Assessing METland® Design and Performance Through LCA: Techno-Environmental Study With Multifunctional Unit Perspective

Lorena Peñacoba-Antona; Jorge Senán-Salinas; Arantxa Aguirre-Sierra; Pedro Letón; Juan José Salas; Eloy García-Calvo; Abraham Esteve-Núñez

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.652173

Assessing METland^® Design and Performance Through LCA: Techno-Environmental Study With Multifunctional Unit Perspective

Front Microbiol. 2021 Jun 11:12:652173. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.652173. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Lorena Peñacoba-Antona^{1

2}, Jorge Senán-Salinas², Arantxa Aguirre-Sierra³, Pedro Letón⁴, Juan José Salas³, Eloy García-Calvo^{1

4}, Abraham Esteve-Núñez^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ METfilter S.L., Seville, Spain.
² IMDEA Water Institute, Parque Científico Tecnológico, Madrid, Spain.
³ Foundation Centre for New Water Technologies (CENTA), Seville, Spain.
⁴ Department of Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.

Abstract

Conventional wastewater treatment technologies are costly and energy demanding; such issues are especially remarkable when small communities have to clean up their pollutants. In response to these requirements, a new variety of nature-based solution, so-called METland^®, has been recently develop by using concepts from Microbial Electrochemical Technologies (MET) to outperform classical constructed wetland regarding wastewater treatment. Thus, the current study evaluates two operation modes (aerobic and aerobic-anoxic) of a full-scale METland^®, including a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted under a Net Environmental Balance perspective. Moreover, a combined technical and environmental analysis using a Net Eutrophication Balance (NEuB) focus concluded that the downflow (aerobic) mode achieved the highest removal rates for both organic pollutant and nitrogen, and it was revealed as the most environmentally friendly design. Actually, aerobic configuration outperformed anaero/aero-mixed mode in a fold-range from 9 to 30%. LCA was indeed recalculated under diverse Functional Units (FU) to determine the influence of each FU in the impacts. Furthermore, in comparison with constructed wetland, METland^® showed a remarkable increase in wastewater treatment capacity per surface area (0.6 m²/pe) without using external energy. Specifically, these results suggest that aerobic-anoxic configuration could be more environmentally friendly under specific situations where high N removal is required. The removal rates achieved demonstrated a robust adaptation to influent variations, revealing a removal average of 92% of Biology Oxygen Demand (BOD), 90% of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), 40% of total nitrogen (TN), and 30% of total phosphorus (TP). Moreover, regarding the global warming category, the overall impact was 75% lower compared to other conventional treatments like activated sludge. In conclusion, the LCA revealed that METland^® appears as ideal solution for rural areas, considering the low energy requirements and high efficiency to remove organic pollutants, nitrogen, and phosphates from urban wastewater.

Keywords: Funtional Unit; METland; Net Environmental Balance; constructed wetland; life cycle assessment; principal component analysis; treatment wetlands; wastewater treatment.