Sustainability Assessment of Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

It is thought that this chapter will make a significant contribution to the literature or at least will fill the space on the wastewater treatment plant's effect on climate change. It demonstrates the potential climate change impact of a sequential batch reactor (SBR) and constructed wetland on treating domestic wastewater by giving methods for calculation of their greenhouse gas emissions in terms of N2O and CH4. Are wastewater treatment plants sustainable? What aspects determine sustainability? Do tertiary wastewater treatment plants and constructed wetlands (CWs) have less global warming potential (CO2 emissions) and less energy use than conventional treatment? In accordance with the literature, greenhouse gas calculations of this study showed that CWs and SBR WWTPs do not contribute to global warming negatively.