Seasonality of nitrous oxide emissions at six full-scale wastewater treatment plants

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to the carbon footprint of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Plant-specific measurement campaigns are required to reliably quantify the emission level that has been found to significantly vary between WWTPs. I...

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Veröffentlicht in:Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research. - 1986. - 89(2024), 3 vom: 01. Feb., Seite 603-612
1. Verfasser: Sieranen, Milla (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Hilander, Helena, Haimi, Henri, Larsson, Timo, Kuokkanen, Anna, Mikola, Anna
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research
Schlagworte:Journal Article Nitrous Oxide K50XQU1029 Greenhouse Gases Sewage Water 059QF0KO0R
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an ozone-depleting greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to the carbon footprint of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). Plant-specific measurement campaigns are required to reliably quantify the emission level that has been found to significantly vary between WWTPs. In this study, the N2O emissions were quantified from five full-scale WWTPs during 4-19-day measurement campaigns conducted under both cold period conditions (water temperature below 12 °C) and warm period conditions (water temperature from 12 to 20 °C). The measurement data were studied alongside long-term monitoring data from a sixth WWTP. The calculated emission factors (EFs) varied from near 0 to 1.8% relative to the influent total nitrogen load. The results confirmed a significant seasonality of N2O emissions as well as a notable variation between WWTPs in the emission level, which a single fixed EF cannot represent. Wastewater temperature was one explanatory factor for the emission seasonality. Both low and high emissions were measured from denitrifying-nitrifying activated sludge (AS) processes, while the emissions from only nitrifying AS processes were consistently high. Nitrite (NO2-) at the end of the aerobic zones of the AS process was linked to the variability in N2O emissions during the cold period
Beschreibung:Date Completed 16.02.2024
Date Revised 16.02.2024
published: Print
Citation Status MEDLINE
ISSN:0273-1223
DOI:10.2166/wst.2023.420