A meta-analysis of LCAs for environmental assessment of a conceptual system: Phosphorus recovery from dairy wastewater
Journal article, 2022

A significant increase in phosphorus-rich dairy wastewater coincides with a decrease in the availability of fossil phosphate rock resources in Europe. This confluence of events has led to the development of technologies for phosphorus recovery from dairy wastewater. This study aims to inform and guide such development with regard to life cycle environmental impacts prior to their implementation in dairy contexts. With the lack of inventory data at this point and the non-existence of earlier life cycle assessments on the use of phosphorus recovery technologies in a dairy context in literature, we performed a meta-analysis where we extracted and compared published results on life cycle environmental impacts from two fields (1) dairy industries, with a focus on the dairy wastewater treatment and (2) phosphorus recovery technologies in a municipal wastewater treatment context. The results show that despite its intended effect, normal dairy wastewater treatment in many cases still contributes significantly to eutrophication. Most of the phosphorus recovery technologies examined here exhibited a lower global warming potential and cumulative energy demand than those of dairy wastewater treatment processes. It indicates that problem shifting could be avoided when phosphorus recovery is introduced. However, no technologies involving incineration have had the impact of acidification reported which represents a potential knowledge gap since impacts are expected related to incineration emissions. A comparison between the extracted data for phosphorus recovery technologies shows that there are lower impacts related to technologies that recover phosphorus from the liquid phase, than from sludge or ash.

Environmental impact

Wastewater treatment

Phosphorus recovery

Dairy wastewater

Meta-analysis

LCA

Author

Marta Behjat

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Magdalena Svanström

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Gregory Peters

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Journal of Cleaner Production

0959-6526 (ISSN)

Vol. 369 October 133307

Phosphorus REcovery for FertiLisers frOm dairy processing Waste (REFLOW)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/814258), 2019-01-01 -- 2023-12-31.

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Energy Systems

Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133307

More information

Latest update

8/29/2022