Accepted Manuscript

Using a detailed inventory of a large wastewater treatment plant to estimate the

relative importance of construction to the overall environmental impacts

Serni Morera, Lluís Corominas, Miquel Rigola, Manel Poch, Joaquim Comas

PII: S0043-1354(17)30440-2
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2017.05.069
Reference: WR 12948

To appear in: Water Research

Received Date: 21 December 2016

Revised Date: 23 May 2017
Accepted Date: 29 May 2017

Please cite this article as: Morera, S., Corominas, Lluí., Rigola, M., Poch, M., Comas, J., Using
a detailed inventory of a large wastewater treatment plant to estimate the relative importance
of construction to the overall environmental impacts, Water Research (2017), doi: 10.1016/
j.watres.2017.05.069.

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1 Using a detailed inventory of a large wastewater treatment plant to

2 estimate the relative importance of construction to the overall

3 environmental impacts

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4 Serni Morera1, Lluís Corominas2, Miquel Rigola1, Manel Poch1, Joaquim Comas1,2

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5 LEQUIA, Institute of the Environment. University of Girona. Campus Montilivi. Carrer

6 Maria Aurèlia Capmany, 69, E-17003 Girona. Catalonia. Spain

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7 ICRA, Catalan Institute for Water Research, Scientific and Technological Park of the

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8 University of Girona, Emili Grahit, 101, E-17003 Girona, Spain
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10 Corresponding author: [email protected]

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11 Telephone: 0034 972 183380

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13 Abstract

14 The aim of this work is to quantify the relative contribution to the overall environmental

15 impact of the construction phase compared to the operational phase for a large conventional

16 activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). To estimate these environmental

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17 impacts, a systematic procedure was designed to obtain the detailed Life Cycle Inventories

18 (LCI) for civil works and equipment, taking as starting point the construction project budget

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19 and the list of equipment installed at the Girona WWTP, which are the most reliable

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20 information sources of materials and resources used during the construction phase. A detailed

21 inventory is conducted by including 45 materials for civil works and 1240 devices for the

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equipment. For most of the impact categories and different life spans of the WWTP, the
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23 contribution of the construction phase to the overall burden is higher than 5% and, especially

24 for metal depletion, the impact of construction reaches 63%. When comparing to the WWTP
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25 inventories available in Ecoinvent the share of construction obtained in this work is about 3
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26 times smaller for climate change and twice higher for metal depletion. Concrete and
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27 reinforcing steel are the materials with the highest contribution to the civil works phase and

28 motors, pumps and mobile and transport equipment are also key equipment to consider during
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29 life cycle inventories of WWTPs. Additional robust inventories for similar WWTP can

30 leverage this work by applying the factors (kg of materials and energy per m3 of treated
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31 water) and guidance provided.

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32 Keywords: Civil works, equipment, LCA, life span, WWTP, detailed inventory

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35 1. INTRODUCTION

36 Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are designed to reduce the impact of wastewater

37 generated in urban systems before discharging it to the receiving water bodies. Despite their

38 beneficial contribution to the environment, they also generate environmental impacts during

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39 their construction, operation and dismantling. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most

40 commonly used methodology to evaluate the global environmental impacts of WWTPs. All

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41 impacts produced throughout a WWTPs’ lifetime, from their construction and operation until

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42 deposition or recycling, are included in the assessment, however not all are included

43 systematically.

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44
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45 This paper focuses on the construction phase, including both civil works and equipment, as

46 we believe that it is a stage which has been understudied (Remy and Jekel, 2008). As an
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47 indication, in the review of LCA application to WWTPs from Corominas et al. (2013) only 22
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48 studies (out of 45 reviewed) included the construction phase and only 15 provided their own

49 inventories. Some studies report a contribution of construction to the overall WWTP impacts
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50 lower than 5% (e.g. Emmerson et al., 1995; Vlasopoulos et al., 2006). Besides, coming up
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51 with detailed own inventories is tedious and time consuming. This persuades some

52 researchers/practitioners to perform detailed inventories. A potential solution (as applied in

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53 Foley et al., 2010) is the estimation of the volume of reinforced concrete which is then used as
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54 a multiplier for the estimation of other construction phase materials taking as a reference the

55 inventories provided by Ecoinvent (Doka et al., 2007). In the case that construction is

56 included, a minority of studies include equipment with limited information (e.g., Tillman et

57 al., 1998; Lundin et al., 2000; Machado et al., 2007; Ortiz et al., 2007; Stokes et al., 2010;

58 Foley et al., 2010; Risch et al., 2015), the rest only take into account civil works. In general,

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59 data on materials use (concrete, steel, etc.) can be collected but information on the utilities

60 (e.g. energy consumption of constructing vehicles) is missing. In spite of these difficulties,

61 according to us, we should account for both civil works (production of materials, transports

62 from factory to workplace and combustible consumed) and also equipment (i.e. thousands of

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63 devices, including diffusers, pumps and blowers), which has to be replaced several times

64 during the life span of the WWTP. The low level of detail of construction inventories

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65 published so far and the large number of assumptions normally taken questions the validity of

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66 the estimates of the share of construction to the overall environmental impacts of WWTPs.

67

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68 Hence, the objective of this work is to estimate the relative importance of construction to the
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69 overall environmental impacts of a large WWTP thanks to the development of a detailed

70 inventory. The main novelty compared to previous published work lies in the provision of
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71 detailed inventories for civil works (including 45 different materials) and equipment (1240
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72 devices), operation and dismantling. The inventory is modular as the WWTP has been divided

73 into 5 units: pumping & pretreatment, primary treatment, secondary treatment, sludge line and
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74 deposition, and buildings and services (offices building and exterior landscaping).
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76 The paper is organized as follows. First, in the methodology section, a systematic procedure
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77 to obtain detailed Life Cycle Inventories for civil works and equipment is introduced. Then
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78 this methodology is used to obtain the construction inventories for a real WWTP. In the

79 results and discussion section, first, the contribution of the WWTP construction (civil works

80 and equipment) and operation to the overall impact are compared, including a sensitivity

81 analysis to evaluate the relevance of the WWTP life span as well as an uncertainty analysis of

82 the inventories of the civil works, equipment and operation. Second, the contribution of the

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83 construction (civil works and equipment), including also its dismantling, and operation to the

84 impact for each operational unit and impact category is analyzed. Third, a cumulative effect to

85 the overall impact of the civil works, equipment and operation for each operational unit and

86 resources consumed (material, energy, transport) is shown. Finally, a set of simplifications in

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87 the construction inventory are evaluated to provide guidance to LCA practitioners.

88

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89 2. METHODS

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90 2.1. Procedure followed to obtain a detailed construction inventory

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91 Detailed inventories for civil works includes the following steps (Figure 1): (1) Obtain the
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92 construction budget for the WWTP. In the budget, all elements needed for civil works (e.g.,

93 excavations, handrails, concrete, etc.) are listed, along with the price and the amount of each
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94 one. (2) Then, all these elements in the budget are identified and grouped in a simplified list

95 (e.g., excavation of a representative type of soil, a representative type of concrete, etc.). (3)
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96 Once all elements of the budget are identified and grouped, it is necessary to search for
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97 equivalent elements in a specialized constructive database of reference (in our case the local

98 database Banc BEDEC, which is used by constructors to make their budgets). This database
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99 provides all the necessary information about materials and energy consumed to build a unit of
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100 each element. (4) Finally, the material and energy inventories are calculated by relating the
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101 elements obtained from the construction budget to the equivalent elements of the reference

102 database.

103 (FIGURE 1)

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104 The procedure for equipment is as follows: (1) Obtain the list of equipment from the

105 equipment maintenance plan or, if it is not available, using as-built documents. (2) The

106 equipment is characterized and organized in classes. (3) Obtain the environmental product

107 declarations (EPDs) of each class of equipment. In the EPDs, the material and energy needed

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108 for the manufacturing of each equipment are recorded. Sometimes, specific EPDs are not

109 available, in which case it is necessary to deduce information from similar elements of each

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110 group. (4) Obtain the inventory, relating the information from the EPDs with the list obtained

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111 in the classification of the equipment.

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112 Five WWTP units were considered in the case study: (1) pumping + pretreatment, (2) primary
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113 treatment, (3) secondary treatment, (4) sludge line and deposition, and (5) buildings and

114 services. Table 1 provides a description of the elementary processes considered for each
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115 operational unit considered in this work. The procedure was applied to obtain detailed

116 inventories for each one of these units of the WWTP.

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117 (TABLE 1)
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118 2.2. Life cycle assessment

119 The environmental assessment was conducted following the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards
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120 (ISO 14040, 2006; ISO 14044, 2006) which define four stages: (1) goal and scope definition;
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121 (2) inventory analysis; (3) environmental impact assessment; and (4) interpretation.

122 2.2.1. Goal and scope definition

123 The goal was to perform an LCA of the Girona WWTP, considering the construction of the

124 plant (civil works + equipment), the operation and dismantling, and making an individual

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125 analysis for the five WWTP units. The functional unit of the study is 1 m3 of treated

126 wastewater assuming that the WWTP is working at full capacity. In fact, WWTPs are

127 designed and constructed to serve a specific capacity. However, the treated flow does not

128 always match with the design flow. We assumed the lifetime of the WWTP to be 20 years

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129 (Renou et al., 2008) whereas the lifetime of the equipment was 15 years (Lundin et al., 2000).

130 The sensitivity of the lifetime of the WWTP on the LCA assessment is addressed in a

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131 sensitivity analysis. Savage values for the equipment are considered when the life spans of the

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132 WWTP and of the equipment do not match.

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133 The studied WWTP is located in Girona (Catalonia, NE of Spain). It treats the wastewater
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134 from the main city and different nearby towns located around the WWTP, before the effluent

135 is discharged into the Ter River. The plant has a capacity of 206,250 population equivalents
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136 (PE), which corresponds to a design flow rate of 55,000 m3·d-1. However, in the year 2013 the

137 WWTP of Girona treated on average 42,000 m3·d-1. The water line consists of a Modified
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138 Ludzack-Ettinger (MLE) configuration with biological removal of organic matter and
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139 nitrogen and chemical removal of phosphorus. The sludge line consists of thickening,
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140 anaerobic sludge digestion with electricity production from the biogas, and sludge

141 dewatering. The dewatered sludge is sent to a nearby composting plant. The composting plant
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142 is a private installation located 20 km away from the WWTP, and it treats not only the sludge
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143 from the WWTP but also other organic residues from other facilities. Figure 2 shows a

144 scheme of the WWTP with a separation of each analyzed operational unit and an indication of

145 the operational data used to perform the LCA of the operation.

146 (FIGURE 2)

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147 Pumping and pretreatment includes five pumps, two channels that are 16 meters long, two

148 sieves, screening and grease separation. Primary treatment has three primary settlers, each

149 with a total capacity of 412 m3. Secondary treatment consists of three different reactors with a

150 total capacity of 29,620 m3 and three settlers, each with a capacity of 5,027 m3. The sludge

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151 line includes two thickeners of 16 m of diameter, two primary digesters with a 3,432 m3

152 volume, two secondary digesters with an 814 m3 volume, two dewatering devices and a

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153 cogeneration device.

