Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus in an Integrated Peri-Urban Wastewater Treatment and Reuse System: From Theory to Practice

Enrico Marinelli, Serena Radini, Çağrı Akyol, Massimiliano Sgroi, Anna Laura Eusebi, Gian Battista Bischetti, Adriano Mancini and Francesco Fatone
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Enrico Marinelli: Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and Urban Planning-SIMAU, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Serena Radini: Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and Urban Planning-SIMAU, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Çağrı Akyol: Department of Green Chemistry & Technology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Massimiliano Sgroi: Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and Urban Planning-SIMAU, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Anna Laura Eusebi: Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and Urban Planning-SIMAU, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Gian Battista Bischetti: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy
Adriano Mancini: Department of Information Engineering-DII, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Francesco Fatone: Department of Science and Engineering of Materials, Environment and Urban Planning-SIMAU, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-13

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).

Keywords: carbon footprint; energy assessment; greenhouse gas emission; nutrients recovery; wastewater disinfection; agricultural reuse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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