Abstract
The energy potential of high-organic loaded agro-industrial effluents receiving biological treatment is often neglected, particularly in emergent regions, because of different technical and regulatory drawbacks. In addition, small alternative bioenergy sources are forced to compete disadvantageously with conventional energy supply, hindering their more extended exploitation. Thus, smart strategies to prove the environmental/economic potential of biogas and sludge produced in biological wastewater treatment systems (Bio-WWTs) are required to promote them as truly sustainable energy sources. In this view, the present study depicts a refined methodological framework for a more appropriate appraisal of Bio-WWTs promoting bioenergy recovery. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and emergy analysis (EmA) methods were merged around the statement of some identified and stated Principle–Criteria of Sustainability (PCS) for this kind of “water-energy nexus.” As a result, a novel set of four single sustainability development indicators (SDIs) and one aggregated SDI were obtained to address sustainable conditions for valorization of bio-energy from agro-industrial Bio-WWTs. These indicators were made up of an environmental term coming from an LCA based on a system expansion approach as well as a second or “eco-economic” term obtained by means of EmA. This work introduces and shapes the “additionality” notion as an expression of overall sustainability and uses novel sustainability charts to interpret the obtained SDIs and their shifting or changes for different Bio-WWTs’ life cycle scenarios. The “proof of concept” of this methodology is discussed along the obtained results for two case studies in Colombia.
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Notes
The more recommended baseline or reference scenario in this method would be the “businesses as usual” activity; it means the current operational condition or processes schema.
Procedures for determination of this and other physical flows (energy and materials), being required for emergy calculations, are included in the Supplementary Material, SM2.
Methods and procedures to determine “transformity” functions of each physical flow involved in the present study have been compiled in the Supplementary Material, SM3.
The sum of emergy terms is divided by 4 to keep the value range of this indicator between [− 1, 1] and to ease its interpretation.
The weighting factors employed in study case 2 are “not arbitrary”; they result from a literature review of criteria and “quantitative priority” tendencies of environmental indicators having a prevailing local reach (e.g., EP, AP, ReI, NRE).
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the program “Alianza del Pacífico” that provided a scholarship to A.M.J. during his doctoral formation.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. These are also available in the thesis repository of the National University of Colombia (original in Spanish), in: chttp://bdigital.unal.edu.co/view/person/
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No specific funding was received for the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in the writing of the manuscript. A scholarship was granted by the program “Alianza del Pacífico” to A.M.J. during his doctoral formation and it has been presented in the “Acknowledgments” section of the manuscript.
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A.M.J. is the author of the methodology and its proof of concept is presented in this paper as a result of his Ph.D thesis; A.A.R.-C. was her research director, contributing in this paper with its co-writing and improvement of each section. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Meneses-Jácome, A., Ruiz-Colorado, A.A. A new approach of ecologically based life cycle assessment for biological wastewater treatments focused on energy recovery goals. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 4195–4208 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10703-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10703-5