Life cycle assessment of waste water treatment plants in ireland
Mcnamara, Greg Fitzsimons, Lorna Horrigan, Matthew Phelan, Thomas Delaure, Yan Corcoran, Brian Doherty, Edelle Clifford, Eoghan
Mcnamara, Greg
Fitzsimons, Lorna
Horrigan, Matthew
Phelan, Thomas
Delaure, Yan
Corcoran, Brian
Doherty, Edelle
Clifford, Eoghan
Publication Date
2016-09-01
Type
Article
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Citation
Mcnamara, Greg; Fitzsimons, Lorna; Horrigan, Matthew; Phelan, Thomas; Delaure, Yan; Corcoran, Brian; Doherty, Edelle; Clifford, Eoghan (2016). Life cycle assessment of waste water treatment plants in ireland. Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems 4 (3), 216-233
Abstract
The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC introduced a series of measures for the purpose of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of effluent discharge from wastewater treatment plants. There are environmental costs associated with attaining the required level of water quality set out in the directive such as greenhouse gas emissions due to energy production, and ecotoxicity from sludge application to land. The goal of this study is to assess the environmental costs in an Irish context, focusing specifically on the effects of variation in scale and discharge limitation. Life cycle assessment is the analytical tool used to evaluate the environmental impact. The life cycle impact assessment methodology developed by the Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (2010) has been adopted and implemented using GaBi 6.0 life cycle assessment software. Two plants of varying size and location were chosen for the study. The study found that energy consumption and sludge application to land are the largest contributors to the overall environmental impact associated with the treatment process at both plants. Economies of scale were observed in energy usage during secondary aeration.
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Publisher
International Centre for Sustainable Development of Water
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Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland