Abstract
Contaminated site management is currently a critical problem area all over the world, which opens a wide discussion in the areas of policy, research and practice at national and international levels. Conventional site management and remediation techniques are often aimed at reducing the contaminant levels to an acceptable level in a short period of time at low cost. Owing to the fact that the conventional approach may not be sustainable as it overlooks many ancillary environmental effects, there is an immense need of “sustainable” or “green” approaches. Green approaches address environmental, social and economic impacts throughout the remediation process and are capable of conserving the natural resources and protecting air, water and soil quality through reduced emissions and other waste burdens. This paper presents a methodology to quantify the environmental footprint of a cleanup for a hypothetical contaminated site by using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Spreadsheet for Environmental Footprint Assessment (SEFA). The hypothetical contaminated site is selected from a metropolitan city of Pakistan and the environmental footprint of the cleanup is analyzed under three different scenarios: cleanup without any renewable energy sources at all, cleanup with a small share of renewable energy sources, and cleanup with a large share of renewable energy sources. It is concluded that integration of renewable energy sources into the remedial system design is a promising idea which can reduce CO2, NOx, SOx, PM and HAP emissions up to 68%.
Highlights
Over the last few years, a rapid increase is observed in the awareness and dialogue about the environment in general and, in particular, about the issues, such as sustainability, recycling, greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, and a greener world [1,2,3,4]
A hypothetical contaminated site is selected from a metropolitan city in Pakistan and the environmental footprint of the cleanup is analyzed under three different scenarios: cleanup
A set of core elements is made by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [19] as shown in Figure 1, which describes the potential areas that can reduce the environmental footprint of a site cleanup
Summary
Over the last few years, a rapid increase is observed in the awareness and dialogue about the environment in general and, in particular, about the issues, such as sustainability, recycling, greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, and a greener world [1,2,3,4]. On the other hand, employs the idea of protecting human health and environment while minimizing the environmental side effects It asks for (a) efficient use of natural resources and energy; (b) reduction in the negative impacts on the environment;. PV arrays and wind-driven electricity generators are employed to power submersible pumps for oil, groundwater and petroleum hydrocarbon recovery [15] Another application of renewable energy in remedial systems is the use of solar energy to pump water into and circulate through a bioreactor installed at the Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma, to remove TCE from ground water. Sci. 2021, 11, 4907 without any renewable energy sources at all, cleanup with a small share of renewable energy sources, and cleanup with a large share of renewable energy sources
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