Abstract
Due to excessive resource consumption and pressing environmental issues of the sewage treatment industry, there is extensive attention in China. Given the unique craft production process in the sewage treatment system, a series of integral emergy indicators have been used to evaluate the environmental sustainability based on infrastructure construction and operation stage emergy analysis. Taking a new typical sewage treatment plant as an example, this paper performed a case study. The results illustrate that (1) the infrastructure construction process emergy (approximate 92.6%) is more critical than sewage treatment process emergy; (2) nonrenewable resource is the primary factor for the emergy analysis, followed by energy (23.5%) and purchased supply (7%); (3) cement, steel, and gravel have dominant impacts on the nonrenewable resource emergy; (4) the emergy sustainability index is 0.001101, which displays weak environmental sustainability; (5) the unit emergy value (UEV) of the new sewage treatment plant is 3.40 × 1012 sej/m3; (6) sensitivity analysis results of the hypothesis demonstrate that nonrenewable resources have significant fluctuations (6.903%) while, for the indicators, emergy sustainability index (ESI) (4.8072%) has the most significant impact; and (7) wastewater is a major contributor. In light of comprehensive discussions, two positive measures are proposed in order to ameliorate the environmental sustainability.
Highlights
As the world’s largest developing country, there is massive sewage discharge every year in order to meet the needs of life and economic development in China
Cement, steel, and gravel have dominant impacts on the nonrenewable resource emergy; (4) the emergy sustainability index is 0.001101, which displays weak environmental sustainability; (5) the unit emergy value (UEV) of the new sewage treatment plant is 3.40 × 1012 sej/m3 ; (6) sensitivity analysis results of the hypothesis demonstrate that nonrenewable resources have significant fluctuations
This paper aims to assess the environmental sustainability degree of the sewage treatment industry system through the emergy analysis (EMA) method
Summary
As the world’s largest developing country, there is massive sewage discharge every year in order to meet the needs of life and economic development in China. Undifferentiated contribution degrees from different resource types could cause deviation inaccuracy to some extent; (4) there is a lack of a unified platform to evaluate sustainability in the sewage treatment industry, for example, an integrated method assessment should comprise resources, energy, labor, and others; and (5) some studies are unable to consider multiple pollutant emissions simultaneously, such as exhaust gas, wastewater, and solid waste. It will have a harmful effect on sustainability in the sewage treatment industry.
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