An Improved Emergy Analysis of the Environmental and Economic Benefits of Reclaimed Water Reuse System

Ling Yang and Lin Wang
Additional contact information
Ling Yang: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
Lin Wang: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: Reclaimed water, a nontraditional water source, has become a desirable choice for meeting the increasing demand in areas with water shortages. However, the environmental and economic benefits of reclaimed water reuse systems (RWRSs) are unclear. Therefore, we conducted this study to assess the environmental performance of RWRSs based on emergy analysis. Notably, the emergy index system was improved by incorporating the environmental impacts of air emissions. The results show that the improved emergy indicator system was more rigorous than the traditional emergy index system. The environmental loading ratio and the emergy sustainability index of the studied system based on an improved emergy index system was 0.202 and 30.01, respectively. The environmental economic value was 3.52 × 10 20 sej/y. The results show that the RWRS has good sustainability, and high environmental and economic benefits. Compared with two other RWRSs (Scenario A in Zhengzhou City and Scenario B in Chongqing City) and one seawater desalination system (Scenario C in Qingdao City), it is found that RWRSs are preferred as a way to obtain water resources over seawater desalination under the same water quality conditions. It is also important to select an appropriate treatment process according to the raw water quality and reclaimed water use in the practical application.

Keywords: reclaimed water; environmental economic value; environmental performance; emergy analysis; emission impacts; Qingdao City (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (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/2071-1050/14/9/5050/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5050/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5050-:d:799961

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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