Cost of raising discharge standards: A plant-by-plant assessment from wastewater sector in China. (15th April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Su, Hanshi; Yi, Hang; Gu, Weiyi; Wang, Qi; Liu, Beibei; Zhang, Bing
• Is Part Of: Journal of environmental management. Volume 308(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-04-15
• Subjects: Discharge standards -- Wastewater treatment plants -- Electricity consumption -- Operating costs; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; Environment -- Periodicals; Ecology -- Periodicals; 363.705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114642
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-4797

Abstract

Abstract: China has implemented increasingly stringent effluent standards for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to protect the aquatic environment, but at the cost of more resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To elaborate tradeoffs between the elevated standard and the additional burden, we compile a 10-year inventory of 6032 WWTPs across China to estimate the impacts of changes in effluent pollutant concentration on operating costs and electricity consumption. Coupled with the increasing demand for wastewater treatment, upgrading standards to the Special Discharge Limit (SDL) by 2030 would increase electricity consumption and operating costs of the wastewater treatment sector by 86.59% and 70.44% compared to the status quo in 2015. The electricity consumption-induced GHG emissions would also increase by 72.21%, which accounts for 29.16% of total emissions in the domestic wastewater treatment sector. Substantial regional differences exist in terms of upgrade-induced resource burden. Less developed regions generally suffer more stress when encountering similar standards elevation. With large-scale microdata, our findings deepen the understanding of the potential cost of raising standards and provide insights into region-customized pollutant effluent standards implementation. Highlights: The plant-by-plant costs due to the stringent standards of China are quantified. Upgrading increases carbon emissions in the wastewater treatment sector by 72.21%. Less developed regions cost higher to achieve national unified standards. There is no significant synergistic effect among COD, NH3–N, and TP reduction.