@article{0ab72dfcfa604218b85a9f47861556d7,
title = "The application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to wastewater treatment: A best practice guide and critical review",
abstract = "Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in the wastewater industry, but inconsistencies in assumptions and methods have made it difficult for researchers and practitioners to synthesize results from across studies. This paper presents a critical review of published LCAs related to municipal wastewater management with a focus on developing systematic guidance for researchers and practitioners to conduct LCA studies to inform planning, design, and optimization of wastewater management and infrastructure (wastewater treatment plants, WWTPs; collection and reuse systems; related treatment technologies and policies), and to support the development of new technologies to advance treatment objectives and the sustainability of wastewater management. The paper guides the reader step by step through LCA methodology to make informed decisions on i) the definition of the goal and scope, ii) the selection of the functional unit and system boundaries, iii) the selection of variables to include and their sources to obtain inventories, iv) the selection of impact assessment methods, and v) the selection of an effective approach for data interpretation and communication to decision-makers.",
keywords = "Environmental Impacts, Guidelines, LCA-Water Working Group, Recommendations, Sewage, WWTP",
author = "Llu{\'i}s Corominas and Byrne, {Diana M.} and Guest, {Jeremy S.} and Almudena Hospido and Philippe Roux and Andrew Shaw and Short, {Michael D.}",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group on Modelling and Integrated Assessment for their support in the creation of the IWA Working Group for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of water and wastewater treatment (LCA-Water WG) which has worked to bring together the set of recommendations provided in this paper. We acknowledge Dr. Henrik Fred Larsen, Dr. Mohamed Tawfic Ahmed, Dr. Joe Lane, Dr. Jinglan Hong for their contributions to the LCA-Water WG. Llu{\'i}s Corominas acknowledges the Ministry of Economy and competitiveness for the Ramon and Cajal grant and the corresponding I3 consolidation (RYC-2013-465 14595). The authors thank Generalitat de Catalunya through Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 1318. ICRA researchers thank funding from the CERCA program. Almudena Hospido belongs to the Galician Competitive Research Group ED431C2017/029 and the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (ED431E 2018/01), both programs co-funded by FEDER (EU). Funding Information: We acknowledge the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group on Modelling and Integrated Assessment for their support in the creation of the IWA Working Group for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of water and wastewater treatment (LCA-Water WG) which has worked to bring together the set of recommendations provided in this paper. We acknowledge Dr. Henrik Fred Larsen, Dr. Mohamed Tawfic Ahmed, Dr. Joe Lane, Dr. Jinglan Hong for their contributions to the LCA-Water WG. Llu{\'i}s Corominas acknowledges the Ministry of Economy and competitiveness for the Ramon and Cajal grant and the corresponding I3 consolidation (RYC-2013-465 14595). The authors thank Generalitat de Catalunya through Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 1318. ICRA researchers thank funding from the CERCA program. Almudena Hospido belongs to the Galician Competitive Research Group ED431C2017/029 and the CRETUS Strategic Partnership ( ED431E 2018/01 ), both programs co-funded by FEDER (EU). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",
year = "2020",
month = oct,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.watres.2020.116058",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "184",
journal = "Water Research",
issn = "0043-1354",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}