Assessment of Municipal Effluent Reclamation Process Based on the Information of Cost Analysis and Environmental Impacts
Journal Title: International Journal of Environment and Climate Change - Year 2014, Vol 4, Issue 1
Abstract
Water shortage has now become a global issue. Reclamation of the effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plant is feasible for supplying the quick growth of water requirement. The objective of this study was to conduct both the cost analysis and environmental impact evaluation of two reclamation processes: sand filter – ultrafiltration - reverse osmosis (SF-UF-RO) and sand filter - electrodialysis reversal (SF-EDR). The results will serve as a reference for selecting the process in the scale-up construction works. Two processes were installed in a reclamation pilot plant in Futian Water Resource Recycling Center (Taichung City, Taiwan) and operated in parallel to evaluate their stability and product quality. The cost analysis was conducted to estimate the capital requirement of building large-scale plant for reclaiming the effluent. The cost of land construction, mechanical with electronic equipment and operation with maintenance were all considered in the analysis. On the other hand, the environmental assessment of these processes has been realized by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The software Sima Pro 7.3 was used as the LCA analysis tool. Four different evaluation methods, including Eco-indicator 99, Ecopoints 97, Impact 2002+ and CML 2 baseline 2000, were applied. The results show that the water quality of SF-EDR has similar potential in reclaiming the effluent from municipal water resource recycling center as SF-UF-RO. The cost of SF-EDR is lower than that of SF-UF-RO. In the environmental analysis, the LCA demonstrates that SF-EDR may create more impacts on the environment due to more consumption on electricity and chemicals than SF-UF-RO. Using SF-UF-RO as the effluent reclamation process may be an option causing less impacts on climate change.
Authors and Affiliations
Yu-De Huang, Hsin-Hsu Huang, Ching-Ping Chu, Yu-Jen Chung
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP350469
- DOI 10.9734/BJECC/2014/8574
- Views 152
- Downloads 0
Stream Flow Response to Skilled and Non-linear Bias Corrected GCM Precipitation Change in the Wami River Sub-basin, Tanzania
The reliability of stream flow projection under changing climate cannot be guaranteed if the General Circulation Model (GCM) used for the projection of future climate does not predict well its past climate. In this study...
Feasibility Study of Water Saving Measures in Higher Education Buildings: A Case Study of the University of Aveiro
Aims: Evaluate the water savings potential and financial viability of water saving measures in in higher education buildings Study Design: The study follows an observational approach to characterize the current performa...
Mitigating Greenhouse Gas and Ammonia Emissions from Stored Slurry through the Addition of Brewing Sugar and a Biological Additive
Livestock slurry stores are a key source of ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study evaluated the potential to reduce NH3, CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions by adding effective microorganisms (EM) and brewi...
How Does Your Garden Flow? The Impact of Domestic Front Gardens on Urban Flooding
Aims: To quantify rainwater runoff from domestic front gardens as a consequence of increased impervious surface area and climate change impacts, thus allowing the runoff contribution from both newly and previously covere...
Carbon Sequestration Potential of Agricultural Crops in Designed Plant Growth Chamber
Aim: Climate change is becoming one of the major global environment concerns. The earth’s climate is predicted to change due to release of greenhouse gases and there is an urgent need for stabilizing the increasing level...