Browse all Channels
IWA Publishing
Alliance House, 12 Caxton Street ,
London ,
United Kingdom SW1H 0QS
United Kingdom
  4. Comparative and integrative environmental assessment of advanced ...

Comparative and integrative environmental assessment of advanced wastewater treatment processes based on an average removal of pharmaceuticals

0
- By: , , , ,

Courtesy of IWA Publishing

Pharmaceuticals are normally barely removed by conventional wastewater treatments. Advanced technologies as a post-treatment, could prevent these pollutants reaching the environment and could be included in a centralized treatment plant or, alternatively, at the primary point source, e.g. hospitals. In this study, the environmental impacts of different options, as a function of several advanced treatments as well as the centralized/decentralized implementation options, have been evaluated using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. In previous publications, the characterization of the toxicity of pharmaceuticals within LCA suffers from high uncertainties. In our study, LCA was therefore only used to quantify the generated impacts (electricity, chemicals, etc.) of different treatment scenarios. These impacts are then weighted by the average removal rate of pharmaceuticals using a new Eco-efficiency Indicator EFI. This new way of comparing the scenarios shows significant advantages of upgrading a centralized plant with ozonation as the post-treatment. The decentralized treatment option reveals no significant improvement on the avoided environmental impact, due to the comparatively small pollutant load coming from the hospital and the uncertainties in the average removal of the decentralized scenarios. When comparing the post-treatment technologies, UV radiation has a lower performance than both ozonation and activated carbon adsorption.

Related articles

  • Case study - Rapid removal of chloroethenes at industrial sites

    Description Air sparging with trenches had failed to remove groundwater and soil contamination at an industrial Superfund site in Piedmont soils in South Carolina. The major contaminants of concern were cis 1,2-dichloroethene (DCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 mg/L. The treatment area was approximately 15,000 square feet. Ozone sparging was chosen as preferred remediation alternative for several reasons. Ozone rapidly reduces common organic contaminants such as chlorinated VOCs and BTEX. A...

  • Case study - An air/ozone Sparge curtain to protect a municipal supply well

    DescriptionReleases of petroleum contaminants from a retail gasoline station in a medium-sized California Central Valley town threatened a municipal supply well immediately adjacent and approximately 200 ft downgradient to the station. Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was present in groundwater concentrations up to 30,000 micrograms per liter (µg/L) and GRO up to 33,000 µg/L in the first-encountered groundwater aquifer, between 30 to 45 feet below ground surface (BGS). The concern was that the MTBE...

  • Case study - Successful remediation of MTBE-impacted groundwater using in situ

    Description Initially an SVE/bioventing system was operated for 16 months, removing over 20,800 pounds of gasoline, leaving groundwater concentrations of TPHg and benzene of 60 and 0.37 ppb, respectively. The highest MTBE concentration in September 2001 was 5,400 ppb at a monitoring well just downgradient of the former USTs, with a total estimated area above 500 ppb of over 12,000 square feet. Approximately 5.5 million gallons of groundwater were impacted. A KTI (formerly KVA) C-Sparge™ in situ chemical...

  • Case study - Ozone sparging closure of an industrial VOC spill site adjacent to a water supply well ...

    Description An undocumented surface spill at an active manufacturing facility located adjacent to a public water supply well field released chlorinated volatile organic compounds (PCE, and its breakdown products: TCE, c-DCE, and VC) into soils and groundwater. The driver for site cleanup was three water supply wells located 200 feet downgradient of the site bounds. The chosen endpoint remediation technology was ozone sparging employing the KTI C-Sparge™ process to reach the target cleanup criteria of EPA...

  • Renewable energy from Biogas plant

    Earths is sick and needs to be fixed. This simple message is enough for every body alive to be involve in fixing our home. Constatnt pollution of our evironment by fossil fuels ,humaan activities have degraded our ozone, allowing greenhouse gases to deplet the ozona and occupy our atmosphere.The damages caused by fossil fuel can not be overemphasized,as more and more problems and global warming is emerging on daily basis . Osmartex & Co Nig Ltd is investing in biogas plant construction that would provide up...

Customer comments

No comments were found for Comparative and integrative environmental assessment of advanced wastewater treatment processes based on an average removal of pharmaceuticals. Be the first to comment!