An assessment of options to improve the removal of excess nutrients from European wastewater

In this contribution we quantify the potential to reduce the discharge of excess nutrients with European wastewater, by modelling pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the costs of measures under various scenarios. We analyse two types of strategies, namely extending the requirement of nutrient removal beyond areas where it is presently practiced, and increasing the removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus. As the former strategy usually entails some infrastructural investment while the latter entails an optimization of the existing processes, the two imply different costs and increasing efficiency usually shows a better cost-benefit ratio. In any case, actions increasing nutrient removal are expected to pay for themselves in terms of the benefits they bring in terms of water pollution and (for nitrogen) reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrogen removal is expected to be even more attractive whenever the infrastructural investments we assume may not be needed due to the possibility to optimize use of the existing infrastructure. Phosphorus removal may become more attractive with the progress of technologies for its recovery from wastewater and sludge, and with the increase of its demand for fertilizers and other industrial uses.

PISTOCCHI Alberto;  GRIZZETTI Bruna;  NIELSEN P.H.;  PARRAVICINI Vanessa;  STEINMETZ Heidrun;  THORNBERG Dines;  VIGIAK Olga; 

2023-12-05

SPRINGER INT PUBL AG

JRC129838

0049-6979 (online),   

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11270-023-06478-3,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129838,   

10.1007/s11270-023-06478-3 (online),