Faculty of Business and Economics, Chair of Business Administration, esp. Environmental Management and Accounting
„Life cycle assessment (LCA)
of small wastewater treatment plants“
Rebecca Schubert,
Martin Nowack, Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Guenther
Budapest, 1st March 2011
1. Introduction
2. Materials & Methods
3. Results & Discussion
4. Conclusion & Outlook
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 2 of 13
Future settlement structures and urban drainage are challenged by a
multitude of future challenges:
• Climate change
• Demographic change
• Decreasing water demand
Widely discussed adaption option for rural and non-connected households
is the installation of Small Wastewater Treatment Plants (SWWTP):
• Shorter life time (increasing the flexibility to deal with uncertainty)
• Lower investment costs (under certain circumstances)
No data on the ecological performance of SWWTP is available:
• Conduction of a survey among the producers of SWWTP to develop a life cycle inventory
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 3 of 13
1. Introduction
2. Materials & Methods
3. Results & Discussion
4. Conclusion & Outlook
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 4 of 13
Sequencing batch reactor
Sewage
production
Sewage
transport
Batch
Water
disposal
Sewage
sludge
Sequencing batch reactor
Energy
consumption
Clear-water
pull-off
Sedimentation
Schematic illustration of a
sequencing batch reactor
(Picture: Martin Nowack)
Chair of Business Administration
Ventilation
Environmental Management and Accounting
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Transport of the plants
Transport
Number of plants
per vehicle
Distance in km
Distance per transported
plant in km
Chair of Business Administration
Data
8
350
3
100
100600
worst
case
best
case
mean
case
3
8
6
600
100
267
200
12,5
48,48
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 6 of 13
1. Introduction
2. Materials & Methods
3. Results & Discussion
4. Conclusion & Outlook
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 7 of 13
Impact assessment for concrete and PE-container: normalized
Abiotic
depletion
Acidification
Eutrophication
WWTP – concrete (best case)
WWTP – PE (mean case)
Chair of Business Administration
Global warming
(GWP100)
Ozone layer
depletion
WWTP – concrete (mean case)
WWTP – PE (worst case)
Human toxicity
Fresh water
aquatic ecotox
Marine aquatic
ecotoxicity
WWTP – concrete (worst case)
Environmental Management and Accounting
Terrestrial
ecotoxicity
Photochemical
oxidation
WWTP – PE (best case)
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Impact assessment for a concrete container: characterization
Abiotic
depletion
Acidification
Eutrophication
Global warming
(GWP100)
production- conr. (mean case)
Chair of Business Administration
Ozone layer
depletion
Human toxicity
use – concr. (mean case)
Fresh water
aquatic ecotox
Marine aquatic
ecotoxicity
Terrestrial
ecotoxicity
Photochemical
oxidation
disposal – concr. (mean case)
Environmental Management and Accounting
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Impact assessment for a PE-corpus: characterization
Abiotic
depletion
Acidification
Eutrophication
Global warming
(GWP100)
prod.- PE (mean case)
Chair of Business Administration
Ozone layer
depletion
Human toxicity
use – PE (mean case)
Fresh water
aquatic ecotox
Marine aquatic
ecotoxicity
Terrestrial
ecotoxicity
Photochemical
oxidation
disposal – PE (mean case)
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 10 of 13
1. Introduction
2. Materials & Methods
3. Results & Discussion
4. Conclusion & Outlook
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 11 of 13
Conclusion
• The use of best, worst and mean cases allowed us to deal with a
broad data range in an appropriate manner
• In view of the results the producers can benchmark their own
performance
• Further data is collected for sprinkling filter, immersion trickle filter,
and finishing treatment systems
• Finally, the data will be used for a comparison of central and
decentral wastewater treatment plants
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
slide 12 of 13
Thank you for your attention!
For more questions: www.tu-dresden.de/wwbwlbu/en
E-Mail:
[email protected]
Technische Universität Dresden is validated according to EMAS
regulations since January 2003, successful revalidation in
December 2006 and in December 2009. Information: http://tudresden.de/die_tu_dresden/umweltschutz?set_language=en&cl=en
Chair of Business Administration
Environmental Management and Accounting
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