Life Cycle Analysis for Nutrient Removal Processes

ONTIVEROS G. Y CAMPANELLA E.

Iguazú

Conferencia; Properties and Phase Equilibria for Product and Process Design; 2013

PLAPIQUI

A conventional wastewater treatment plant, based on biological processes, has only the initial capacity to remove the organic load present in the effluent. Nevertheless, treated water discharged with significant levels of nitrogen and phosphorus is the mean cause of artificial eutrophication, leading to consider removal of nutrients in wastewater treatments. In the presented work several alternatives were evaluated, which differ in the nutrient removal technology used (UCT, Bardenpho, etc.) and the final destination of the generated biosolids. The amount of schemes proposed for nutrients removal is wide, as well as the characteristics of each one of them, being necessary to establish a number of options and make the fullest possible assessment to determine which is more suitable in environmental terms. Fundamental tools for such assessment are the computational simulation, used to test the behavior of the different schemes, and the incorporation of the life cycle analysis (LCA) as a tool for quantifying the environmental impacts. Simulations were carried out through the software GPS-X (Hydromantis), while a freeware OpenLCA (GreenDeltaTC) was used to perform the lifecycle analysis (LCA). The functional unit used in this LCA was the amount of served population with a 2000 m3/d municipal wastewater and the main topics analyzed were energy efficiency, land use, eutrophication reduction and biosolids reuse.