Rising water demands and pressures on water resources call for water management in industrial production. An eco‐efficiency framework may provide justification for water consumption and treatment by combining environmental and economic dimensions in a life cycle perspective. We used principles of value added and value chain assessment (VCA) in the life‐cycle system boundaries for a consistent assessment of eco‐efficiency. The method was demonstrated for a membrane bioreactor‐based, decentralized wastewater treatment and reuse in a dairy. The LCA results showed that decentralized wastewater treatment and reuse in the dairy will improve the aquatic environment by 80% (freshwater) and 51% (marine water), but increase the negative impact on climate change by 27% compared to conventional wastewater treatment. The VCA revealed that the decentralized alternatives would increase the value added by 1.3–1.4 €/m³ wastewater in the dairy, but also incur a value loss of 1.4–1.9 €/m³ for associated stakeholders such as the centralized wastewater treatment plant. The case study revealed the critical nature of a well‐defined system boundary that includes impacts along the entire value chain and exposed pros and cons for decision‐makers at both the system level and individual stakeholder level.

中文翻译：

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食品生产中水和废水管理的生态效率：以丹麦一家大型奶牛场为例

不断增长的用水需求和水资源压力要求在工业生产中进行水管理。通过从生命周期的角度将环境和经济方面相结合，生态效率框架可以为用水和处理提供依据。我们在生命周期系统边界中使用了增值和价值链评估（VCA）原则，以对生态效率进行一致的评估。该方法已用于基于膜生物反应器的分散式废水处理和在乳制品中的再利用。LCA结果表明，乳品中分散的废水处理和回用将使水生环境改善80％（淡水）和51％（海水），但与常规废水处理相比，对气候变化的负面影响增加27％。³奶牛场废水，但对于相关的利益相关者（如集中式废水处理厂），也将造成1.4-1.9€/ m ³的价值损失。案例研究揭示了定义良好的系统边界的关键性质，该边界包括整个价值链的影响，以及在系统级别和个人利益相关者级别上对决策者的利弊。