Toward Enhancing Wastewater Treatment with Resource Recovery in Integrated Assessment and Computable General Equilibrium Models
[1];
[5];
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States
- Center for Energy and Environmental Economics, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-853, Brazil
- Energy, Climate & Environment Program, International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, A-2361, Austria; Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8P 5C2, Canada
- Energy, Climate & Environment Program, International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, A-2361, Austria
- Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, Maryland 20740, United States
- Department of Economics and Management, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Emek Yezreel, 1930600, Israel; NRERC- Natural Resource and Environmental Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa, 3498838, Israel
- Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, 30121 Italy
- Department of Economics, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, 30121 Italy; Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Venice, 30175, Italy; RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Venice, 30175, Italy
Sustainable water management is essential to increasing water availability and decreasing water pollution. The wastewater sector is expanding globally and beginning to incorporate technologies that recover nutrients from wastewater. Nutrient recovery increases energy consumption but may reduce the demand for nutrients from virgin sources. We estimate the increase in annual global energy consumption (1,100 million GJ) and greenhouse gas emissions (84 million t CO2e) for wastewater treatment in the year 2030 compared to today’s levels to meet sustainable development goals. To capture these trends, integrated assessment and computable general equilibrium models that address the energy-water nexus must evolve. We reviewed 16 of these models to assess how well they capture wastewater treatment plant energy consumption and GHG emissions. Only three models include biogas production from the wastewater organic content. Four explicitly represent energy demand for wastewater treatment, and eight include explicit representation of wastewater treatment plant greenhouse gas emissions. Of those eight models, six models quantify methane emissions from treatment, five include representation of emissions of nitrous oxide, and two include representation of emissions of carbon dioxide. Our review concludes with proposals to improve these models to better capture the energy-water nexus associated with the evolving wastewater treatment sector.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- European Research Council (ERC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 2471555
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA--196691
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Science & Technology Letters (Online), Journal Name: Environmental Science & Technology Letters (Online) Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 11; ISSN 2328-8930
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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