A New Approach to Circularity Assessment for a Sustainable Water Sector : Accounting for Environmental Functional Flows and Losses
Circular economy (CE) solutions can reduce the water sector’s resource use intensity. With many CE solutions being proposed, an assessment method for effective selection, i.e., decision-making is needed. The water sector predominantly deals with biogeochemical resources (e.g., nitrogen) that are different from technical resources (e.g., industrial coagulants) in three ways: (1) they move through our environment in natural cycles; (2) they fulfil different human and environmental functions; and (3) they are subject to substantial environmental losses (e.g., nitrate leaching into groundwater). Whilst several circularity assessment methods exist for technical resources, biogeochemical resources have received less attention. To address this, we modify a well-established material circularity indicator (MCI) method and redefine the terms: restoration, regeneration, and linear flows to create a new circularity assessment approach. We demonstrate our approach in a real-life case study involving treated wastewater (TW) fertigation. Our approach reveals that using the original MCI method underestimates the circularity of CE solutions involving biogeochemical resources. This is because in the original MCI method, only the flows that are reused/recycled for human functions can be considered circular whereas we also consider flows such as N2 emission and groundwater infiltration as circular flows. Even though these may not be reuse/recycle type flows, they still contribute towards future resource availability and thus, towards sustainability. The modified assessment method shows that TW fertigation can significantly improve nitrogen and water circularity. However, careful planning of the fertigation schedule is important since increasing fertigation frequency leads to lower water but higher nitrogen circularity. Additionally, collecting drainage water for reuse can improve nitrogen circularity. In conclusion, using our modified MCI approach, circularity can be assessed in a manner that is better aligned with sustainability
Year of publication: |
2023
|
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Authors: | Bhambhani, Anurag ; Kapelan, Zoran ; van der Hoek, Jan Peter |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Saved in:
freely available
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