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154 The system boundaries (Figure 3) consider the WWTP’s construction, operation and

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155 dismantling. The production of all materials (and their transport) and energy used to build the
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156 WWTP (civil works + equipment) are accounted. The dismantling is considered in this study

157 for the most abundant materials for both civil works and equipment, assuming that concrete
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158 and reinforced concrete are disposed at a landfill for inert waste, 91% of metals are recycled

159 (Sansom and Avery, 2014) and 25% of plastics are recycled, 34% of plastics are incinerated
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160 with electricity recovery and the rest disposed in a landfill (Plastics Europe, 2012). Operation
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161 includes the electricity and chemicals consumed, the gases and water emissions from the
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162 WWTP to the environment, the deposition of residues from the pretreatment and primary

163 treatment of the WWTP (solid residues, sand and greases), the sludge composting (but not its
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164 application in agriculture) and the electricity produced. Transports from suppliers to the
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165 WWTP during the construction and operation phases are considered as well. The construction

166 of the composting plant is not within the system boundaries.

167 (FIGURE 3)

168

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169 2.2.2. Inventory analysis

170 The procedure described in section 2.1. has been applied to obtain the construction

171 inventories of each of the five WWTP units in terms of materials and energy (Table 2).

172 Hence, for all WWTP stages (pre-treatment, primary treatment, secondary treatment, sludge

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173 line, buildings and services) we have accounted for materials and equipment. A summary of

174 the construction inventory can be found in Table 2. 45 different types of materials have been

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175 used in the construction of the WWTP of Girona (see Table S-1 from supporting information

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176 for a complete material inventory). The WWTP has 1240 devices, including large equipment

177 (e.g. blowers, pumps, motors, mixers, heat exchangers, compressors, diffusers) and small

178
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equipment (e.g. valves, gates, probes). Tables S-2a and S-2b lists all the devices and
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179 corresponding materials for all equipment installed per operational unit while section 1 in

180 Supplementary Information details how inventories have been performed for motors and
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181 pumps. Tables S-3 and S-4 and section 1 in supplementary information provide independent
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182 inventories for all pumps and motors typically existing in WWTPs (which can be directly
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183 applied to other studies). Transports have been estimated considering the weight of the

184 materials and assuming an average distance of 40 km.

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185 Table 2 also includes the inventory of the operational phase. That information has been
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186 provided by Trargisa S.A., the company that manages the Girona WWTP. The chemicals used
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187 in the WWTP are iron chloride, sodium aluminate, polyelectrolyte, antifoaming and

188 antioxidant. For iron chloride the correspondence in the Ecoinvent database has been used.

189 For sodium aluminate no equivalent has been found in Ecoinvent, and hence we have created

190 our own process using technical information on the chemical production. For chemicals with

191 no technical information available an alternative similar chemical has been selected from the

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192 Ecoinvent database. Acrylonitrile is the proxy for polyelectrolyte and silicon product is the

193 proxy for antifoaming and antioxidant. The composting process used in this assessment is the

194 one described by Remy (2010), which provides inventory data tailored to current composting

195 processes (more recent than the processes available in the Ecoinvent database). The direct

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196 emissions of greenhouse gases from secondary treatment, from biogas combustion and from

197 the degradation of the organic matter and nutrients emitted to the river, have been estimated

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198 applying the factors from Foley et al. (2010), which are 0.01 kg N2O-N/kg N denitrified in

secondary treatment, 16.02 gCH4/Nm3 biogas and 0.73 g N2O/Nm3 biogas from biogas

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200 combustion, and 0.025 kg CH4/kg COD discharged to the river and 0.0025 kg N2O-N/kg N

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201 discharged to the river.
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202 (TABLE 2)
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203 The factors provided in Table 2 (kg of materials and energy per m3 of treated water) can be
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204 reused to develop robust inventories for the construction, operation and dismantling of
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205 treatment works similar to the Girona WWTP.

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206 2.2.3. Environmental Impact Assessment

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207 The types of materials, energy sources and emissions from the inventories have been matched
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208 to their corresponding equivalents in the Ecoinvent 3 database (Weidema et al., 2013). The

209 potential environmental impacts have been calculated through the use of LCIA

210 characterization factors related to a sub-set of impact categories from ReCiPe (H) 1.13

211 (Goedkoop et al., 2013). We have included climate change (CC), ozone depletion (OD),

212 freshwater eutrophication (FE), marine eutrophication (ME), human toxicity (HT), metal

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213 depletion (MD) and fossil depletion (FD). All inventories used for the materials and energy

214 production processes in this study have been taken from Ecoinvent 3 (Weidema et al., 2013).

215 The assessment has been conducted using SimaPro 8.3.0.0.

216 2.3. Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis

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217 One of the most influential factors in the LCA of WWTPs is the selection of the life span

218 (Risch et al., 2015). A sensitivity analysis has been conducted to evaluate the influence of the

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219 selection of the life span of the WWTP to the environmental impacts. Hence, besides the base

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220 case of 20 years of life span, we have evaluated as well 10 and 30 years life span.

221 Uncertainty analysis has been applied to analyze the variability of results due to the variation

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of uncertain input parameters over their whole domain of uncertainty, using the Monte-Carlo
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223 engine in Simapro. We have assumed an uncertainty of 13% for civil works which
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224 corresponds to the “unexpected issues” item in the execution budget of the Girona WWTP.

225 This 13% covers the uncertainty related to the execution of the project given a certain budget,
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226 and does not account for possible sources of variability that one could find in other case-
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227 studies. Uncertainty has been only assessed on the amount of material used for the machinery

228 with the highest influence on the impact (i.e. pumps and motors). The uncertainty range has
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229 been defined separately for pumps and motors after compiling EPDs from different vendors
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230 and conducting a linear regression between the usage of materials and the power (see section
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231 2 and Tables S-5 and S-6 of supplementary information for further details on the uncertainty

232 analysis for motors and pumps). The error associated to those regressions is assumed to be the

233 uncertainty, ranging from 10% (for large equipment) to 400% (for small equipment).

234 With regards to the uncertainty associated to the WWTP operation, it was addressed after

235 evaluating the variability in the concentrations of pollutants at the influent of the WWTP, the

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236 chemicals consumption and the electricity consumption over three consecutive years. The

237 uncertainty values were obtained calculating the mean and the maximum and minimum

238 values of the values. In addition, we have used the factor reported in Foley et al. (2010) to

239 include N2O emissions (0.0003 to 0.03 kg N2O-N/kg N denitrified in the secondary

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240 treatment). Uniform probability distribution functions have been applied to all sources of

241 uncertainty evaluated.

