Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Lam, KL; Zlatanović, L; van der Hoek, JP
Published in: Water research
April 2020

Recovering resources from wastewater systems is increasingly being emphasised. Many technologies exist or are under development for recycling nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater to agriculture. Planning and design methodologies are needed to identify and deploy the most sustainable solutions in given contexts. For the environmental sustainability dimension, life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to assess environmental impact potentials of wastewater-based nutrient recycling alternatives, especially nitrogen and phosphorus recycling. This review aims to evaluate how well the LCA methodology has been adapted and applied for assessing opportunities of wastewater-based nutrient recycling in the form of monomineral, multimineral, nutrient solution and organic solid. We reviewed 65 LCA studies that considered nutrient recycling from wastewater for agricultural land application. We synthesised some of their insights and methodological practices, and discussed the future outlook of using LCA for wastewater-based nutrient recycling. In general, more studies suggested positive environmental outcomes from wastewater-based nutrient recycling, especially when chemical inputs are minimised, and source separation of human excreta is achieved. The review shows the need to improve methodological consistency (e.g., multifunctionality, fertiliser offset accounting, contaminant accounting), ensure transparency of inventory and methods, consider uncertainty in comparative LCA context, integrate up-to-date cross-disciplinary knowledge (e.g., agriculture science, soil science) into LCA models, and consider the localised impacts of recycled nutrient products. Many opportunities exist for applying LCA at various scales to support decisions on wastewater-based nutrient recycling - for instance, performing "product perspective" LCA on recycled nutrient products, integrating "process perspective" LCA with other systems approaches for selecting and optimising individual recovery processes, assessing emerging nutrient recovery technologies and integrated resource recovery systems, and conducting systems analysis at city, national and global level.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Water research

DOI

EISSN

1879-2448

ISSN

0043-1354

Publication Date

April 2020

Volume

173

Start / End Page

115519

Related Subject Headings

  • Wastewater
  • Recycling
  • Nutrients
  • Humans
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Cities
  • Agriculture
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Lam, K. L., Zlatanović, L., & van der Hoek, J. P. (2020). Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review. Water Research, 173, 115519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115519
Lam, Ka Leung, Ljiljana Zlatanović, and Jan Peter van der Hoek. “Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review.Water Research 173 (April 2020): 115519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.115519.
Lam KL, Zlatanović L, van der Hoek JP. Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review. Water research. 2020 Apr;173:115519.
Lam, Ka Leung, et al. “Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review.Water Research, vol. 173, Apr. 2020, p. 115519. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2020.115519.
Lam KL, Zlatanović L, van der Hoek JP. Life cycle assessment of nutrient recycling from wastewater: A critical review. Water research. 2020 Apr;173:115519.
Journal cover image

Published In

Water research

DOI

EISSN

1879-2448

ISSN

0043-1354

Publication Date

April 2020

Volume

173

Start / End Page

115519

Related Subject Headings

  • Wastewater
  • Recycling
  • Nutrients
  • Humans
  • Environmental Engineering
  • Cities
  • Agriculture