The Economics of Wastewater Treatment Decentralization : a

Techno-economic Evaluation

Garrido-Baserba, M., Vinardell, S., Molinos-Senante, M., Rosso, D., & Poch, M. (2018). The
economics of wastewater treatment decentralization: a techno-economic evaluation.
Environmental science & technology, 52(15), 8965-8976. <10.1021/acs.est.8b01623>
Accessed 11 Mar 2021.

Abstract

The existing wastewater treatment infrastructure has not adequately established an efficient
and sustainable use of energy, water, and nutrients. A proposed scheme based on source
separation and water-efficient use is compared to the current wastewater management
paradigm (one largely based on activated sludge) using techno-economic terms. This paper
explores the economic viability of adopting more sustainable management alternatives and
expands the understanding of the economics of decentralization and source-separation. The
feasibility of three different potential types of source-separation (with different levels of
decentralization) are compared to the conventional centralized activated sludge process by
using recognized economic assessment methodologies together with widely accepted
modeling tools. The alternatives were evaluated for two common scenarios: new
developments and retrofit due to the aging of existing infrastructures. The results prove that
source-separated alternatives can be competitive options despite existing drawbacks (only
when countable incomes are included), while the hybrid approach resulted in the least
cost-effective solution. A detailed techno-economic evaluation of the costs of decentralization
provides insight into the current constraints concerning the paradigm shift and the cost of
existing technologic inertia..

Keywords

Wastewater, Testing and assessment, Nitrogen, Energy, Water treatment.