Environmental life cycle assessment of treatment and management strategies for food waste and sewage sludge

Nyitrai, Jeremy; Almansa, Xavier Fonoll; Zhu, Kuang; Banerjee, Sudhanya; Hawkins, Troy R.; Urgun-Demirtas, Meltem; Raskin, Lutgarde; Skerlos, Steven J.

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120078

Environmental life cycle assessment of treatment and management strategies for food waste and sewage sludge

Journal Article · Wed May 17 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Water Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2023.120078· OSTI ID:2352208

^[1]; Almansa, Xavier Fonoll ^[2]; ^[1]; ^[3]; Hawkins, Troy R. ^[3]; Urgun-Demirtas, Meltem ^[3]; Raskin, Lutgarde ^[1]; Skerlos, Steven J. ^[1]

Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Great Lakes Water Authority, Detroit, MI (United States)
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

A consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) was utilized to compare the environmental impacts of food waste and sewage sludge management strategies. The strategies included a novel two-phase anaerobic digestion (AD) system and alternatives including landfill, waste-to-energy, composting, anaerobic membrane bioreactor, and conventional AD (wet continuous stirred-tank reactor [CSTR]). The co-management of food waste with sewage sludge was also considered for the two-phase AD system and for a conventional AD reactor. Further, a multidimensional LCA approach was taken, considering the five-midpoint impact categories of global warming, smog, human health particulate, acidification, and eutrophication estimated using the U.S. EPA Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts. Co-management of food waste and sewage sludge using the novel two-phase AD system was shown to maximize energy recovery and had a net global warming benefit while reducing other environmental impacts compared with the alternative management strategies. It had similar relative environmental advantages across all categories as conventional AD, with the advantage of a smaller physical footprint. However, both approaches featured net environmental burdens when the background electric grid intensity fell below 0.25 kg CO₂-eq kWh^-1, as could be expected in a decarbonized electric future. Upgrading the biogas produced from AD to renewable natural gas can displace the use of fossil natural gas for other non-electricity energy requirements that are difficult to decarbonize and may extend the time period of significant environmental benefits of utilizing AD for organic waste management. Treatment of the nutrient-rich supernatant generated by the novel two-phase AD system could be an obstacle for utilities with stringent nutrient discharge limits. Future research and full-scale implementation are needed to demonstrate the benefits of the two-phase AD system predicted through this analysis.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 2352208

Journal Information:: Water Research, Journal Name: Water Research Vol. 240; ISSN 0043-1354

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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Environmental life cycle assessment of treatment and management strategies for food waste and sewage sludge

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