Life Cycle, PESTLE, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analyses of Novel Process for Nitrogen Recovery from Reject Water: Combining Electroconcentration and Stripping Methods

Abstract

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) has become an essential nutrient to reclaim and recycle from wastewater. Nitrogen has become a valued resource that is beneficial to recover in the wastewater sector, as nitrogen is a key component in many fertilizers. The main subject of this work is to investigate the environmental consequences of a novel nitrogen recovery process from reject water. In our study, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), PESTLE, and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) were used to examine combining electroconcentration and stripping methods, including Monte Carlo simulation. Using SimaPro V9.3 software, the EF 3.0 Method, IPCC 2021 GWP100, ReCiPe 2016, and IMPACT World+ Endpoint were applied with heat and power, electricity high voltage, nuclear energy, and two renewable energies (solar and wind). EF 3.0 was endorsed by the European Commission for environmental footprinting. The operational unit of 1 m3 of reject water was chosen as the output, and “gate-to-gate” analysis was investigated. Our calculations show that the energies derived from natural sources reduce fossil-based environmental impacts and CO2 emissions significantly compared with conventional energy sources. A TOPSIS score was applied to appraise the choices in the case of MCDA. For the Australian territory, for the place of implementation of the technology, the most beneficial option was discovered to be wind energy offshore, with a score of 0.95, and the next was solar energy at 0.87.