Carbon footprint assessment of water and wastewater treatment works in Scottish islands

Gupta, R. , Lee, S., Lui, J., Sloan, W. and You, S. (2024) Carbon footprint assessment of water and wastewater treatment works in Scottish islands. Journal of Cleaner Production, (doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141650) (In Press)

Abstract

Quantifying the global warming potential of existing water infrastructure is an important step in realising the water industry's commitment to net-zero carbon. Whilst there has been an improved understanding of the global warming potential of centralized urban water infrastructure, rigorous analyses of smaller-scale rural systems are rare. This work adopts a life cycle assessment to ascertain the global warming potential of existing drinking water treatment works and wastewater treatment works associated with five Scottish islands: Arran, Iona, Jura, Barra, and Vatersay. The water systems, from source to sink, along with the use of chemicals, transportation, energy, and the disposal of waste products from water infrastructure are considered. The global warming potentials of the island's drinking water treatment works ranged from 0.18 to 0.79 kgCO2-eq/m3 of drinking water, while that for wastewater treatment works were 0.51–1.14 kgCO2-eq/m3 of wastewater. The global warming potential for water services on the islands can be as much as 7 times of that water services across Scotland as previously reported. Major global warming potential contributor in drinking water treatment works was the electricity consumed by the membrane bioreactor. The modelled direct emission of methane from sludge in septic tanks and landfill made the largest contribution to global warming potential. It was also highly sensitive to model parameters, which highlights the need for a comprehensive exploration of process emissions from septic tanks and sludge handling. This analysis of existing rural water infrastructure is a baseline against which potential alternative low-carbon technology configurations can be compared.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Water, community, islands, global warming potential, net zero, life cycle assessment.
• Status: In Press
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sloan, Professor William and Gupta, Dr Rohit and You, Dr Siming and Lui, Ms Jade

Creator Roles

Gupta, R.: Writing – original draft, Software, Methodology, Conceptualization
Lui, J.: Writing – review and editing
Sloan, W.: Writing – review and editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition
You, S.: Writing – review and editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization

• Authors: Gupta, R., Lee, S., Lui, J., Sloan, W., and You, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Journal of Cleaner Production
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0959-6526
• ISSN (Online): 1879-1786
• Published Online: 04 March 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Cleaner Production 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
309846		Decentralised water technologies	William Sloan	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/V030515/1	ENG - Infrastructure & Environment