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242 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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243 3.1. Environmental impact assessment of the construction and operation of the entire

244 plant

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245 When assuming a life span of the WWTP of 20 years (Figure 4, middle bar for each impact

246 category), the contribution of the construction (civil works + equipment) to the overall burden
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247 is higher than 5% for most environmental impact categories evaluated. For MD the

248 contribution of construction is as large as 63%, with a share of approximately 52% for civil
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249 works (i. e. 2.00·106 kg, mainly reinforcing steel) and of 10% for the equipment (e.g., 4.1·104
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250 kg of cast iron and 1.5·104 kg of steel, without considering the replacement). For HT and FD,
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251 the contribution of construction to the overall impact is approximately 16%. In the case of FD

252 most of the construction burden comes from the production of materials (only 3% of FD
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253 relates to energy consumed during the construction phase). For CC, OD and FE, the
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254 contribution of construction represents between 5 and 10% of the overall impact. It is worth

255 mentioning that construction contributes to FE through emissions generated during the

256 production of materials, such as steel and concrete as well as through landfill emissions. Only

257 for ME the contribution to the impact of civil works and equipment is less than 1%. Keeping

258 in mind that the cut-off criteria defined in the LCA Handbook (European Comission, 2010) is

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259 5% influence on the environmental impacts it is clear that one cannot systematically omit the

260 construction phase in LCA studies for WWTPs of similar configuration and size of the one

261 studied in this paper. It is worth mentioning that the inclusion of the dismantling/end-of-life

262 of the WWTP implies recycling most of metals from the equipment. Recycling reinforcing

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263 steel would decrease the MD burden down to negligible values for construction. However, the

264 latter is not a common practice due to the large costs involved in the separation of concrete

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265 and the reinforcing steel.

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266 (FIGURE 4)

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267 The results for the sensitivity analysis of the WWTP life span shows little effect on the
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268 categories CC, OD, FE, ME and FD. For HT and MD, the longer the life span is the larger the

269 contribution of equipment to the overall environmental impacts, as replacement will be

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270 needed. In contrast, when the life span considered is 30 years, the contribution of civil works
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271 significantly decreases for the MD category.

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272 Overall, even when accounting for uncertainty, the conclusion that construction cannot be
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273 neglected remains valid. The uncertainty related to the operation phase has a larger influence

274 on most of the environmental impacts than the one related to the construction phase (Figure
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275 5). The propagation of uncertainty of the emission factor of N2O emissions has a large impact
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276 on climate change (see errors bars for operation in CC, Figure 5). The large uncertainty

277 behind fugitive GHG emissions can change the relative contribution of construction to the

278 overall impacts. If fugitive GHG emissions would not be considered the contribution of

279 construction to climate change would be higher (close to 10%). The climate change results

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280 vary by 5% when propagating the uncertainty from the operation. In the case of MD, the

281 propagation of uncertainty comes equally from civil works, equipment and operation.

282 (FIGURE 5)

283

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284 3.2. The contribution of construction to the environmental burden found in the

285 literature

286 Figure 6 shows the results of the contribution of construction and operation to the global

287 environmental impacts for relevant papers in literature which studied a similar wastewater

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288 treatment technology and specified the life span of infrastructure. Overall, the contribution of

289 construction ranges from 1% to 63%. While operation and civil works were considered in all

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290 studies presented in Figure 6 (only a few included GHG emissions), equipment was only

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291 considered in Vlasopoulos et al. (2006), Machado et al. (2007), Ortiz et al. (2007) and Renou

292 et al. (2008).

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293 (FIGURE 6)
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294 Previous studies reported a share of construction to the overall impacts lower than 5%
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295 (Emmerson et al., 1995; Vlasopoulos et al., 2006). We understand that there is probably an
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296 underestimation of concrete (we estimated that 3 times more concrete would be needed in a

297 WWTP of the same size compared to Emmerson et al., 1995), and that no databases of
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298 construction elements such as Banc BEDEC have been used. The construction inventory for

299 Vlasopoulos et al. (2006) was collected by questionnaire contact to over 160 equipment
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300 designers, manufacturers and suppliers, but not based on real information from existing
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301 systems and following a detailed budget. No detailed information was provided on how the

302 construction inventory was executed and on the assumptions made.

303 Renou et al. (2008) concluded that the construction of an activated sludge plant had a

304 contribution of 11% to the CC impact category, close to the 8% reported in this study.

305 However, for the HT impact category they reported a share of construction of 1%, which is

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306 much lower than the 18% obtained in this study. The difference might be explained by the

307 fact that they did not include equipment in their inventories.

308 Some studies reported a share of construction to the overall impacts between 20 and 30%

309 (Machado et al., 2007; Ortiz et al., 2007). The difference compared to our study might be

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310 explained by the shorter life span they applied and because of the economy of scale. In

311 addition, the inclusion of N2O and CH4 emissions in the operation might have a large

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312 influence downgrade the contribution of construction to the overall impacts.

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313 Using the inventory values reported in Foley et al. (2010) (for their scenario 4Bii) and running

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314 ReCiPe (H) 1.13 we obtained a contribution for all categories lower than 5% for the
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315 construction, except for MD where the contribution of construction was of 18%. From the

316 interpretation of that inventory (it is not explained in detail) we understand that in Foley et al.
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317 (2010) they considered materials to build mainly the secondary treatment, but did not include

318 in detail all possible stages (pumping, pretreatment, primary treatment and sludge line).
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319 Whereas in Foley et al. (2010) they applied a factor of 77 kg of steel per m3 of concrete in this
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320 study a factor of 90 kg of steel per m3 was used. That increases the amount of metals, and

321 hence has an effect specially for HT and MD. In addition, whereas in Foley et al. (2010) they
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322 accounted for the production of two materials (steel and copper) and the mass for 3 type of
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323 equipment (pumps, motors and blowers), we included 30 additional materials and 1240
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324 devices (Table S-2a).

