Quantification of environmental impact potentials within the processes of industrial wastewater treatment system

Abstract

New innovative management system of industrial wastewater is vital to address the current water demands, energy generation, resource conservation, and mitigating environmental impact from the wastewater treatment processes. For these reasons, the impact assessment of industrial wastewater treatment plant is imperative. Here, we quantified the environmental impact potentials within the processes in the wastewater treatment system considering the life cycle perspective. The treatment system comprises chemical and biological phases. The findings showed that hazardous waste (53.4%) appears as the major contributor of the impact potentials, followed by chemical consumption (38.3%), and electricity (7.5%). Other elements such as activated carbon (0.5%), cationic resin (0.2%), anionic resin (0.03%), and enzymes (0.009%) are relatively smalls in terms of the impact. The reuse of hazardous waste for heat recovery system is one of the initiatives to reduce the impact from hazardous waste generation by 12.2% for 1 m3 of treated water. This assessment may serve as a snapshot on the life cycle perspective of industrial wastewater management system in line with circular economy model that emphasizes rethink, reduce, reuse, and recovery efforts in industrial wastewater treatment management systems.