An environmental and economic assessment based on life cycle approaches for industrial wastewater treatment and water recovery

This study aims to define effects of industrial wastewater treatment (IWT) and water recovery (WR) processes by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Life Cycle Cost (ELCC) methodologies. The functional unit was applied as 1 m3 of treated water. The environmental impacts were evaluated using CML-IA baseline and ReCiPe midpoint (H) impact assessment methods. According to the results, abiotic depletion potential fossil fuel (ADPff) (14.1 %), global warming potential (GWP) (9.6 %), marine ecotoxicity potential (METP) (43.9 %), photochemical oxidation potential (POP) (9.4 %), acidification potential (AP) (16.9 %) are main impact categories for CML-IA whereas human carcinogenic toxicity potential (6.6 %), human non-carcinogenic toxicity potential (6.8 %), and water consumption potential (81.2 %) are those for ReCiPe midpoint (H). The LCA results show that electrical energy is the dominant process with higher than 90 % of these main impacts except METP (17 %). WR process has remarkable benefits from the point of impact categories such as ADPff, GWP, POP, and AP. ELCC value of WR process is approximately 20 % higher than that of IWT process. As a conclusion, electricity consumption is the first step of more efficient energy use and the general and local authorities for industrial parks need to create an appropriate energy policy for wastewater treatment plants. •Environmental impacts of industrial wastewater treatment were determined.•Benefits of wastewater treatment recycling were determined.•Environmental life cycle cost model (ELCC) was applied.•The electricity consumption is the key process that define the environmental effects.•ELCC value of water recycling is higher than those of wastewater treatment.