325 Risch et al. (2015) reports a contribution of 20% for CC, higher than our study (around 8%), a

326 similar one for HT (18%) and a lower contribution for OD, FE, but specially for MD and FD,

327 even though Risch et al. (2015) use a life span of 30 years. The exhaustive inventory for the

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328 equipment and civil works phases in our study can be the explanation for these significant

329 differences.

330 Ecoinvent provides some inventories for construction and operation for 30 years lifespan of 5

331 different WWTPs. After recalculating the results for 20 years life span for the 5 WWTPs, the

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332 average of the construction and operation impacts shows a contribution of the construction for

333 CC (32%) and OD (29 %), which are values higher than our results (8% and 10%

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334 respectively). Similar results are obtained for ME, HT and FD, with a contribution of the

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335 construction of 0%, 28% and 24% of each one. Finally, for FE the contribution is very similar

336 to our study (around 8%) while for MD the contribution is lower (45% against 65% obtained

337
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in our study). Apparently there is a disagreement between the results reported in Ecoinvent
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338 and other studies. That disagreement might come from an overestimation of the amount of

339 concrete. Whereas in Ecoinvent a factor of 6268 kg/m3 is applied, in this study we obtained a
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340 factor of 927 kg/m3. The latter, is within the order of magnitude of other studies, such as 579
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341 kg/m3 in Foley et al. (2010) or 428 kg/m3 in Emmerson et al. (1995).
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342 3.3. Identification of key resources/processes that contribute the most to the

343 environmental burden

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344 In this section we identify which are the key resources/processes in the construction and
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345 operation of the WWTP of Girona. A summary of the contribution of each of the treatment
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346 units to construction, equipment and operation related impacts is provided in Table 3 and

347 illustrated in Figure 7. With regards to civil works, the production of concrete used in the

348 construction of the secondary treatment (mainly the biological reactors) and the sludge line

349 (mainly the anaerobic digester) is the process contributing the most to CC impacts. Then, the

350 production of reinforcing steel (also used to build the biological reactors, the digester and

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351 thickeners) is the process that contributes the most to MD (with a contribution on its own of

352 41% of the total impact, 25% from the biological reactors and 11% from the digester) and to

353 HT (a contribution of 7.6% of the total). Recycling the steel from the reinforced concrete

354 would significantly decrease the MD and HT impacts, although probably at expenses of

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355 increase in CC due to the usage of machinery. However, this is not a common practice due to

356 high costs. There is a slight contribution of the production of plastics to HT and MD (lower

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357 than 4%). The equipment contributes to 11% of the MD, 3.4% of the HT, and is almost

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358 negligible for the CC impacts. Metals consumed during the production of equipment,

359 including pumps and motors, transport and mobile equipment, are contributing the most to

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360 MD. When it comes to operation, and looking into CC impact category, then the electricity
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361 consumed for pumping & pretreatment and secondary treatment (aeration) correspond to

362 about 20% of the total impact, and the direct GHG emissions emitted from the biological
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363 reactor (35% of the total impact, but with large associated uncertainty) are the largest
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364 contributors. The electricity produced at the treatment plant through cogeneration corresponds

365 to an avoided impact of about 10%. When it comes to HT and MD, then the chemicals used in
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366 primary treatment (i.e. iron chloride) and secondary treatment (i.e. sodium aluminium) also
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367 play a significant role, as they contribute to 30% of HT and 20% of MD. Finally, the

368 deposition of solids from the pretreatment to landfill contribute to 17% of the HT. The
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369 avoided electricity production has also a positive impact on the HT (16%).
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370 Additionally, Figures S-1 to Figure S-4 illustrate the contribution of civil works, equipment

371 and operation for each operational unit for the other studied impact categories (OD, FE, ME

372 and FD, respectively). In Figures S-2 and S-3 the high influence of the discharge of nitrogen

373 and phosphorus from the WWTP is observed for the eutrophication impact categories.

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374 Previous published works already identified that electricity consumption, chemicals and

375 primary solids are the main contributors to CC, MD and HT (e.g. Hospido et al., 2004,

376 Rodriguez-Garcia et al., 2011) and nutrients discharged to the receiving water bodies

377 (assigned to secondary treatment in this study) are the most important contributors to

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378 eutrophication (e.g. Hospido et al., 2008). The fact that concrete and reinforcing steel are also

379 important contributors to the CC and MD impacts has been reported before in Machado et al.,

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380 (2007). The significant contribution of equipment to MD is an important highlight of this

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381 study since has never been reported before, and as estimated in this study can contribute up to

382 11% of the MD impacts.

383 (FIGURE 7)
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384 3.4. Influence of inventory simplifications on the environmental impacts
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385 As an exercise of simplification we took the key resources/processes identified in previous

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386 sections and calculated the overall coverage of the estimation of the environmental impacts
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387 based on factors for materials and energy provided in Table 2. An LCA exercise which would

388 include concrete, reinforcing steel and plastics, together with the operational data (energy,
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389 GHG emissions, chemicals and deposition of solids from the pretreatment), would allow to

390 estimate between 90 and 99% of the impact in CC, OD, FE, ME and FD categories. In order
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391 to encompass a minimum 90% of the HT and MD impacts, metals consumed during the
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392 production of pumps, motors, transport and mobile equipment should be considered in

393 addition to the data mentioned before. From our study, we can conclude that buildings and

394 service units can be omitted from the analysis.

395 At another simplification level, the inclusion of civil works, equipment and operation of

396 secondary treatment (i.e. biological reactor and settler) and sludge line (i.e. thickeners,

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397 anaerobic digester and centrifuges) would result in about 75% coverage of the total impact for

398 the different impact categories in this study.

