A study of LCCA-based wastewater treatment technologies in the context of an Indian scenario

Abstract

Abstract With ever-increasing population, volumes of wastewater treatment are a major concern in our country. The choice of an appropriate wastewater treatment technology in India needs to be focused. The Activated Sludge Process (ASP), Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB), Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR), Soil Bio Technology (SBT), Biological Filtration and Oxygenated Reactor (BioFOR), Submerged Aerated Fixed Film (SAFF), Phytorid, Waste stabilization ponds (WSP), Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) and Trickling Filter (TF) employing the Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) tool, are all financially examined in this study. This study shows the present value approach, which involves discounting the expenses for a 20-year economic life and is used to calculate life cycle costs. The published literature is used to determine the price of sewage treatment per million litres per day (MLD) of wastewater treatment technology. Additionally, this analysis compares the life cycle costs of the 11 technologies stated earlier to determine the most likely candidate for an economical technology by factoring in capital, annual operation and maintenance, energy, salvage, and replacement expenses. The uncertainty of land cost and discount rate with its effect on LCCs is studied by varying both over a range. The present study evaluates the Net Savings and Savings Investment Ratio of technologies with a base case. The LCCA demonstrates the ascending order of technologies as WSP < PHYTORID < UASB < SBT < BioFOR < TF < SAFF < ASP < SBR < MBR < MBBR. This study suggests that more research on the payback periods of various wastewater treatment methods be conducted.