(86b) Advances in Treated Industrial and Municipal Water Quality for Reuse and Direct Groundwater Recharge – Life-Cycle Perspective

The increasing scarcity of water coupled with escalating cost of fresh water and its treatment has prompted industry and municipalities to think of water conservation, reuse, and recycling. Incorporating advanced technologies such as reverse osmosis, enhanced biological nutrient removal for phosphorus and nitrogen, membrane bioreactor, nanofiltration, ion exchange, and so on, would result in reclamation and reuse of water and less environmental damage, but to what degree, and with what trade-offs? To answer these questions, this paper will present a number of life cycle assessments (LCA) on industrial and municipal wastewater systems, with a focus on short-term and/or long-term effects and/or benefits of reusing and recycling waters on economics (life cycle cost), energy and materials recovery using the Pinch Analysis, public health, environmental protection, clean water act, water quality standards, and water-ecology.

This paper presentation will also highlight some of the recent advanced treatment technologies included (1) enhanced biological nutrient removal for phosphorus and nitrogen, and (2) chemical addition with filtration for phosphorus removal. These technologies appeared to remove some 30 pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP) chemicals (analytes) from wastewater, due to extended biological contact time, nutrient conversion and removal, and using advanced or tertiary filtration methods and additional disinfection of secondary effluent produce high quality reclaimed water which is used in some part of US for irrigation and direct groundwater recharge. A number of stream-lined LCA case studies will be presented on water reuse/recycling practices in pharmaceutical, food processing, pulp and paper, power generating industries, ultraviolet disinfection for wastewater reuse, agricultural and land applications of reclaimed water, direct recharge into the groundwater, and water augmentation to creeks and rivers during summer low flow.

Reference: Das, T. K., ed. (2005). ?Toward Zero Discharge: Innovative Methodology and Technologies for Process Pollution Prevention,? John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, NJ.