Estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from natural lagoon wastewater treatment plant: Case of Ain Taoujdate-Morocco

Abstract

The process of removing organic components from wastewater as BOD5 through wastewater treatment plants has been proven to be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly methane CH4, carbon dioxide CO2 and nitrous oxide N2O. The reduction of these emissions has attracted more interest given their major contribution to global warming. This study was able to identify and estimate the amount of methane and CO2 emissions on a monthly basis by a simple modeling approach and an empirical method (IPCC) for N2O emissions, in the case of Ain-Taoujdate wastewater treatment plant, throughout the years 2013, 2018 and 2019. The results showed that anaerobic ponds were the main source of on-site emissions with 66% of total contribution and 33% for facultative ponds, followed by the energy consumption of the pumping station as off-site GHG emissions.