Wastewaters are among the factors that can have significant environmental burdens and consequences. Today, the implementation of wastewater treatment projects in urban and industrial areas is considered fundamental and essential. Consequently, the performance of wastewater treatment plants has a profound impact on pollution reduction. One of the methods for assessing environmental impacts is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This approach eva‎luates the environmental effects of products, processes, and services throughout their entire life cycle. This study aims to comprehensively examine and eva‎luate the environmental impacts of the Ardakan wastewater treatment plant, which employs an activated sludge system, using the Life Cycle Assessment method. To this end, input and output data of the system, including materials, energy, and pollutants, were collected. This data included BOD, COD, pH, TSS, etc., measured before and after the treatment process. Additionally, the materials and energy consumed (electricity) for wastewater treatment were recorded and studied over a four-month period. For analyzing and eva‎luating life cycle impacts, SimaPro software, the ReCiPe method, and the Ecoinvent database were utilized. Environmental impacts were analyzed in 18 midpoint impact categories using the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint(H) method and in 3 endpoint impact categories using the ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint(H) method. Furthermore, to compute the energy consumption of the treatment system, the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) method was employed, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method was used to estimate greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, the functional unit was defined as one cubic meter of wastewater. Initially, the environmental impacts were quantified, and finally, data normalization was conducted for analysis and comparison of results. According to the results obtained from the midpoint impact analysis, the most significant environmental impacts from the treatment of Ardakan wastewater were primarily related to human carcinogenic toxicity (38.57%) and fossil resource depletion (15.11%). This can be attributed to metal emissions during the wastewater treatment process, notably chromium, which has a significant adverse impact on human health. Additionally, using the endpoint methodology indicated that the human health impact category was more affected than the resource and ecosystem categories by the negative environmental impacts. The analysis of the endpoint indicator revealed that the source of these impacts originates from carbon dioxide production and other greenhouse gases resulting from the consumption of fossil fuels and the use of electricity generated from non-renewable sources. The results of the CED analysis showed that the largest share of energy required for treating Ardakan’s wastewater comes from the consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels (94.17%). These findings were also corroborated by final analysis using the IPCC method, highlighting the role of carbon dioxide emissions and electricity consumption in exacerbating global warming. Sensitivity analysis identified electricity consumption as the most significant factor, having the greatest adverse environmental impacts. Therefore, based on the results obtained, it can be stated that through measures such as utilizing renewable energy sources and substituting them for fossil energy sources, the environmental consequences of wastewater treatment can be significantly reduced.

9/29/2024 12:00:00 AM

630

ESE48

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