Hospital laundry wastewaters: A review on treatment alternatives, life cycle assessment and prognosis scenarios. (10th November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lutterbeck, Carlos Alexandre; Colares, Gustavo Stolzenberg; Dell'Osbel, Naira; da Silva, Fagner P.; Kist, Lourdes Teresinha; Machado, Ênio Leandro
• Is Part Of: Journal of cleaner production. Volume 273(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11-10
• Subjects: Hospital laundry wastewaters -- Bibliometric analysis -- Advanced oxidation process -- Life cycle assessment and prognosis scenarios; Factory and trade waste -- Management -- Periodicals; Manufactures -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Déchets industriels -- Gestion -- Périodiques; Usines -- Aspect de l'environnement -- Périodiques; 628.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122851
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-6526

Abstract

Abstract: Because of the generation of high volumes of wastewaters with known toxicological properties, hospital laundry wastewaters constitute an unquestionable source of pollution for water bodies. So, the present research aimed to summarize, analyze and discuss studies carried out by different work groups that focus their researches on the characterization and the treatment of these effluents. An initial section briefly discussed the integrated management, including treatment alternatives, for hospital wastewaters. In a second step, bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science database and using the VOSviewer software were carried out. Based on the obtained data, a literature review of characterization studies and of the main alternatives for the treatment of hospital laundry wastewaters was performed. Finally, five of the discussed treatments were selected and submitted to life cycle assessment (LCA) in order to identify the main aspects associated with the environmental burdens of the treatments and so help to propose alternatives that may mitigate these impacts. The results of the bibliometric analysis showed that despite the threat that hospital laundry wastewaters can pose to human and environmental health, a scare number of studies address the treatment of these effluents. Furthermore, the few researches dedicated to this important topic, evaluate the treatment efficiency based only in reduction/removal of load parameters, i.e., disregarding the potential toxic effects of the wastewaters. LCA also showed that most of the investigated treatments alternatives presented relevant negative impacts, so that, the benefits obtained by the treatments might be lower than the environmental burdens and even increase the direct and indirect toxic effects of the effluents. LCA also showed that most of the investigated treatments alternatives presented relevant negative impacts, so that, the benefits obtained by the treatments might be lower than the environmental burdens and even increase the direct and indirect toxic effects of the effluents. In the vast majority of the analyzed categories, these negative impacts were mainly associated with the consumption of electricity. Therefore, treatment systems with high energy requirements should be avoided, even when achieving good pollutant removal rates due to relevant "environmental costs". So, LCA results showed that the replacement of fossil fuels by cleaner energy sources, such as solar energy, may significantly lower the negative environmental impacts. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: Hospital laundry wastewaters may pose threat to human and environmental health. Literature research regarding characterization and treatment of these effluents was performed. Five of the investigated studies were submitted to LCA. Highest negative impacts were associated with treatments requiring high energy consumption. Increasing use of renewable energy resources might lower by half the negative impacts.