The purpose of wastewater industry is to protect surface water quality, aquatic life, beneficial and recreational uses of waterways, and primarily comply with local water emission standards. Being an industry aimed at the protection of the environment, wastewater’s industry should nevertheless also strive to minimize, in addition to water quality impacts, any other possible environmental impacts (i.e. odours, outgoing wastes, etc.), last but not least pernicious air emissions, such as CO2, methane and nitrogen greenhouse gases, and mitigate other likely impacts resulting from energy and chemical use in treatment processes. This paper describes a case study carried out in Europe, where the critical analysis of an industrial WWTP’s present conditions, during the course of an evaluation of its upgrade possibilities to improve regulatory compliance, led to an initially unexpected, but ultimately sustainable, intervention proposal. According to the formulated proposal, process improvement, energy recovery, and overall savings and GHGs emissions reduction could be simultaneously achieved with a relatively simple intervention.
Sustainability concepts integration in the upgrade of an industrial WWTP
TORRETTA, VINCENZO;
2015-01-01
Abstract
The purpose of wastewater industry is to protect surface water quality, aquatic life, beneficial and recreational uses of waterways, and primarily comply with local water emission standards. Being an industry aimed at the protection of the environment, wastewater’s industry should nevertheless also strive to minimize, in addition to water quality impacts, any other possible environmental impacts (i.e. odours, outgoing wastes, etc.), last but not least pernicious air emissions, such as CO2, methane and nitrogen greenhouse gases, and mitigate other likely impacts resulting from energy and chemical use in treatment processes. This paper describes a case study carried out in Europe, where the critical analysis of an industrial WWTP’s present conditions, during the course of an evaluation of its upgrade possibilities to improve regulatory compliance, led to an initially unexpected, but ultimately sustainable, intervention proposal. According to the formulated proposal, process improvement, energy recovery, and overall savings and GHGs emissions reduction could be simultaneously achieved with a relatively simple intervention.
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