Work

Environmental tradeoffs in coking wastewater treatment plant upgrade: a life cycle perspective

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: • Anaerobic digestion with biogas utilization is the optimal technology for domestic coking wastewater treatment in this study. • Effective leaching toxicity control in incineration residues justifies sludge incineration for coking wastewater management. • Non-GHG emissions significantly contribute to WWTPs’ environmental impact. • Midpoint normalization with uncertainty analysis provides stable probabilistic results across LCIA methods. In the iron and steel industry, treating coking wastewater necessitates a combination of pretreatment, biological treatment, and advanced treatment processes to meet stringent standards for high-quality effluent discharge or reuse. However, the massive consumption of resources during the processing contradicts the current goals of industrial enterprises to pursue energy conservation, emission reduction, and sustainable development. This study employs a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to evaluate and compare various treatment alternatives, ultimately ranking them according to the principles of sustainable wastewater treatment development. The aim is to reconcile the above-mentioned contradictions as much as possible. Contribution analysis reveals that, alongside well-recognized factors like energy consumption, chemical usage, and sludge disposal, non-greenhouse gas treatment and emissions significantly influence wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) environmental impacts - contributing 10-20% to Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), and Global Warming Potential (GWP). The normalized results based on midpoint indicators combined with uncertainty analysis indicate that, due to higher consumption of non-renewable energy, the environmental performance of the advanced treatment and reuse scheme for coking wastewater has only a 44.2% probability of outperforming the standard discharge scheme. However, integrating sludge anaerobic digestion improves environmental performance, with a 65.6% probability of superiority. In contrast, sludge incineration offers negligible benefits, as toxicity-related uncertainties in its LCA offset potential gains. Notably, the aforementioned normalization method ensures consistent results across different LCIA methods.

Source: Water-Energy Nexus

DOI: 10.1016/j.wen.2026.04.003

Authors: Lujie Shao, Fei Xiong, Min Tong, Bo Zhang

Institution: Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Language: English

Topic: Wastewater Treatment and Reuse

Subfield: Waste Management and Disposal

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Responsible consumption and production, Clean water and sanitation, Climate action, Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $900