TY - JOUR
T1 - Comprehensive evaluation of the carbon footprint components of wastewater treatment plants located in the Baltic Sea region
AU - Maktabifard, Mojtaba
AU - Awaitey, Alexis
AU - Merta, Elina
AU - Haimi, Henri
AU - Zaborowska, Ewa
AU - Mikola, Anna
AU - Mąkinia, Jacek
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the support provided by InterPhD2 Program funded by European Union/European Social Fund (Project No. POWR.03.02.00-IP.08-00-DOK/16). The authors would like to further thank ?Finnish Water Utilities Development Fund? that provided funding for the project ?Carbon Footprint of Finnish Wastewater Treatment Plants?.
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the support provided by InterPhD2 Program funded by European Union / European Social Fund (Project No. POWR.03.02.00-IP.08-00-DOK/16 ). The authors would like to further thank “Finnish Water Utilities Development Fund” that provided funding for the project “Carbon Footprint of Finnish Wastewater Treatment Plants”.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors
PY - 2022/2/1
Y1 - 2022/2/1
N2 - Finland and Poland share similar environmental interests with regard to their wastewater effluents eventually being discharged to the Baltic Sea. However, differences in the influent wastewater characteristics, treatment processes, operational conditions, and carbon intensities of energy mixes in both countries make these two countries interesting for carbon footprint (CF) comparison. This study aimed at proposing a functional unit (FU) which enables a comprehensive comparison of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in terms of their CF. Direct emissions had the highest contribution (70%) to the total CF. Energy consumption dominated the total indirect emissions in both countries by over 30%. Polish WWTPs benefitted more from energy self-sufficiency than Finnish plants as a result of higher electricity emission factors in Poland. The main difference between indirect emissions of both countries were attributed to higher chemical consumption of the Finnish WWTPs. Total pollution equivalent removed (TPErem) FU proposed enabled a better comparison of WWTPs located in different countries in terms of their total CF. High correlations of TPErem with other FUs were found since TPErem could balance out the differences in the removal efficiencies of various pollutants. Offsetting CF was found a proper strategy for the studied WWTPs to move towards low-carbon operation. The studied WWTPs could reduce their CF from up to 27% by different practices, such as selling biofuel, electricity and fertilizers. These findings are applicable widely since the selected WWTPs represent the typical treatment solutions in Poland, Finland and in the Baltic Sea region.
AB - Finland and Poland share similar environmental interests with regard to their wastewater effluents eventually being discharged to the Baltic Sea. However, differences in the influent wastewater characteristics, treatment processes, operational conditions, and carbon intensities of energy mixes in both countries make these two countries interesting for carbon footprint (CF) comparison. This study aimed at proposing a functional unit (FU) which enables a comprehensive comparison of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in terms of their CF. Direct emissions had the highest contribution (70%) to the total CF. Energy consumption dominated the total indirect emissions in both countries by over 30%. Polish WWTPs benefitted more from energy self-sufficiency than Finnish plants as a result of higher electricity emission factors in Poland. The main difference between indirect emissions of both countries were attributed to higher chemical consumption of the Finnish WWTPs. Total pollution equivalent removed (TPErem) FU proposed enabled a better comparison of WWTPs located in different countries in terms of their total CF. High correlations of TPErem with other FUs were found since TPErem could balance out the differences in the removal efficiencies of various pollutants. Offsetting CF was found a proper strategy for the studied WWTPs to move towards low-carbon operation. The studied WWTPs could reduce their CF from up to 27% by different practices, such as selling biofuel, electricity and fertilizers. These findings are applicable widely since the selected WWTPs represent the typical treatment solutions in Poland, Finland and in the Baltic Sea region.
KW - Emission offset
KW - Functional unit
KW - Greenhouse gas emissions
KW - Low-carbon operations
KW - Nutrient removal
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115402882&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150436
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150436
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115402882
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 806
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
IS - Part 1
M1 - 150436
ER -
