Comparative Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Future Water Supply Mix Scenarios for Hong Kong - A Water Scarce City.

Increasing urbanization and changes in climate have placed increasing stress on urban water supply systems. Policy makers have increasingly adopted alternative water supply sources, such as desalination and water reclamation to meet this challenge, however these technologies may increase the negative environmental impacts of the water supply system. These alternative sources are energy intensive, and more expensive to produce, which raises questions about their sustainability. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a economic portfolio choice model were used to determine the impacts of Hong Kong's long term water policy. The results of our study show that the current water policy will increase the carbon emissions of producing 1 m3 of freshwater by 11% to 1.65 kg CO2-Eq due to the addition of desalination. However, a fit-for-purpose water policy approach only increases emission by 4%, to 1.54 kg CO2-Eq, by instead relying on water reclamation to offset freshwater consumption. Impacts from increased energy consumption were mitigated by improved wastewater treatment, which reduced CH4 emissions. Although, ozone layer impacts increased due to higher NOx and N2O emissions, highlighting the need to consider emissions from wastewater treatment processes when evaluating water reclamation processes. Impacts to water prices were also minimized when reclaimed water was chosen over desalination, due to its lower unit production cost. By considering both cost and environmental impacts of such system level changes, decision makers can more accurately evaluate different water supply approaches for data-driven policymaking.

Low-cost bio-based sustainable removal of lead and cadmium using a polyphenolic bioactive Indian curry leaf (Murraya koengii) powder.

There is an increasing trend of developing various low-cost biogenic sorbents for the efficient and economical removal of noxious metals . Curry leaf powder (CLP), a promising non-toxic biosorbent containing several bioactive compounds was prepared by the pulverization of the dried leaves for the effective removal of Lead (Pb) and Cadmium (Cd). Various batch sorption experiments were carried out under constant temperature (25 °C), different pH (4.5-10.5), initial concentrations (50-200 mg L-1), adsorbent dosages (0.10-0.40 g) and contact times (0-60 min) to understand the optimum experimental conditions and simultaneously evaluate the adsorption isotherms and removal kinetics of CLP. Adsorption equilibrium was established in less than an hour interval (50 min). The pseudo-equilibrium process was best described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic (R2 ≥ 0.99), Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm model (R2 ≥ 0.94). The removal rate of Pb and Cd gradually increased (15.7 and 12.7 mg g-1 for Pb and Cd) at 100 mg L-1 of initial concentration till 60 min of contact period in a single contaminant system, the effect was non-significant for multiple adsorbent dosage systems (p > 0.05; t-test) though. The regeneration potential of the exhausted biosorbent was excellent upto 5 cycles with the better efficiency observed for Pb. The obtained results explicitly validated the probable utilization of CLP as a promising green adsorbent for metal removal . Future study may highlight the decontamination aspects of emerging contaminants with such green bio sorbents in large scale as well as mimicing the stomach conditions.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of food waste treatment in Hong Kong: On-site fermentation methodology.

"Smart Food Waste Recycling Bin" (S-FRB) systems have recently been developed to facilitate the transformation of food waste into an end-product suitable for use as an energy resource following circular economy principles. This decentralized waste decomposition system utilizes fermentative microorganisms for the treatment of organic food waste and has emerged as a possible solution for coping with both landfill capacity and greenhouse gas emissions issues. This paper utilizes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts associated with this S-FRB technology and identify environmental hotspots to reduce these impacts. In this paper, we have conducted an on-site pilot-scale study for 2 months at a canteen located at the City University of Hong Kong, which resulted in a 90% reduction in the mass of food waste treated in the S-FRB system. Based on this pilot-scale study hypothetical scenarios were developed to determine potential environmental impacts potential scaled-up deployments of the S-FRB instrument based on varied assumptions. Examination of the LCAs of these different scenarios demonstrated the potential for further reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions during food waste treatment. Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) were also investigated to understand the energy balance energy of the S-FRB technology. Finally, using current waste treatment methods in Hong Kong as a benchmark, the environmental impacts of the S-FRB are compared with the conventional food waste treatment approaches such as landfilling and organic waste treatment facilities (OWTF).