GHG and financial implications of industrial organic carbon valorization on centralized municipal water resource recovery facilities

The valorization of waste organics through upstream treatment of high-strength industrial wastewaters is being pursued to reduce the costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of key industries (e.g., food and beverage). However, industrial wastewater valorization may have unintended impacts on centralized water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) that either enhance or undermine efforts to advance the sustainability of waste organics management. Here we characterize the environmental and economic impacts of industrial organic loading reductions on centralized WRRFs via process modeling, life cycle assessment (LCA), and techno-economic analysis (TEA) under uncertainty. We demonstrate sustainability benefits of upstream organic carbon valorization will be amplified at WRRFs designed for BOD removal and nitrification, but undermined at biological nutrient removal (BNR) or enhanced nutrient removal (ENR) WRRFs. Through uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, we find that operational cost changes at WRRFs following industrial load reduction are driven by unit electricity cost, solids disposal cost, and blower efficiency—along with external carbon addition in nutrient removal systems—while changes in GHG emissions are primarily driven by grid carbon intensity and fugitive methane emissions. Ultimately, this study seeks to amplify the sustainability benefits of industrial organic carbon valorization by identifying contexts in which centralized WRRFs will also benefit.