399 It is also important to mention that these conclusions are based in a single application of this

400 approach in an activated sludge WWTP of 206,250 PE. For this reason, further work should

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401 be conducted to analyze different treatment technologies and different sizes to draw more

402 general recommendations.

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403

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404 4. CONCLUSIONS

405
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An inadequate level of detail for materials and resources inventoried during construction,
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406 operation and dismantling processes (e.g. considering or not GHG or metals for the

407 equipment) significantly influences the estimation of the share of construction to the global
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408 environmental impacts of WWTPs. With our case study, we demonstrate that for most of the
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409 impact categories the contribution of construction to the overall burden is higher than 5% and
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410 especially for metal depletion the impact of civil works plus equipment reaches 63%. When

411 comparing to the WWTP inventories available in Ecoinvent, the share of construction is about
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412 three times smaller for climate change but twice higher for metal depletion. Although the

413 equipment has a smaller impact than civil works, it must be considered as well; depending on
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414 the category and the number of times it has to be replaced, its impact cannot be neglected,
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415 particularly in the HT and MD impact categories. Concrete and reinforcing steel are the

416 materials with the highest contribution to the civil works phase and motors and pumps are

417 also key equipment to consider during life cycle inventories of WWTPs. The factors obtained

418 with the most detailed inventory published so far facilitates the development of robust

419 inventories for WWTPs construction, operation and dismantling.

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420 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

421 The authors would like to thank Trargisa S.A. for providing the data and feedback on the

422 WWTP of Girona, Voltes S.L.U. for the technical support, Banc BEDEC, the Ministry of

423 Economy and competitiveness for the Ramon and Cajal grant from Lluís Corominas (RYC-

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424 2013-14595) and the REaCH project (CTM2015-66892-R). Serni Morera’s FI scholarship

425 (2015FI_B2 00071), STSMscholarship from EU-Cost Action Water2020 (ECOST-STSM-

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426 ES1202-110614-044095). LEQUIA and ICRA were recognized as consolidated research

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427 groups by the Catalan Government with codes 2014-SGR-1168 and 2014-SGR-291,

428 respectively.

429
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430 6. REFERENCES
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431 Corominas, L., Foley, J., Guest, J. S., Hospido, A., Larsen, H. F., Morera, S., Shaw, A.,
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432 (2013). Life cycle assessment applied to wastewater treatment: state of the art. Water
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433 Res., 47 (15), 5480–92.

434 Doka, G., (2007). Life Cycle Inventories of Waste Treatment Services. Ecoinvent report No.
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435 13, Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, December 2007.
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436 Emmerson, R. H. C., Morse, G. K., Lester, J. N., Edge, D. R., (1995). The Life-Cycle
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437 Analysis of Small-Scale Sewage-Treatment Processes. Journal of CIWEM, 9, 317–325.

438 European Commission – Joint Research Centre – Institute for Environment and

439 Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook -

440 General guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. First edition March 2010.

441 EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publication Office of the European Union; 2010.

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442 Foley, J., De Haas, D., Hartley, K., Lant, P., (2010). Comprehensive life cycle inventories of

443 alternative wastewater treatment systems. Water Res., 44 (5), 1654–66.

444 Frischknecht, R., Jungbluth, N., Hans-Jörg, A., Doka, G., Dones, R., Heck, T., Hellweg, S.,

445 Hischier, R., Nemecek, T., Rebitzer, G., Spielmann, M., (2005). The ecoinvent Database:

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446 Overview and Methodological Framework. Int. J. LCA 10 (1), 3-9.

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447 Goedkoop, M., Heijungs, R., Huijbregts, M., De Schryver, A., Struijs, J., Van Zelm, R.,

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448 (2013). ReCiPe 2008 – A life cycle impact assessment method which comprises

449 harmonised caregory indicators at the midpoint and the endpoint level. Ministry VROM

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450 Report.
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451 Hospido, A., Moreira, M. T., Fernández-Couto, M., Feijoo, G., (2004). Environmental
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452 Performance of a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess., 9

453 (4), 261–271.

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454 Hospido, A., Moreira, M. T., Feijoo, G., (2008). A Comparison of Municipal Wastewater
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455 Treatment Plants for Big Centers of Population in Galicia. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess., 13
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456 (1), 57-64.

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457 ISO 14040, 2006. Environmental Management - Life Cycle Assessment - Principles and
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458 Framework: International Standard 14040. International Standards Organisation,

459 Geneva., 2006.

460 Lundin, M., Bengtsson, M., Molander, S., (2000). Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater

461 Systems: Influence of System Boundaries and Scale on Calculated Environmental

462 Loads. Environ. Sci. Technol., 34 (1), 180–186.

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463 Machado, A. P., Urbano, L., Brito, A. G., Janknecht, P., Salas, J. J., Nogueira, R., (2007). Life

464 cycle assessment of wastewater treatment options for small and decentralized

465 communities. Water Sci. Technol., 56 (3), 15.

466 Plastics Europe (2012). Plastics – the Facts 2012. An analysis of European plastics

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467 production, demand and waste data for 2011. Brussels, Belgium.

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468 Ortiz, M., Raluy, R. G., Serra, L., (2007). Life cycle assessment of water treatment

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469 technologies: wastewater and water-reuse in a small town. Desalination, 204 (1-3), 121–

470 131.

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472 conventional and source-separating urban sanitation systems. Water Sci. Technol., 58
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473 (8), 1555–62.

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474 Remy, C. (2010). Life Cycle Assessment of conventional and source-separation systems for

475 urban wastewater management. PhD Thesis.

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476 Renou, S., Thomas, J. S., Aoustin, E., Pons, M. N., (2008). Influence of impact assessment
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477 methods in wastewater treatment LCA. J. Clean. Prod., 16 (10), 1098–1105.

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478 Risch, E., Gutierrez, O., Roux, P., Boutin, C., Corominas, Ll., (2015). Life cycle assessment
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479 of urban wastewater systems: Quantifying the relative contribution of sewer systems.

