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A soil biotechnology system for wastewater treatment: technical, hygiene, environmental LCA and economic aspects

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Abstract

Soil biotechnology (SBT) is a green engineering approach for wastewater treatment and recycling. Five SBT units located in the Mumbai region were under consideration of which holistic assessment of two SBT plants was carried out considering its technical, environmental and economic aspects and was compared with published research of other three. LCA has been done to evaluate the environmental impacts of construction and operation phase of SBT. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) removal of more than 90% can be achieved using this technology. Also, the nutrient removal proficiency (nitrate, nitrite, ammoniacal nitrogen, TKN, total nitrogen and phosphates) of this technique is good. On the other hand, SBT has low annual operation and maintenance cost, comparable to land-based systems and lower than conventional or advanced technologies. From the life cycle impact assessment, the main contributors for overall impact from the plant were identified as electricity consumption, discharges of COD, P-PO4 3− and N-NH4 + and disposal of sludge. The construction phase was found to have significantly more impact than the operation phase of the plant. This study suggests plant I is not relatively as efficient enough regarding sanitation. SBT provides several benefits over other conventional technologies for wastewater treatment. It is based on a bio-conversion process and is practically maintenance free. It does not produce any odorous bio-sludge and consumes the least energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Engineering and Management, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, India

    Sheetal Jaisingh Kamble

  2. Supporting consolidation, replication and upscaling of sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse technologies in India (SARASWATI), National Institute of Industrial Engineering NITIE, Mumbai, India

    Yogita Chakravarthy & Itee Bawa

  3. Industrial Safety and Environmental Management, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, India

    Anju Singh

  4. Inovertis Pole Technologies Propres Saint-Etienne, Saint-Étienne, France

    Caroline Chubilleau

  5. Competence Centre for Decision Aid in Environmental Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria

    Markus Starkl

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  1. Sheetal Jaisingh Kamble
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  2. Yogita Chakravarthy
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  3. Anju Singh
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  4. Caroline Chubilleau
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Correspondence to Sheetal Jaisingh Kamble.

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Kamble, S.J., Chakravarthy, Y., Singh, A. et al. A soil biotechnology system for wastewater treatment: technical, hygiene, environmental LCA and economic aspects. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 13315–13334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8819-6

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