Life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis of nitrogen recovery by ammonia air-stripping from wastewater treatment.

Autor: Kar S; Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia 19104, United States. Electronic address: saurajyoti.kar@gmail.com., Singh R; Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia 19104, United States., Gurian PL; Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia 19104, United States., Hendricks A; Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia 19107, United States., Kohl P; Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia 19107, United States., McKelvey S; Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia 19107, United States., Spatari S; Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia 19104, United States; Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2023 Jan 20; Vol. 857 (Pt 3), pp. 159499. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Oct 17.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159499
Abstrakt: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with anaerobic digestion of biosolids produce an ammonia-rich sidestream out of which nitrogen can be recovered through air stripping. Recovered ammonia can be used to produce ammonium sulfate (AS) for agricultural use, enabling the circular return of nitrogen as fertilizer to the food system. We investigate the cost and life cycle environmental impact of recovering ammonia from the sidestream of WWTPs for conversion to AS and compare it to AS production from the Haber Bosch process. We perform life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental impact of AS fertilizer production by air-stripping ammonia from WWTP sidestreams at varying sidestream nitrogen concentrations. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) is performed to assess the break-even selling price of sidestream AS production at a WWTP in the City of Philadelphia. Greenhouse gas emissions for air-stripping technology range between 0.2 and 0.5 kg CO 2 e/kg AS, about six times lower than the hydrocarbon-based Haber-Bosch process, estimated at 2.5 kg CO 2 e/kg AS. Further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is feasible by replacing fossil-based energy use in air-stripping process (82-98 % of net energy demand) with renewable sources. Also, a significant reduction in mineral depletion and improvement in human and ecosystem health are observed for the air-stripping approach. Furthermore, the break-even selling price for installing sidestream-based AS production at the Philadelphia's WWTP, considering capital and operating costs, is estimated at $0.046/kg AS (100 %), which is 92 % lower than the 2014 estimate of AS's average selling price at farms in the United States. We conclude that even with varying ammonia concentrations and high sidestream volume, air-stripping technology offers an environmentally and economically favorable option for implementing nitrogen recovery and simultaneous production of AS at WWTPs.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: