Method for Estimating and Predicting Emissions: Case Study of an Urban Wastewater System in Suzhou, China
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 22, Issue 4
Abstract
As a fundamental infrastructure to sustain human activities and development, urban wastewater systems are becoming more and more important in the context of population growth and business expansion. It is important to analyze and assess environmental impacts of these systems to community development. This paper presents a model developed for estimating carbon dioxide equivalent () emissions resulting from urban wastewater systems addressing both construction and operational activities. Construction emissions are divided into three categories: material manufacture, material transportation, and pipe installation. Operational emissions include the following: energy consumption–related emissions and wastewater treatment–related emissions. Emission factors of gasoline, diesel oil, and electricity were calculated. The model was demonstrated by applying it to the wastewater system in the city of Suzhou, China, to quantify emissions for the period of 2005–2010. The results highlight the high proportion of emissions from material manufacturing during the construction stage and electricity usage during the operational stage. The emissions in the construction and operational phases were of pipe construction and for wastewater treatment, respectively. Finally, a forecasting model was developed to predict future emissions over a 5-year horizon, which is a contribution to the overall body of knowledge in environmental sustainability.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Postgraduate Scientific and Technical Innovation Project in Universities and Colleges of Jiangsu Province under Grant No. CXLX_0161.
References
Benetto, E., Nguyen, D., Lohmann, T., Schmitt, B., and Schosseler, P. (2009). “Life cycle assessment of ecological sanitation system for small-scale wastewater treatment.” Sci. Environ., 407(5), 1506–1516.
Box, G., and Jenkins, G. (1970). Time series analysis: Forecasting and control, Holden-Day, San Francisco.
Chen, T. Y., Burnett, J., and Chau, C. K. (2001). “Analysis of embodied energy use in the residential building of Hong Kong.” Energy, 26(4), 323–340.
China National Standards. (1985). “China national standard for cohesive brick.” GB 5101-93, Beijing.
EViews 5 [Computer software]. Irvine, CA, IHS Global.
Filion, Y. R., MacLean, H. L., and Karney, B. W. (2004). “Life-cycle energy analysis of a water distribution system.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., 120–130.
Green Building of Beijing Olympic Research Group. (2003). Assessment system for green building of the Beijing Olympics, China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing.
Gu, D. J., Zhu, Y. X., and Gu, L. J. (2006). “Life cycle assessment for China building environment impacts.” Tsinghua Sci. Technol., 46(12), 1953–1956.
Guo, G., Wang, Y. Y., Zhang, Z. X., Chu, W. H., and Pan, M. L. (2011). “A gas chromatographic method for determination of nitrous oxide in wastewater treatment.” J. Instrum. Anal., 30(9), 1050–1054.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2006). 2006 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, Geneva.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2007). “Climate change 2007.” Fourth Assessment Rep., Geneva.
Lundin, M., Bengtsson, M., and Molander, S. (2000). “Life cycle assessment of wastewater systems: Influence of system boundaries and scale on calculated environmental loads.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 34(1), 180–186.
Ma, X. (2011). “Greenhouse gas emission analysis form municipal sewage treatment plants of China.” Ph.D. thesis, Beijing Forestry Univ., Beijing.
Musa, N. S., and Ahmad, W. A. (2010). “Chemical oxygen demand reduction in industrial wastewater using locally isolated bacteria.” Proc., Regional Annual Fundamental Science Seminar 2010 (CD-ROM), Ibu Sina Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1–8.
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2010). China energy statistical yearbook, National Bureau of Statistics of China, Beijing.
Piratla, K. R., Ariaratnam, S. T., and Cohen, A. (2012). “Estimation of emissions from the life cycle of a potable water pipeline project.” J. Manage. Eng., 22–30.
Scheuer, C., Keoleian, G. A., and Reppe, P. (2003). “Life cycle energy and environmental performance of a new university building: Modeling challenges and design implications.” Energy Build., 35(10), 1049–1064.
Sihabuddin, S. S., and Ariaratnam, S. T. (2009). “Methodology for estimating emissions in underground utility construction operations.” J. Eng. Des. Technol., 7(1), 37–64.
SPSS 17.0 [Computer software]. Chicago, SPSS.
Terry, P. A. (2010). “Application of ozone and oxygen to reduce chemical oxygen demand and hydrogen sulfide from a recovered paper processing plant.” Int. J. Chem. Eng., 2010, 250235.
Thai Industrial Standards Institute. (1989). “Unplasticized polyvinyl chloride pipes for drinking water services.” TIS 17-2532, Bangkok, Thailand.
Venkatesh, G., Hammervold, J., and Brattebø, H. (2009). “Combined MFA-LCA for analysis of wastewater pipeline networks: Case study of Oslo, Norway.” J. Ind. Ecol., 13(4), 532–550.
Wang, J., Zhang, X., and Huang, Z. J. (2007). “Life cycle assessment energy consumption and pollutant emission inventory analysis of construction materials production.” Res. Environ. Sci., 20(6), 149–153.
Weidema, B. P., Thrane, M., Christensen, P., Schmidt, J., and Løkke, S. (2008). “Carbon footprint: A catalyst for life cycle assessment.” J. Ind. Ecol., 12(1), 3–6.
Zhang, B. B., Zhang, C. X., and Zhang, T. (2012). “Carbon emissions estimation method in urban infrastructure operational system: An empirical study in Suzhou.” Mod. Urban Res., 27(12), 80–86.
Zhang, D. Y., and Zhang, L. X. (2005). “Progress in estimation method of carbon emission.” Inner Mongolia For. Sci. Technol., 30(1), 20–23.
Zhang, Y., Lv, J., Su, T., Ding, M. D., and Lv, Q. (2010). “Research on carbon emissions from wastewater treatment.” Proc., 2010 Int. Conf. on Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering (MACE), IEEE, New York, 4401–4404.
Zhou, L. L., and Liu, C. (2011). “Assessment on whole life cycle of clean coal-fired power generation technology.” Proc. Chin. Soc. Electr. Eng., 31(2), 7–14.
Zhu, Y., and Chen, Y. (2010). “Cases for life-cycle energy consumption and environmental emissions in residential buildings.” Tsinghua Sci. Technol., 50(3), 330–334.
Zhuang, G. Y., and Zhang, W. (2004). “Chinese urbanization: Low-carbon in municipal infrastructure.” Environ. Econ., 1(5), 39–43.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 24, 2014
Accepted: Oct 7, 2014
Published online: Nov 12, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.