Journal
DESALINATION
Volume 285, Issue -, Pages 263-270Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2011.10.011
Keywords
Impact assessment methodologies; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); Pilot scale; Wastewater
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Education and Science [CSD2007-00055, CTQ2010-202443]
- Xunta de Galicia [09MDS010262PR, GRC2010/37]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Membrane bioreactors are one of the most outstanding and updating technologies applied for the wastewater treatment. Different configurations and combinations of technologies are possible for this purpose. However, not only the treatment capacity has to be proved, but also the environmental performance of the different alternatives has to be evaluated under a holistic approach. Only by doing so. the selected technology will be feasible from technological and environmental perspectives. In this study, the Life Cycle Assessment was applied for the evaluation of four membrane bioreactor configurations of increasing complexity. The main contributors to the environmental impacts evaluated were identical for all the alternatives; that is, electricity use plays an important role in all the impact categories and agricultural application of sewage sludge has also a relevant contribution on toxicity-related categories and acidification potential. The comparison among the different configurations reveals an inverse relationship between the environmental costs associated to the treatment and the complexity of the treatment process. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available