RT Journal Article
T1 Opportunities to improve energy use in urban wastewater treatment: a European-scale analysis
A1 Ganora, Daniele
A1 Hospido Quintana, Almudena
A1 Husemann, Jovana
A1 Krampe, Joerg
A1 Lodere, Christian
A1 Longo, Stefano
A1 Moragas Bouyat, Lucas
A1 Obermaier, Nathan
A1 Piraccini, Enrico
A1 Stanev, Stanislav
A1 Váci, László
A1 Pistocchi, Alberto
K1 Water-Energy Nexus
K1 European-scale analysis
K1 Energy saving scenarios
K1 Energy-for-wastewater
AB Wastewater treatment is an essential public service that has a major impact on energy use in the urban water cycle, thus receiving increasing attention in context of the Water-Energy Nexus. Understanding the current energy use for wastewater is an essential step to design reliable policies promoting a more efficient use of resources. This paper develops a pan European estimation of electricity use for the treatment of wastewater, based on a dataset of wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs) across the continent. Prediction of electricity use has been performed using a statistical model that accounts for economies of scale. Different scenarios of improvements of energy use efficiency have been investigated to understand the possible reductions in electricity consumption at the continental scale.The overall WWTP electricity use in Europe (only plants with no less than 2000 population equivalent (PE) have been considered)was estimated at 24 747 GWh yr−1 , about the 0.8% of the electricity consumption in the EU-28. Small plants(less than 50 000 PE)represent almost 90% of the total number of plants, but process only 31% of the PE and require 42% of electricity use. Plants from mid to very large size (more than 50 000 PE), being only 10% of the plants, process about 70% of the PE with 58% of the total electricity use. If all plants that use more than the current average were shifted to the average value, the saving would be slightly more than 5500 GWh yr−1. With highly stringent targets of efficiency improvement, saving of about 13 500 GWh yr−1 could be expected. Further considerations on the emerging role of WWTPs as energy and material producer are finally discussed.
PB IOP Publishing
SN 1748-9326
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22162
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/22162
LA eng
NO Ganora, D., Hospido, A., Husemann, J., Krampe, J., Loderer, C., Longo, S., Moragas Bouyat, L., Obermaier, N., Piraccini, E., Stanev, S., Vaci, L. and Pistocchi, A. (2019). Opportunities to improve energy use in urban wastewater treatment: a European-scale analysis. Environmental Research Letters 14 (4) 044028. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab0b54
NO This work is part of the project Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) nexus financed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026