissions

Life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery from wastewater – current methodological practices

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an established methodology to assess the potential environmental impacts of products and processes. We reviewed 49 recent LCA studies (2010-2019) on wastewater nutrient recovery to synthesise some current methodological practices. Their scopes, variations, nutrient recovery accounting, uncertainty and sensitivity...

Defining water-related energy for global comparison, clearer communication, and sharper policy

The need for energy in water provision and use is obvious, however the drivers are often complex, difficult to assess, and often inconsistently presented. Here we build a clearer definition and conceptual framework of “water-related energy”. We apply this framework to harmonise data and results across disparate studies so that regional...

Influence of cleantech interventions on wastewater chain and City of Amsterdam: Towards a resilient system for phosphorus recovery & valorisation

The wastewater chain of Amsterdam offers an opportunity to recover up to 100% of phosphorus per year, versus 47% currently recovered. However, for the stakeholders of Amsterdam (e.g. citizens, business) it remains difficult to scale-up existing solutions for resource recovery. Mainly, due to the limitations of the widelyused methods (e.g. mass...