Towards A New Decision Support System for Design, Management and Operation of Wastewater Treatment Plants for the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Emission †

Water

Donatella Caniani¹  Giovanni Esposito²  Riccardo Gori⁴  Giorgio Mannina³ 

[1] School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, viale dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy;Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and the Southern Lazio, Via Di Biasio, 43, 03043 Cassino, FR, Italy; E-Mail:;Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy; E-Mail:;Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Florence, Via S. Marta 3, 50139 Florence, Italy; E-Mail:

关键词: decision support system;    wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) integrated modeling;    greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w7105599

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The increasing attention paid to the environment has led to a reduction in the emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Moreover, the increasing interest in the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from WWTPs suggests that we reconsider the traditional tools used for designing and managing WWTPs. Indeed, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane can be emitted from wastewater treatment, significantly contributing to the greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. The reduction of energy consumption as well as GHG emission are of particular concern for large WWTPs which treat the majority of wastewater in terms of both volume and pollution load. Nowadays, there is an increasing need to develop new tools that include additional performance indicators related to GHG emissions and energy consumption as well as traditional effluent quality parameters. Energy consumption, in fact, can be considered as an indirect source of GHGs. This paper presents the development of an ongoing research project aiming at setting-up an innovative mathematical model platform for the design and management of WWTPs. The final goal of the project by means of this platform is to minimize the environmental impact of WWTPs through their optimization in terms of energy consumptions and emissions, which can be regarded as discharged pollutants, sludge and GHGs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.