Muriel Steel’s paper, in collaboration with Annick Anctil, is now published at Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts. We are excited about the results, explaining for the first time (to our knowledge) the pros and cons of placing algae unit processes at different locations in a wastewater treatment plant.
Title: Integrating algaculture into small wastewater treatment plants: process flow options and life cycle impacts
Abstract: Algaculture has the potential to be a sustainable option for nutrient removal at wastewater treatment plants. The purpose of this study was to compare the environmental impacts of three likely algaculture integration strategies to a conventional nutrient removal strategy. Process modeling was used to determine life cycle inventory data and a comparative life cycle assessment was used to determine environmental impacts. Treatment scenarios included a base case treatment plant without nutrient removal, a plant with conventional nutrient removal, and three other cases with algal unit processes placed at the head of the plant, in a side stream, and at the end of the plant, respectively. Impact categories included eutrophication, global warming, ecotoxicity, and primary energy demand. Integrating algaculture prior to activated sludge proved to be most beneficial of the scenarios considered for all impact categories; however, this scenario would also require primary sedimentation and impacts of that unit process should be considered for implementation of such a system.
Follow the hyperlink on this citation to see the paper at the publisher’s site:
tank you for the article