480 Water Res. 77 (2015), 35-48.

481 Rodriguez-Garcia, G., Molinos-Senante, M., Hospido, A., Hernández-Sancho, F., Moreira, M.

482 T., Feijoo, G., (2011). Environmental and economic profile of six typologies of

483 wastewater treatment plants. Water Res. 45 (2011) 5997-6010.

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484 Sansom, M. and Avery, N. 2014. Reuse and recycling rates of UK steel demolition arisings.

485 Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering Sustainability, Volume 167, Issue 3.

486 Stokes, J. R. and Horvath, A., (2010). Supply-chain environmental effects of wastewater

487 utilites. Environ. Res. Lett. 5 (2010), 014015.

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488 Tillman, A. M., Svingby, M., Lundström, H., (1998). Life Cycle Assessment of Municipal

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489 Waste Water Systems. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess 3 (3), 145-157.

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490 Vlasopoulos, N., Memon, F. A., Butler, D., Murphy, R., (2006). Life cycle assessment of

491 wastewater treatment technologies treating petroleum process waters. Sci. Total

492 Environ., 367 (1), 58–70.

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493 Weidema, B. P., Bauer, Ch., Hischier, R., Mutel, Ch., Nemecek, T., Reinhard, J., Vadenbo,
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494 C.O., Wernet. G., (2013). The ecoinvent database: Overview and methodology, Data
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495 quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3. www.ecoinvent.org.

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498 TABLES

499 Table 1: Description of all the unit processes included in each operation unit studied.

500 Table 2: Inventory for the civil works, equipment and operation of the plant divided by unit.

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501 Table 3: Percentage contribution of civil works (CW), equipment (EQ) and operation (OP)

502 for each operational unit and environmental impact studied.

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503

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504

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505 FIGURES

506 Figure 1: Procedure followed to obtain the detailed inventory of the WWTP construction.

507 EPD: Environmental Product Declaration.

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508 Figure 2: Scheme of the Girona WWTP with a separation of each analyzed unit and the

509 inputs and outputs considered for the operational analysis.

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510 Figure 3: System boundaries considered in this LCA study.

511 Figure 4: Contribution of civil works, equipment and operation in each impact category,

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512 depending on the life span considered. In each category, the first bar, starting from the left,

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513 corresponds to a 10-years life span, the second (middle) bar corresponds to 20 years (base
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514 case), and the third (right) corresponds to 30 years.

515 Figure 5: Results of the uncertainty analysis for all analyzed categories. In the case of CC
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516 category there are two different error bars, the higher uncertainty range includes the

517 uncertainty of N2O emissions factor provided in Foley et al. (2010).

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518 Figure 6: Summary of all studies used for the comparison of construction and operational
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519 impacts.* Energy consumption as MJ; ** CML estimates eutrophication as a single impact
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520 category; *** CML estimates abiotic depletion as a combination of metal depletion (MD) and

521 fossil depletion (FD). The different levels of detail followed in the construction inventories
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522 are depicted by the abbreviations

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523 Figure 7: Cumulative impact from 0% to 100% of the resources consumed in civil works,

524 equipment and operation for CC, HT and MD categories. The contribution of each

525 resource/process from each WWTP unit is shown. Results for other studied impact categories

526 are found in supporting information (Figure S-1 to Figure S-4).

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Table 1: Description of all the unit processes included in each operation unit studied.
Operational unit Elementary processes included

Pumping+pretreatment Wastewater well reception, pumping station, pretreatment building,

part of the connections and part of the unit to dose chemicals

Primary treatment Primary settlers, units to mix water and chemicals, chamber to
measure the flow and part of the connections

Secondary treatment Biological reactors, secondary settlers, chamber to measure the

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sludge sent to the sludge line, chamber to measure and pump the
sludge sent back to the biological reactor, part of the unit to dose
chemicals and part of the connections

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Sludge line and Thickening tanks and buildings for the thickening tanks, chamber to
deposition pump the sludge, dewatering building, zone for the dewatered
sludge, anaerobic digestion unit and part of connections, final sludge

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treatment in a composting plant

Others Chemicals storage, control building, adaptation of the land and

sidewalks

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Table 2: Inventory for the civil works, equipment and operation of the plant divided by
unit.

Sludge Building
Pumping + Primary Secondary
Concept Unit line and and Full plant
pretreatment treatment treatment
deposition services
Civil works
Excavated ton·m-3 1.14·10-6 1.00·10-5 2.81·10-4 2.05·10-5 0 3.14·10-4

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material
Energy MJ·m-3 1.07·10-3 1.70·10-3 2.14·10-2 4.83·10-3 2.64·10-3 2.91·10-2
consumed

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Total transport tkm·m-3 7.05·10-4 8.34·10-4 8.89·10-3 5.33·10-3 3.56·10-4 1.61·10-2
Reinforcing kg·m-3 4.96·10-4 4.23·10-4 2.71·10-3 1.27·10-3 2.05·10-5 4.92·10-3

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steel
Metal kg·m-3 3.04·10-5 3.26·10-5 7.52·10-5 5.23·10-5 1.49·10-5 2.05·10-4
consumption

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Plastic kg·m-3 2.05·10-4 2.05·10-4 2.12·10-5 5.98·10-4 2.23·10-7 1.22·10-3
consumption
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Conglomerates kg·m-3 1.28·10-3 5.58·10-4 7.20·10-2 2.85·10-3 6.11·10-3 8.28·10-2
and bricks
Concrete kg.m-3 1.67·10-2 1.46·10-2 7.17·10-3 2.21·10-2 1.81·10-3 6.24·10-2
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Other materials kg·m-3 7.07·10-5 1.82·10-5 3.79·10-5 2.91·10-5 9.46·10-4 1.10·10-3

Equipment
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Stainless steel kg·m-3 6.03·10-5 1.63·10-5 2.86·10-5 3.26·10-5 1.64·10-9 1.38·10-4

