Benchmarking Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Wastewater Treatment for Targeted Reduction

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Authors

Sahar Head El Abbadi, Jianan Feng, Abigayle Rose Hodson, Maryam Amouamouha, Margaret M. Busse, Christina Polcuch, Pengxiao Zhou, Jordan Macknick, Jeremy S. Guest, Jennifer R. Stokes-Draut, Jennifer B. Dunn

Abstract

To assess the national climate impact of wastewater treatment and inform decarbonization, we assembled a comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory of 15,867 facilities in the contiguous United States. Considering facility location and treatment configurations, we model on-site CH4, N2O, and CO2 production, and emissions associated with energy, chemical inputs, and solids disposal. Our estimate of 42 million tonnes CO2-eq·year-1 is over 25% higher than current government national wastewater inventories. Without leak detection and repair programs, facilities with anaerobic digesters currently are responsible for 17 million tonnes CO2-eq·year-1 of fugitive methane, outweighing the greenhouse gas offsets achieved through on-site electricity generation. Treatment configurations designed for nitrification have the highest greenhouse gas emissions intensity, attributable to high energy requirements and N2O production, and demonstrating current trade-offs between meeting nutrient removal and climate objectives. We include a geospatial analysis to highlight the scale and distribution of opportunities to reduce life cycle greenhouse gas emissions.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5VQ59

Subjects

Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Engineering

Keywords

wastewater, Greenhouse gas emissions, methane, nitrous oxide, energy, Carbon intensity

Dates

Published: 2024-10-31 07:57

Last Updated: 2024-10-31 22:56

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License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
wastewater, greenhouse gas emissions, methane, nitrous oxide, energy, carbon intensity