A comparison between two full-scale MBR and CAS municipal wastewater treatment plants: techno-economic-environmental assessment
Journal article, 2017

A holistic assessment procedure has been used in this study for comparing conventional activated sludge (CAS) and membrane bioreactor (MBR) processes for the treatment of municipal wastewater. Technical, social, administrative, economic and environmental impacts have been evaluated based on 1 year of operational data from three full-scale lines (one MBR and two CAS) working in parallel in a large municipal treatment plant. The comparative assessment evidences a slight advantage of the conventional process in the studied case, essentially due to lower costs, complexity and energy consumption. On the other hand, the MBR technology has a better social acceptance and similar overall environmental footprint. Although these results are influenced by site-specific parameters and cannot be generalized, the assessment procedure allowed identifying the most important factors affecting the final scores for each technology and the main differences between the compared technologies. Local conditions can affect the relative importance of the assessed impacts, and the use of weighting factors is proposed for better tailoring the comparative assessment to the local needs and circumstances. A sensitivity analysis on the weighted final scores demonstrated how local factors are very important and must be carefully evaluated in the decision making process.

microbial communities

membrane bioreactor

routes

footprint

removal

conventional activated-sludge

Author

Giorgio Bertanza

University of Brescia

Matteo Canato

University of Brescia

Giuseppe Laera

Istituto di Ricerca Sulle Acque, Bari

Mentore Vaccari

University of Brescia

Magdalena Svanström

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Sara Heimersson

Chalmers, Energy and Environment, Environmental Systems Analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research

0944-1344 (ISSN) 16147499 (eISSN)

Vol. 24 21 17383-17393

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Environmental Sciences

Environmental Biotechnology

DOI

10.1007/s11356-017-9409-3

More information

Latest update

6/12/2020