Carbon Emission Accounting and the Carbon Neutralization Model for a Typical Wastewater Treatment Plant in China

Chenxi Pang, Xi Luo, Bing Rong, Xuebiao Nie, Zhengyu Jin and Xue Xia ()
Additional contact information
Chenxi Pang: College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Xi Luo: College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Bing Rong: Beijing Urban Construction Design & Development Group Co., Limited, Beijing 100037, China
Xuebiao Nie: Beijing Enterprises Water Group (China) Investment Limited, Beijing 100102, China
Zhengyu Jin: College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
Xue Xia: College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 20, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: To reduce carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality in China, it is pivotal to explore low-carbon wastewater treatment processes and carbon-neutral wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). This study investigated the Beijing Gaobeidian WWTP to explore the current energy consumption and carbon emission status of representative WWTPs in China. Furthermore, it explored a possible low-carbon operating model. Results show that the current total energy consumption of Gaobeidian WWTP is 280,717 MWh/y, while its energy recovery is 268,788 MWh/y. As a result, the energy neutralization ratio is 95.8%, and the plant is close to reaching energy neutrality. The carbon emission of this plant is 446,468 t/y. However, it reduced its carbon emissions by 252,994 t/y and reached only 56.7% of carbon neutrality. Although the plant almost reached energy neutrality, it has a long way to go before reaching carbon neutrality. It was found that a subsequent increase in the recovery of residual heat from secondary effluent can increase the energy and carbon neutralization ratio to 523.1% and 219.0%, respectively, meaning that the WWTP can become a power production unit and a carbon sink. This study can provide a reference for exploring efficient energy use and reaching carbon neutrality for domestic WWTPs.

Keywords: wastewater treatment plant; carbon neutrality; energy self-sufficiency; carbon emission reduction; Gaobeidian (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/140/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/140/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2022:i:1:p:140-:d:1011562

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().