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Scientific Article details

Title How decentralized treatment can contribute to the symbiosis between environmental protection and resource recovery
ID_Doc 12240
Authors Estévez, S; González-García, S; Feijoo, G; Moreira, MT
Title How decentralized treatment can contribute to the symbiosis between environmental protection and resource recovery
Year 2022
Published
DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151485
Abstract Challenges associated with the sustainability of the water cycle pose new opportunities for resource recovery and greater environmental protection. While centralized wastewater treatment plants must evolve in their design and operation to adapt to a scenario of increasing demand for water, resources and energy, the decentralized ap-proach emerges as an option to be considered in small communities or developing residential areas where bioenergy production can be improved through the recovery of organic matter in segregated streams or where the investment in the sewer network for connection to a centralized facility may be technologically or econom-ically unfeasible. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the environmental and economic profile of a hybrid-decentralized configuration for the purpose of efficient wastewater management and resource recovery and its comparative evaluation with the centralized treatment scenario. Beyond water reclamation, decentralized treatment offers the possibility of valorization of digestate streams as nutrient sources for horticultural or orna-mental crops in the vicinity of the plant. Based on the results of the environmental profile, this manuscript shows that the decentralized treatment approach is in line with the philosophy and guidelines of the circular economy, as it allows the use of reclaimed water and biofertilizers under safe and environmental-friendly conditions. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Author Keywords Decentralized wastewater treatment systems; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); Environmental Life Cycle Costing (ELCC); Mineral fertilizers; Biofertilizers; Urban farming
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
EID WOS:000766822300001
WoS Category Environmental Sciences
Research Area Environmental Sciences & Ecology
PDF https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151485
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