Title
Benchmarking wastewater treatment plants under an eco-efficiency perspective
Date Issued
01 October 2016
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Lorenzo-Toja Y.
Amores M.
Termes-Rifé M.
Marín-Navarro D.
Moreira M.
Feijoo G.
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
The new ISO 14045 framework is expected to slowly start shifting the definition of eco-efficiency toward a life-cycle perspective, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as the environmental impact assessment method together with a system value assessment method for the economic analysis. In the present study, a set of 22 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Spain were analyzed on the basis of eco-efficiency criteria, using LCA and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) as a system value assessment method. The study is intended to be useful to decision-makers in the wastewater treatment sector, since the combined method provides an alternative scheme for analyzing the relationship between environmental impacts and costs. Two midpoint impact categories, global warming and eutrophication potential, as well as an endpoint single score indicator were used for the environmental assessment, while LCC was used for value assessment. Results demonstrated that substantial differences can be observed between different WWTPs depending on a wide range of factors such as plant configuration, plant size or even legal discharge limits. Based on these results the benchmarking of wastewater treatment facilities was performed by creating a specific classification and certification scheme. The proposed eco-label for the WWTPs rating is based on the integration of the three environmental indicators and an economic indicator calculated within the study under the eco-efficiency new framework.
Start page
468
End page
479
Volume
566-567
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Oceanografía, Hidrología, Recursos hídricos Ingeniería ambiental y geológica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84969581324
PubMed ID
Source
Science of the Total Environment
ISSN of the container
00489697
Sponsor(s)
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the AQUAENVEC project ( LIFE10 ENV/ES/000520 ). The authors from the University of Santiago de Compostela belong to CRETUS (AGRUP2015/02) and the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC 2013-032, program co-funded by FEDER. Dr. Ian Vazquez-Rowe wishes to thank the Galician Government for financial support (I2C postdoctoral student grants' program). Yago Lorenzo-Toja wishes to thank Simon Villamayor for his inestimable support.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus