Introducing a new method to assess the benefits of resources recovered from wastewater to the natural environment

Resources recovery can improve the economic efficiency and reduce the negative environmental impacts of municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTP). The recovered resources can also actively benefit the natural environment enabling a reciprocal relationship between human society and nature. Focusing on these benefits can reveal new resources...

A comparative sustainability evaluation of alternative configurations of an urban nitrogen removal solution targeting different pathways

Limiting the introduction of excess nitrogen to natural water sources is a growing priority for water security and environmental health. This poses particular difficulties in urban environments where available land for potential solutions is limited. A promising option is the integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) process that requires...

A new approach to circularity assessment for a sustainable water sector: Accounting for environmental functional flows and losses

Resource recovery solutions can reduce the water sector's resource use intensity. With many such solutions being proposed, an assessment method for effective decision-making is needed. The water sector predominantly deals with biogeochemical resources (e.g., nitrogen) that are different from technical resources (e.g., industrial coagulants)...

A comparative evaluation of the sustainability of alternative aeration strategies in biological wastewater treatment to support net-zero future

In the plight for sustainable development and to support net zero ambitions for climate change mitigation, a broad range of aeration strategies have been developed with the hope of improving efficiency to minimize environmental and economic costs associated with the wastewater treatment processes. However, a balance is levied between reducing...

Risk assessment methods for water resource recovery for the production of bio-composite materials: Literature review and future research directions

Bio-composite materials made from resources recovered from the water cycle are the future of the holistic approach towards sustainable wastewater treatment. The raw ingredients for these materials are coming from contaminated sources such as wastewater resources, water plants from surface water etc.. Thus, different risks like human health,...

A Stochastic Model to Predict Flow, Nutrient and Temperature Changes in a Sewer under Water Conservation Scenarios

Reducing water use could impact existing sewer systems but this is not currently well understood. This work describes a new flow and wastewater quality model developed to investigate this impact. SIMDEUM WW® was used to generate stochastic appliance-specific discharge profiles for wastewater flow and concentration, which were fed into InfoWorks®...

Predicting impacts of water conservation with a stochastic sewer model

Population growth and climate change put a strain on water resources; hence, there are growing initiatives to reduce water use. Reducing household water use will likely reduce sewer input. This work demonstrates the use of a stochastic sewer model to quantify the effect water conservation has on sewer hydraulics and wastewater concentration....

Developing a stochastic sewer model to support sewer design under water conservation measures

Population growth and climate change place a strain on water resources; hence, there are growing initiatives to reduce household water use. UKWIR (2016) have a stated aim to halve water abstraction by 2050. This will significantly reduce inflow to sewer systems and increase wastewater concentration. This work presents a new stochastic sewer...