The evidence of these situations is seen across the world, especially in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Again, agricultural activities are heavily affected, as farms lack access to enough water resources for all year-round irrigation and livestock production. Consequently, many people around the world, especially in developing countries, lack access to potable water. This has led to intense competition and unfair distribution of the limited freshwater resources among the various sectors. Freshwater resources, however, do not get replenished to accommodate the ever-increasing population and its water usage needs. With the increase in human population, tons and tons of wastewater are produced everyday across the domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. Finally, recommendations for future research pertaining to the application of membrane technology in wastewater treatment are made.Īll activities of mankind are water dependent. It also discusses membrane fouling, membrane cleaning, and membrane modules. This review looks at the trending membrane technologies in wastewater treatment, their advantages and disadvantages. Membrane technology has emerged as a favorite choice for reclaiming water from different wastewater streams for re-use. However, improvements in wastewater treatment processes are necessary in order to make treated wastewater re-usable for industrial, agricultural, and domestic purposes. Over the years, conventional wastewater treatment processes have succeeded to some extent in treating effluents for discharge purposes. These activities produce large volumes of wastewater from which water can be reclaimed to serve many purposes. As the population grows, industrial, agricultural, and domestic activities increase accordingly in order to cater for the voluminous needs of man. One of the surest available water resources is wastewater. It can be used to compare alternative wastewater treatment processes or to analyse the environmental impacts associated with a wastewater treatment plant and potentially identify the need for new techniques with lower emissions.In the face of water shortages, the world seeks to explore all available options in reducing the over exploitation of limited freshwater resources. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable assessment methodology which can be used for assessing the sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. Interpretation is the final step, where the results obtained from inventory analysis and the impact assessment are considered together and analysed based on the goal and scope of the LCA study. The life cycle impact assessment is a step used to evaluate the type and extent of the environmental impacts that will arise based on the inventory data collected. Inventory analysis involves the collection of data and the quantification of inputs and outputs which include the raw materials used, energy consumption, products and by products from waste and emissions to air, land, or water by substance. The goal and scope will define the aim of the study and the reason to carry out the LCA study. LCA involves 4 steps: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation. An LCA can be conducted to calculate the intensity of the environmental damage caused by wastewater treatment plants. LCA is a tool that assesses a product or an entire system’s environmental impact over the course of its full life cycle. To assess the environmental impacts associated with the WWTP, there are several environmental assessment tools present, such as Environmental Impact Assessment, Material Flow Assessment, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The operation of a wastewater treatment plant involves a range of direct and indirect emissions, so it is crucial to develop new ways and techniques to treat wastewater that causes minimal damage to our environment. The process emissions from wastewater treatments account for two thirds of the total greenhouse gases generated by the water and sewage companies. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are mainly designed to reduce wastewater and environmental pollution, but the raw materials, energy consumption and emissions from the WWTP subsequently result in different environmental impacts. It's #TechnicalTuesday so Ayash Anwar, a #teamWRc Graduate Water Process Engineer, is talking about the environmental impacts of wastewater treatment plants and the tools available to assess them.
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