Abstract
Brazil is privileged to have the most important natural resource in its territory, the water. But currently, the increased concentration of phosphorus (P) affects the water quality. It has two main routes to get into aquatic environmental: through the dump of untreated sewage and fertilizers runoff. The P excess may promote eutrophication, a process characterized by microalgae uncontrolled growth, affecting several parameters of freshwater. Due to the great differences at the Brazilian regions, the current Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodologies are not capable to evaluate properly the eutrophication impact in Brazil. The most viable method to obtain a more suitable model is regionalizing it by estimating the characterization factor (CF). Therefore this is the first study that presents a regionalized model to estimate Brazilian CF for freshwater eutrophication. The regionalization was based on the models proposed by Helmes et al. (2012) and Azevedo et al. (2013), which are considered the most complete and suitable models. Due to the lack of data it was possible to calculate the CF for Alto Iguaçu micro watershed and four more subwatersheds: Paraíba do Sul, Parnaíba, Litorânea do Ceará and Litorânea Pernambuco Alagoas. The processes assessment of advection, retention and water use provides valuable information of each region and also results in more realistic Fate Facto (FF), since Brazilian sanitation is completely uneven, and the sewage treatment must be modelled to not overestimated or sub estimated the FF. At Alto Iguaçu is the advection rate is the most relevant and its CF is 7.43 103. m3 .KgP-1 day. For that reason, the same amount of emitted phosphorus promotes a bigger eutrophication potential at Paraíba do Sul and Parnaíba than other basins. Phosphorus income rates estimate is possible to know the origin of its most significant input. Based on this information, financial resources can be better used. This was the first attempt to develop a Brazilian CF and some improvements need to be done. Firstly, new studies ought to concentrate to promote good quality of data, because the unavailability of data was one of the greatest difficulties of this study. Then the regionalized model should be improved modeling treatment of industrial sewage and, finally, CF needs to be calculated for all subwatershed.
 Keywords: Eutrophication. Characterization factor. Freshwater. Brazil. Life Cycle Impact Assessment.
Highlights
The increase of phosphorus (P) emission compounds in water bodies is responsible for poor water quality
The eutrophication potential of products can already be obtained using Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods, it is important to regionalize the characterization factors (CF), as the same amount of emission does not affect the regions due to the fact that, among others, it depends on the phosphorus transport and some water body characteristics (Tundisi, Tundisi, Siagis Galli 2006)
Where CFi,m,r: substance characterization factor, at the compartment m, that is transferred to the receiving environment; Fate Facto (FF): Fate factor; and EF: Effect factor
Summary
The increase of phosphorus (P) emission compounds in water bodies is responsible for poor water quality. P is a nutrient, in excess it may cause eutrophication (Esteves 1998). A big amount of sewage is released to water bodies without any treatment and part of the fertilizers percolate through the soil reaching aquifers, and another portion is carried out by irrigation and rain water to rivers and lakes (Esteves 1998). The eutrophication potential of products can already be obtained using Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methods, it is important to regionalize the characterization factors (CF), as the same amount of emission does not affect the regions due to the fact that, among others, it depends on the phosphorus transport and some water body characteristics (Tundisi, Tundisi, Siagis Galli 2006)
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