RT Journal Article
T1 Sustainability in the treatment of wastewater from canning industry effluents
A1 Cendán Pernas, Belinda
A1 Arias Calvo, Ana
A1 Estévez Rivadulla, Sofía
A1 Artiga Acuña, Priscila
A1 Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo
A1 Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
K1 Life cycle assessment
K1 Wastewater treatment
K1 Canning industry
K1 Modeling
K1 Sustainability
AB The treatment of wastewater from the fish canning industry presents specific challenges due to its high organic load and elevated salt and nutrient concentrations. This study combines modelling and real-world data from an operating industrial plant to evaluate the performance and environmental impact of a wastewater treatment plant located in Galicia, Spain, which treats effluent from a tuna canning factory. The treatment setup includes physical pretreatment, dissolved air flotation, sequential biological reactor, and sludge treatment units. Based on the simulation results, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied using the ReCiPe Midpoint (H) methodology, considering eight environmental impact categories. The results indicate that the greatest impact corresponds to the power consumption of the sequencing batch reactor for aeration, which results into 6.75 kg CO2-eq./m3. The sensitivity analysis, which included different European electrical profiles and the replacement of the coagulant polyaluminium chloride with ferric chloride, identified significant opportunities for environmental improvement. In this regard, the climate change category may reach reductions up to 4.45 and 0.38 kg CO2-eq./m3, for energy and chemical substitutions respectively. This integrated approach demonstrates the potential of combining simulation and LCA as a decision-support tool to improve sustainability in industrial wastewater treatment in the canning sector.
PB Elsevier
YR 2026
FD 2026-04-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46681
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46681
LA eng
NO Cendan, B., Arias, A., Estévez, S., Artiga, P., Feijoo, G., & Moreira, M. T. (2026). Sustainability in the treatment of wastewater from canning industry effluents. Water Resources and Industry, 35, 100361. 10.1016/j.wri.2026.100361
NO This research has been supported by the CIES project (PID2022-142334OB-I00). A. Arias also thanks the Galician Government for f inancial support (Grant reference ED481B-2023–072). B. Cendan, A. Arias, S. Est´evez, G. Feijoo and M.T. Moreira authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C 2025/19) and the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS Research Center, ED431G 2023/12).
DS Minerva
RD 23 abr 2026