Abstract
This paper develops a framework for the identification, assessment and analysis of the water reuse-carbon-energy-food-climatic (WEFC) nexus in an integrated peri-urban wastewater treatment and reuse system. This methodology was applied to the municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of Peschiera Borromeo (Milan, Italy) and its peri-urban district to define the most possible affirmations and conflicts following the EU regulations 741/2020. Results of this work showed that transferring the WEFC nexus from theory to practice can realize sustainable resource management in the operating environment by providing a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, overall energy savings, reduction in water stress and optimization of agricultural practices. Particularly, it was found that if the plant configuration is upgraded to reach water quality class C for water reuse, instead of wastewater discharge, energy savings are estimated to reach up to 7.1% and carbon emissions are supposed to be reduced up to 2.7%. In addition, enhancing water quality from class C to class A resulted in increments in energy and carbon footprint of 5.7% and 1.7%, respectively. Nevertheless, higher quality crops can be cultivated with reclaimed water in class A, with bigger economic revenues and high recovery of nutrients (e.g., recovery of 154,450 kg N/y for tomato cultivation).
Highlights
Water is rooted and highly interlinked to natural resources and their productivity [1].Water management is one of the pillars for the efficiency of the balance and resilience of many productivity sectors such as energy production and transmission [2]
Considering only at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) level, delivering a lower quality effluent seems to imply fewer impacts, since the plant consumes less energy and produces fewer carbon emissions. It is characterized by less efficient configuration
Footprint assessments showed the interconnections between water, energy and carbon in an application of water reuse for agricultural irrigation
Summary
Water is rooted and highly interlinked to natural resources and their productivity [1].Water management is one of the pillars for the efficiency of the balance and resilience of many productivity sectors such as energy production and transmission [2]. Fragmented management of interrelated sectors, as well as their separated analysis without considering the integrated system, hide a potential risk of not achieving the desired outcomes [3]. This is caused by underestimated or even unexplored synergies, antagonisms, and ripple effects. The shift of integrated management (so-called nexus approach) requires a shift towards integrated approaches for systems analysis and assessment as well [4]. The aim should be at using water-related nexus, targeting the holistic systems analysis, and revealing the multiple and complex interactions and feedback loops between technical and biological cycles [5].
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