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Performance evaluation of a decentralized wastewater treatment system in India

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Abstract

A Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) provides an economically feasible and efficient wastewater treatment solution especially in developing countries. It has an enormous potential for developing a sustainable environmental sanitation system. In this study, the treatment efficiency of eight DEWATS plants was evaluated in the state of Maharashtra, India, for their performance in terms of selected physico-chemical parameters of the wastewater. Although the efficiency of some of the plants was lower than that reported in literature, the effluent quality of all the plants was within the permissible discharge limits of the Central Pollution Control Board for all the parameters. Comprehensive assessment of Plant I was carried in terms of its technical and socio-economic aspects. Moreover, LCA tool has been utilized to evaluate the environmental impacts of the operation stage of DEWATS. The midpoint, CML 2001 (April 2015) methodology was adopted, in which 11 impact categories were considered. From the life cycle impact assessment and interpretation, the main impacts are identified as releases of COD, P-PO43−, and N-NH4+ to water bodies and disposal of sludge. Due to negligible energy consumption, the operation stage was found to be less damaging to the environment. It was concluded that DEWATS can be a good alternative for treating wastewater with negligible energy and chemical consumption.

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Acknowledgments

With funding from The Government of India [Department of Science and Technology, File DST/IMRCD/SARASWATI/2012/(G)/II] is gratefully acknowledged. The cooperation of the plant management teams extended during the study period is highly appreciated.

Funding

The research was conducted under the collaborative project “Supporting consolidation, replication and up-scaling of sustainable wastewater treatment and reuse technologies for India (SARASWATI)” and co-funding from the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (grant agreement number 308672).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Safety and Environmental Management, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, India

    Anju Singh

  2. Supporting Consolidation, Replication and Upscaling of Sustainable Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Technologies in India (SARASWATI), National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, India

    Megha Sawant & Mihir Herlekar

  3. Environmental Engineering and Management, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, India

    Sheetal Jaisingh Kamble

  4. Competence Centre for Decision Aid in Environmental Management, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria

    Markus Starkl

  5. Environmental Engineering Unit of CEIT, San Sebastian, Spain

    Enrique Aymerich

  6. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India

    Absar Kazmi

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Singh, A., Sawant, M., Kamble, S.J. et al. Performance evaluation of a decentralized wastewater treatment system in India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 21172–21188 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05444-z

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