Other steel kg·m-3 8.72·10-6 1.53·10-6 1.09·10-5 1.66·10-5 3.06·10-7 3.79·10-5
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Cast iron kg·m-3 1.94·10-5 3.66·10-6 3.49·10-5 4.66·10-5 - 1.04·10-4

Aluminium kg·m-3 1.19·10-6 7.25·10-6 2.84·10-6 3.49·10-6 - 8.22·10-6
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Copper kg·m-3 8.29·10-7 1.37·10-7 1.53·10-6 3.89·10-6 - 6.40·10-6

Other metals kg·m-3 6.18·10-7 1.24·10-6 7.27·10-7 1.53·10-6 - 4.11·10-6
Polypropylene kg·m-3 1.46·10-7 3.49·10-9 5.90·10-6 3.59·10-8 2.86·10-8 6.10·10-6
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Glass fibre kg·m-3 2.25·10-6 1.41·10-6 1.42·10-6 2.12·10-6 - 7.20·10-6

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reinforced
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Polyethylene kg·m-3 4.26·10-7 9.24·10-9 4.78·10-7 4.66·10-7 - 1.38·10-6
PVC kg·m-3 2.67·10-8 1.37·10-7 5.21·10-8 2.59·10-7 - 4.73·10-7
Polystyrene kg·m-3 - 1.15·10-6 - - - 1.15·10-6
Other plastics kg·m-3 1.39·10-7 1.27·10-7 2.32·10-7 1.17·10-7 8.47·10-10 6.15·10-7
Sealing kg·m-3 4.56·10-7 6.00·10-7 3.24·10-6 2.49·10-6 - 6.77·10-6
compounds
Energy kwh·m-3 3.99·10-5 2.91·10-6 1.06·10-4 4.66·10-5 - 1.95·10-4
Other materials kg·m-3 7.45·10-7 5.55·10-7 1.22·10-6 9.17·10-7 3.04·10-7 3.74·10-6
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Transport tkm·m-3 1.44·10-5 4.28·10-6 1.44·10-5 1.68·10-5 9.84·10-8 5.01·10-5
Operation
Electricity kwh·m-3 7.19·10-2 1.75·10-4 2.06·10-1 5.03·10-2 2.12·10-2 3.50·10-1
consumption
Electricity kwh·m-3 - - - 1.31·10-2 - 1.31·10-2
production
Iron chloride kg·m-3 - 1.29·10-2 - - - 1.29·10-2
kg·m-3 4.27·10-2 4.27·10-2

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Sodium - - - -
aluminate
Antifoaming kg·m-3 - - 4.74·10-5 2.49·10-4 - 2.96·10-4

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Polyelectrolyte kg·m-3 - - - 1.24·10-3 - 1.24·10-3
Antioxidant l·m-3 - - - 2.11·10-6 - 2.11·10-6
l·m-3 2.73·10-3 2.73·10-3

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Diesel - - - -
Transport tkm·m-3 1.16·10-3 3.70·10-3 1.35·10-2 1.58·10-2 3.42·10-2
Direct GHG kg CO2 eq· - - 2.17·10-1 4.51·10-2 - 2.62·10-1

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Residues kg·m-3 3.74·10-2 - - - - 3.74·10-2
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Sludge to kg·m-3 - - - 7.88·10-1 - 7.88·10-1
composting
COD emission kg·m-3 - - 1.84·10-2 - - 1.84·10-2
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NO3- emission kg·m-3 - - 1.76·10-2 - - 1.76·10-2

PO43- emission kg·m-3 - - 3.32·10-4 - - 3.32·10-4
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Table 3: Percentage contribution of civil works (CW), equipment (EQ) and operation (OP) for each operational unit and environmental impact
studied.

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Pumping + Primary treatment Secondary Sludge line Buildings and Total plant
pretreatment treatment services

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CW EQ OP CW EQ OP CW EQ OP CW EQ OP CW EQ OP CW EQ OP

CC 8.01 0.78 91.21 20.32 0.73 78.95 5.32 0.09 94.58 5.33 0.20 94.47 9.71 0.02 90.27 6.09 0.20 93.71

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OD 9.69 0.88 89.43 5.09 0.32 94.59 7.84 0.18 91.98 111.60 7.58 -19.181 9.86 0.10 90.04 10.25 0.47 89.28

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FE 10.66 2.73 86.62 9.67 1.55 88.79 3.18 0.19 96.63 -104.10 -20.58 224.682 5.74 0.06 94.20 5.75 0.75 93.50

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ME 0.86 -0.05 99.19 15.64 0.72 83.64 0.10 0.00 99.90 1.42 -0.44 99.02 11.10 0.03 88.87 0.19 -0.02 99.83

HT 6.67 2.41 90.92 10.17 2.41 87.42 15.07 1.45 83.48 253.52 80.11 -233.641 9.57 0.10 90.33 16.06 3.29 80.65

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MD 41.25 30.41 28.34 25.96 7.57 66.47 58.03 4.68 37.29 80.28 15.35 4.381 28.18 0.41 71.41 52.83 10.47 36.69

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FD 9.78 1.10 89.12 19.85 0.83 79.31 13.59 0.28 86.13 93.52 3.85 2.621 8.57 0.02 91.41 16.84 0.62 82.53

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CW (civil works), EQ (equipment), OP (operation), unit of measurement in %. 1 In these cases, due to the electricity produced during the
operation the impact generated by the operation is negative. 2 In this case, because the electricity produced is enough to compensate the impact
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generated by civil works and equipment, for this reason when the contribution of civil works and equipment is compared with the total impact the
result is negative.
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Highlights

• Detailed civil works and equipment inventories for a large WWTP are provided
• Construction share of the environmental impacts is higher than 5%
• For metal depletion, construction can represent >60% of impacts
• Differences are observed when comparing to Ecoinvent inventories

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