Innovative treatment technologies and management methods are necessary to valorise the constituents of wastewater, in particular nutrients from urine (highly concentrated and can have significant impacts related to artificial fertilizer production). The FP7 project, ValuefromUrine, proposed a new two-step process (called VFU) based on struvite precipitation and microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) to recover ammonia, which is further transformed into ammonium sulphate. The environmental and economic impacts of its prospective implementation in the Netherlands were evaluated based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology and operational costs. In order to tackle the lack of stable data from the pilot plant and the complex effects on wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), process simulation was coupled with LCA and costs assessment using the Python programming language. Additionally, particular attention was given to the propagation and analysis of inputs uncertainties. Five scenarios of VFU implementation were compared to the conventional treatment of 1 m³ of wastewater. Inventory data were obtained from SUMO software for the WWTP operation. LCA was based on Brightway2 software (using ecoinvent database and ReCiPe method). The results, based on 500 iterations sampled from inputs distributions (foreground parameters, ecoinvent background data and market prices), showed a significant advantage of VFU technology, both at a small and decentralized scale and at a large and centralized scale (95% confidence intervals not including zero values). The benefits mainly concern the production of fertilizers, the decreased efforts at the WWTP, the water savings from toilets flushing, as well as the lower infrastructure volumes if the WWTP is redesigned (in case of significant reduction of nutrients load in wastewater). The modelling approach, which could be applied to other case studies, improves the representativeness and the interpretation of results (e.g. complex relationships, global sensitivity analysis) but requires additional efforts (computing and engineering knowledge, longer calculation time). Finally, the sustainability assessment should be refined in the future with the development of the technology at larger scale to update these preliminary conclusions before its commercialization.

中文翻译：

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实施创新的按源分离尿液治疗对环境影响和运营成本的评估

必须采用创新的处理技术和管理方法来使废水的成分特别是尿液中的营养成分（高度浓缩，并可能对人工肥料的生产产生重大影响），使其物有所值。FP7项目ValuefromUrine提出了一种新的两步工艺（称为VFU），该工艺基于鸟粪石沉淀和微生物电解池（MEC）来回收氨，然后将其进一步转化为硫酸铵。基于生命周期评估（LCA）方法和运营成本，评估了其在荷兰的预期实施对环境和经济的影响。为了解决试验工厂缺乏稳定数据以及对废水处理厂（WWTP）的复杂影响，使用Python编程语言将过程仿真与LCA和成本评估结合在一起。此外，对输入不确定性的传播和分析给予了特别关注。将VFU实施的五个方案与传统的1 m方案进行了比较³废水。从SUMO软件获得了WWTP操作的库存数据。LCA基于Brightway2软件（使用ecoinvent数据库和ReCiPe方法）。基于输入分布（前景参数，ecoinvent背景数据和市场价格）采样的500次迭代的结果显示，VFU技术在小型和分散式规模以及大型和集中式规模（95％置信区间）方面均具有显着优势不包括零值）。收益主要涉及化肥的生产，污水处理厂工作量的减少，厕所冲水的节水以及重新设计污水处理厂的基础设施建设量的减少（以防废水中营养成分的大量减少）。建模方法可以应用于其他案例研究，改进了结果的代表性和解释性（例如，复杂的关系，全局敏感性分析），但需要付出额外的努力（计算和工程知识，更长的计算时间）。最后，随着技术的大规模发展，未来的可持续性评估应予以完善，以在商业化之前更新这些初步结论。