The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in t...The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in the sources.A large fraction of these water resources are in the medium-size Llobregat River basin and the remaining ones correspond to a surface water transfer,seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation.Groundwater dominated water resources availability before 1950.Afterwards,water supply has evolved progressively to integrated water resources management,which includes serious water quality concerns to deal with population density,river pollution,seawater intrusion in the main aquifer,and brine generation in the mid Llobregat basin due to old mining of saline minerals.The role of the alluvial aquifers has progressively evolved from being the main water source to reserve storage to cope with seasonal and drought water resources availability.River-enhanced recharge and artificial recharge are needed to assure enough groundwater storage before surface water becomes scarce and/or suffers a serious temporal loss of quality.Enhanced river recharge started in 1950.Treated river water injection in dual-purpose wells was put into operation in the early 1970s.Basin and pond recharge was added later,as well as a deep well injection barrier along the coast to reduce seawater intrusion and to allow increased groundwater abstraction in moments of water scarcity.There is a progressive evolution from solving water quantity problems to consideration of water quality improvement during recharge,with attention to emergent concern pollutants in river water and in reclaimed water to be considered for artificial recharge.Improvement of artificial recharge operation activities has been introduced and research is being carried out on the difficult behavior to degrade organic pollutants during infiltration and in the terrain.This paper presents the different activities carried out and presents the research activities,and comments on the economic,social and administrative issues involved as well.展开更多
The valorization of sewage sludge and food waste to produce energy and fertilizers is a well-stablished strategy within the circular economy.Despite the success of numerous laboratory-scale experiments in converting w...The valorization of sewage sludge and food waste to produce energy and fertilizers is a well-stablished strategy within the circular economy.Despite the success of numerous laboratory-scale experiments in converting waste into high-value products such as volatile fatty acids(VFAs),large-scale implementation remains limited due to various technical and environmental challenges.Here,we evaluate the environmental performance of a hypothetical large-scale VFAs biorefinery located in Galicia,Spain,which integrates fermentation and purification processes to obtain commercial-grade VFAs based on primary data from pilot plant operations.We identify potential environmental hotspots,assess the influence of different feedstocks,and perform sensitivity analyses on critical factors like transportation distances and pH control methods,using life cycle assessment.Our findings reveal that,on a per-product basis,food waste provides superior environmental performance compared to sewage sludge,which,conversely,performs better when assessed per mass of waste valorized.This suggests that higher process productivity from more suitable wastes leads to lower environmental impacts but must be balanced against increased energy and chemical consumption,as food waste processing requires more electricity for pretreatment and solid-liquid separation.Further analysis reveals that the main operational impacts are chemical-related,primarily due to the use of NaOH for pH adjustment.Additionally,facility location is critical,potentially accounting for up to 99%of operational impacts due to transportation.Overall,our analysis demonstrates that the proposed VFAs biorefinery has a carbon footprint comparable to other bio-based technologies.However,enhancements in VFAs purification processes are necessary to fully replace petrochemical production.These findings highlight the potential of waste valorization into VFAs as a sustainable alternative,emphasizing the importance of process optimization and strategic facility placement.展开更多
文摘The large concentration of human population,industry and services in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona has to confront scarce water resources,serious seasonal and inter-annual variations and quality deficiencies in the sources.A large fraction of these water resources are in the medium-size Llobregat River basin and the remaining ones correspond to a surface water transfer,seawater desalination and wastewater reclamation.Groundwater dominated water resources availability before 1950.Afterwards,water supply has evolved progressively to integrated water resources management,which includes serious water quality concerns to deal with population density,river pollution,seawater intrusion in the main aquifer,and brine generation in the mid Llobregat basin due to old mining of saline minerals.The role of the alluvial aquifers has progressively evolved from being the main water source to reserve storage to cope with seasonal and drought water resources availability.River-enhanced recharge and artificial recharge are needed to assure enough groundwater storage before surface water becomes scarce and/or suffers a serious temporal loss of quality.Enhanced river recharge started in 1950.Treated river water injection in dual-purpose wells was put into operation in the early 1970s.Basin and pond recharge was added later,as well as a deep well injection barrier along the coast to reduce seawater intrusion and to allow increased groundwater abstraction in moments of water scarcity.There is a progressive evolution from solving water quantity problems to consideration of water quality improvement during recharge,with attention to emergent concern pollutants in river water and in reclaimed water to be considered for artificial recharge.Improvement of artificial recharge operation activities has been introduced and research is being carried out on the difficult behavior to degrade organic pollutants during infiltration and in the terrain.This paper presents the different activities carried out and presents the research activities,and comments on the economic,social and administrative issues involved as well.
基金supported by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR,and the project Biological Resources Certifications Schemes(BIORECER)funded by the European Executive Agency under call HORIZON CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01(101060684)It was also carried out thanks to the INTERREG ECOVAL and CIGAT CIRCULAR projects,funded by Interreg Sudoe and the Xunta de Galicia and Viaqua,respectively.
文摘The valorization of sewage sludge and food waste to produce energy and fertilizers is a well-stablished strategy within the circular economy.Despite the success of numerous laboratory-scale experiments in converting waste into high-value products such as volatile fatty acids(VFAs),large-scale implementation remains limited due to various technical and environmental challenges.Here,we evaluate the environmental performance of a hypothetical large-scale VFAs biorefinery located in Galicia,Spain,which integrates fermentation and purification processes to obtain commercial-grade VFAs based on primary data from pilot plant operations.We identify potential environmental hotspots,assess the influence of different feedstocks,and perform sensitivity analyses on critical factors like transportation distances and pH control methods,using life cycle assessment.Our findings reveal that,on a per-product basis,food waste provides superior environmental performance compared to sewage sludge,which,conversely,performs better when assessed per mass of waste valorized.This suggests that higher process productivity from more suitable wastes leads to lower environmental impacts but must be balanced against increased energy and chemical consumption,as food waste processing requires more electricity for pretreatment and solid-liquid separation.Further analysis reveals that the main operational impacts are chemical-related,primarily due to the use of NaOH for pH adjustment.Additionally,facility location is critical,potentially accounting for up to 99%of operational impacts due to transportation.Overall,our analysis demonstrates that the proposed VFAs biorefinery has a carbon footprint comparable to other bio-based technologies.However,enhancements in VFAs purification processes are necessary to fully replace petrochemical production.These findings highlight the potential of waste valorization into VFAs as a sustainable alternative,emphasizing the importance of process optimization and strategic facility placement.
