Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Life cycle assessment of construction and renovation of sewer systems using a detailed inventory tool

  • LCA OF WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The objective was to provide comprehensive life cycle inventories for the construction and renovation of sewers. A detailed inventory was provided with multiple options of pipe materials, diameters and site-specific characteristics, and was embedded into the Excel®-based tool SewerLCA. The tool allows for life cycle evaluation of different sewers. It was applied to determine the most important phases, processes, and related parameters involved in the construction and renovation of sewers from an environmental and economical perspective.

Methods

Comprehensive life cycle inventories (LCIs) for sewers construction and renovation were obtained by first identifying all processes involved after interviewing construction experts and reviewing sewer construction budgets from a Catalan company; and second transforming the processes into masses of materials and energy usage using construction databases. In order to run the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) the materials and energy typologies from the inventories were matched to their corresponding equivalents into available LCI databases. Afterwards the potential impacts were calculated through the use of LCIA characterization factors from ReCiPe. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was run several times to assess the construction of a 1-km-long sewer with varying pipe materials, life spans for each material, diameters, transport distances, site-specific characteristics, and pipe deposition options.

Results and discussion

The environmental impacts generated by construction and renovation of a 1 km Polyvinylchloride (PVC) pipe with a diameter of 40 cm are mainly associated with pipe laying and backfilling of the trench. The evaluation of several pipe materials and diameters shows that the exclusion of renovation would underestimate the impacts by 38 to 82 % depending on the pipe materials and diameters. Including end-of-life phase for plastic pipe materials increases climate change (up to an extra 71 %) and human toxicity (up to an extra 147 %) impacts (among all diameters). The preferred pipe materials from an environmental point of view are precast concrete and High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE). Site-specific characteristics (specially the presence of rocky soil and asphalt placement) and material life span have a high influence on the overall environmental profile, whereas changes in transport distances have only a minor impact (<4 %).

Conclusions

Environmental impacts during the construction and renovation of sewers are subject to differences in material type, site-specific characteristics and material life span. Renovation of sewers has a large influence on all potential environmental impacts and costs and, hence, should not be omitted in LCA studies. The treatment and disposal processes of plastic pipes at the end of their life has to be accounted in LCA studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adequa Grupo Uralita (2007) Instalación de tuberías para abastecimiento, riego y saneamiento según normativa vigente. Madrid, Spain

  • Banc BEDEC (Structured data bank of building elements) http://itec.cat/nouBedec.c/bedec.aspx (Summer 2013)

  • Blosser M, Dobey E, Haub A, Iwai R, Mc Gowan V, Ring-Erickson L, Wise S (2003) Storm and Surface Water Plan—City of Olympia. http://olympiawa.gov/city-utilities/storm-and-surface-water/policies-and-regulations/policies-and-regulations-storm-and-surface-water-plan

  • Du F, Woods GJ, Kang D, Lansey KE, Arnold RG (2013) Life cycle analysis for water and wastewater pipe materials. J Environ Eng 139:703–711

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • European Environment Agency (2013) Urban waste water treatment—Indicator Assessment—data and maps—(p. 19). Copenhagen. http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/urban-waste-water-treatment/urban-waste-water-treatment-assessment-3

  • Frischknecht R, Jungbluth N, Althaus H, Doka G, Dones R, Heck T, Hellweg S, Hischer R, Nemecek T, Rebitzer G, Spielmann M (2005) The ecoinvent Database: Overview and Methodological Framework. Int J Life Cycle Assess 10(1):3–9

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Goedkoop M, Heijungs R, Huijbregts M, De Schryver A, Struijs J, Van Zelm R (2013) ReCiPe 2008—a life cycle impact assessment method which comprises harmonised category indicators at the midpoint and the endpoint level. http://www.lcia-recipe.net/file-cabinet

  • ISO 14040 (2006) Environmental Management - Life Cycle Assessment – Principles and Framework: International Standard 14040. International Standards Organisation, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • ISO 14044 (2006) Environmental management—life cycle assessment—requirements and guidelines. International Standards Organisation, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Loubet P, Roux P, Loiseau E, Bellon-Maurel V (2014) Life cycle assessments of urban water systems: a comparative analysis of selected peer-reviewed literature. Water Res 67:187–202

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Murray A, Horvath A, Nelson KL (2008) Hybrid life-cycle environmental and cost inventory of sewage sludge treatment and end-use scenarios: a case study from China. Environ Sci Technol 42:3163–3169

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Noori M, Kucukvar M, Tatari O (2015) A macro-level decision analysis of wind power as a solution for sustainable energy in the USA. Int J Sustainable Energy 34(10):629–644

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petit-Boix A, Sanjuan-Delmás D, Gasol CM, Villalba G, Suárez-Ojeda ME, Gabarrell X, Josa A, Rieradevall J (2014) Environmental assessment of sewer construction in small to medium sized cities using life cycle assessment. Water Resour Manag 28:979–997

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piratla KR, Ariaratnam ST, Cohen A (2012) Estimation of CO2 emissions from the Life Cycle of a Potable Water Pipeline Project. J Manag Eng 28:22–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Risch E, Gutierrez O, Roux P, Boutin C, Corominas L (2015) Life cycle assessment of urban wastewater systems: quantifying the relative contribution of sewer systems. Water Res 77:35–48

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Udo de Haes HA, Heijungs R, Sangwon S, Huppes G (2004) Three strategies to overcome the limitations of life-cycle assessment. J Ind Ecol 8(3):19–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weidema BP, Bauer Ch, Hischier R, Mutel Ch, Nemecek T, Reinhard J, Vadenbo CO, Wernet G (2013) The ecoinvent database: overview and methodology, data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3. www.ecoinvent.org

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Voltes S.L.U. for the technical support, Ivet Domènech and Neus Jornada for the drawings in Fig. 1, Banc BEDEC, the Ramon and Cajal grant from Lluís Corominas (RYC-2013-14595), the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant PCIG9-GA-2011-293535 and the REaCH project (CTM2015-66892-R). Serni Morera’s FI scholarship (2015FI_B2 00071), STSMscholarship from EU-Cost Action Water2020 (ECOST-STSM-ES1202-110614-044095). LEQUIA and ICRA were recognized as consolidated research groups by the Catalan Government with codes 2014-SGR-1168 and 2014-SGR-291, respectively.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEQUIA, Institute of the Environment, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, 17071, Girona, Catalonia, Spain

    Serni Morera & Joaquim Comas

  2. KWB, Berlin Centre of Competence for Water, Cicerostr 24, 10709, Berlin, Germany

    Christian Remy

  3. ICRA, Catalan Institute for Water Research, Scientific and Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit, 101, 17003, Girona, Spain

    Joaquim Comas & Lluís Corominas

Authors
  1. Serni Morera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christian Remy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Joaquim Comas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Lluís Corominas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lluís Corominas.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Omer Tatari

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(DOC 275 kb)

ESM 1

(XLXS 486 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Morera, S., Remy, C., Comas, J. et al. Life cycle assessment of construction and renovation of sewer systems using a detailed inventory tool. Int J Life Cycle Assess 21, 1121–1133 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1078-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1078-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation