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Incorporation of main line impact into life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery from reject water using novel membrane contactor technology

Högstrand, Sofia LU orcid ; Uzkurt Kaljunen, Juho ; Al-Juboori, Raed A. ; Jönsson, Karin LU ; Kjerstadius, Hamse LU ; Mikola, Anna ; Peters, Greg and Svanström, Magdalena (2023) In Journal of Cleaner Production 408.
Abstract

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) nutrient recovery has recently gained traction in the search for new pathways for fertilizer production. In particular, concentrated waste streams such as reject water from sludge digestion are suitable. The environmental impact of a novel nutrient recovery technology using a membrane contactor (NPHarvest) was examined with an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Impact hotspots were benchmarked against a comparable technology (struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping), and the impacts of the two technologies were found to be similar for most studied environmental impact categories. To allow for the inclusion of effects on other parts of the WWTP while limiting the general system boundaries to... (More)

Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) nutrient recovery has recently gained traction in the search for new pathways for fertilizer production. In particular, concentrated waste streams such as reject water from sludge digestion are suitable. The environmental impact of a novel nutrient recovery technology using a membrane contactor (NPHarvest) was examined with an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Impact hotspots were benchmarked against a comparable technology (struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping), and the impacts of the two technologies were found to be similar for most studied environmental impact categories. To allow for the inclusion of effects on other parts of the WWTP while limiting the general system boundaries to the reject water treatment, a novel approach to capture the main line impact was developed. The effects on the main line contributed substantially to the overall results. The overall results indicated clear nutrient recovery benefits related to substituted materials in mineral fertilizer production. Additionally, reject water nutrient recovery provided even greater benefits due to reduced N2O emissions and the reduced use of precipitation chemicals in the WWTP main line. Nonetheless, both nutrient removal and recovery were necessary for the two technologies to reach a net zero climate impact in their current pilot scales. Further development of the NPHarvest technology—such as mitigating NH3 emissions, exploring alternative input chemicals and optimizing energy consumption (especially for crystallizing the ammonium salt solution that is produced)—is recommended before full-scale implementation.

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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Main line impact model, Municipal wastewater, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Recovery
in
Journal of Cleaner Production
volume
408
article number
137227
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85153058443
ISSN
0959-6526
DOI
10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137227
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58be0562-0582-492b-9f85-9487159659f1
date added to LUP
2023-06-20 14:52:00
date last changed
2023-12-21 13:39:09
@article{58be0562-0582-492b-9f85-9487159659f1,
  abstract     = {{<p>Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) nutrient recovery has recently gained traction in the search for new pathways for fertilizer production. In particular, concentrated waste streams such as reject water from sludge digestion are suitable. The environmental impact of a novel nutrient recovery technology using a membrane contactor (NPHarvest) was examined with an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). Impact hotspots were benchmarked against a comparable technology (struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping), and the impacts of the two technologies were found to be similar for most studied environmental impact categories. To allow for the inclusion of effects on other parts of the WWTP while limiting the general system boundaries to the reject water treatment, a novel approach to capture the main line impact was developed. The effects on the main line contributed substantially to the overall results. The overall results indicated clear nutrient recovery benefits related to substituted materials in mineral fertilizer production. Additionally, reject water nutrient recovery provided even greater benefits due to reduced N<sub>2</sub>O emissions and the reduced use of precipitation chemicals in the WWTP main line. Nonetheless, both nutrient removal and recovery were necessary for the two technologies to reach a net zero climate impact in their current pilot scales. Further development of the NPHarvest technology—such as mitigating NH<sub>3</sub> emissions, exploring alternative input chemicals and optimizing energy consumption (especially for crystallizing the ammonium salt solution that is produced)—is recommended before full-scale implementation.</p>}},
  author       = {{Högstrand, Sofia and Uzkurt Kaljunen, Juho and Al-Juboori, Raed A. and Jönsson, Karin and Kjerstadius, Hamse and Mikola, Anna and Peters, Greg and Svanström, Magdalena}},
  issn         = {{0959-6526}},
  keywords     = {{Main line impact model; Municipal wastewater; Nitrogen; Phosphorus; Recovery}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
  title        = {{Incorporation of main line impact into life cycle assessment of nutrient recovery from reject water using novel membrane contactor technology}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137227}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137227}},
  volume       = {{408}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}