There is a lack of methodologies that quantitatively measure the intrinsic circularity of desalination systems, particularly focusing on resource flow traceability and circular actions. This study proposes a novel framework for assessing the circular economy performance of desalination systems. By integrating a systemic indicator selection and calculation approach, this methodology enables a comprehensive evaluation of intrinsic circularity in desalination processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis comprehensive review critically assesses traditional and emerging technologies for domestic wastewater treatment and reuse, focusing on the transition from conventional centralised systems to innovative decentralised approaches. Through an extensive literature search on domestic wastewater systems serving a population equivalent of less than or equal to 10, the study juxtaposes linear and circular methods and highlights their impact on urban water management and the environment. The papers reviewed were classified into five categories: Environmental studies, economic studies, social studies, technological studies, and reviews and policy papers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe circular use of wastewater has attracted significant attention in recent years. However, there is a lack of universal definitions and measurement tools that are required to achieve the circular economy's full potential. Therefore, a methodology was developed using three indicator typologies, namely resource flow, circular action, and sustainability indicators, to facilitate a robust and holistic circularity assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
March 2024
Wastewater treatment plant decision makers face stricter regulations regarding human health protection, environmental preservation, and emissions reduction, meaning they must improve process sustainability and circularity, whilst maintaining economic performance. This creates complex multi-objective problems when operating and selecting technologies to meet these demands, resulting in the development of many decision support systems for the water sector. European Commission publications highlight their ambition for greater levels of sustainability, circularity, and environmental and human health protection, which decision support system implementation should align with to be successful in this region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurrent circularity assessment terminology restricts application to wastewater processes due to the focus on technical systems. Waste stream and wastewater discharge circularity definitions lead to paradoxical assessments that generate results of little value for evidence-based decision making. Therefore, a classification approach was developed to measure inflow and outflow circularity of the main wastewater resource flows using the principle of traceability, adopting the attitude that not all waste is created equally.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUpdates Surg
December 2022
Objective: We reviewed the available literature on patients with MPM undergoing either extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) or pleurectomy/decortication (P/D).
Methods: Original research studies that evaluated long-term outcomes of P/D versus EPP were identified, from January 1980 to February 2022. The 30-days and 90-day mortality, along with the 1-, 2-, 3-, 5-year survival, the median overall survival, the macroscopic complete resection (MCR) rate, and the complications were calculated according to both a fixed and a random effect model.
The Multi-Sectoral Water Circularity Assessment (MSWCA) is a methodological framework developed for circularity assessment of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems nexus. It involves five methodological steps and includes an indicators list for the selection of case-specific indicators. This study expands the MSWCA to provide a systematic approach for selecting indicators, considering system's circular actions and multi-functionality, the capture of implemented changes, the three CE principles and the sustainable development goals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe restorative and regenerative ability of the circular economy has led to the rapid growth of this concept over the past decade, as it facilitates the broadly adopted principles of sustainable development and beyond, through restorative and regenerative actions. The water sector is poised to benefit from this transition, due to its intrinsic circularity and the resources it handles, predominantly found in wastewater, that are valuable and critical. Currently, the vast range of resource recovery technologies coupled with few industrial examples hinder strategic decision making.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater - the most vital resource, negatively affected by the linear pattern of growth - still tries to find its positioning within the emerging concept of circular economy. Fragmented, sectorial circularity approaches hide the risk of underestimating both the preservation of and impacts to water resources and natural capital. In this study, a game changing circularity assessment framework is developed (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData Analytics is being deployed to predict the dissolved nitrous oxide (NO) concentration in a full-scale sidestream sequence batch reactor (SBR) treating the anaerobic supernatant. On average, the NO emissions are equal to 7.6% of the NH-N load and can contribute up to 97% to the operational carbon footprint of the studied nitritation-denitritation and via-nitrite enhanced biological phosphorus removal process (SCENA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDirect nitrous oxide (NO) emissions during the biological nitrogen removal (BNR) processes can significantly increase the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operations. Recent onsite measurement of NO emissions at WWTPs have been used as an alternative to the controversial theoretical methods for the NO calculation. The full-scale NO monitoring campaigns help to expand our knowledge on the NO production pathways and the triggering operational conditions of processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultivariate statistical analysis was applied to investigate the dependencies and underlying patterns between NO emissions and online operational variables (dissolved oxygen and nitrogen component concentrations, temperature and influent flow-rate) during biological nitrogen removal from wastewater. The system under study was a full-scale reactor, for which hourly sensor data were available. The 15-month long monitoring campaign was divided into 10 sub-periods based on the profile of NO emissions, using Binary Segmentation.
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