Chapter 11: Life-cycle assessment, carbon- footprint and techno-economic analysis

Anaerobic treatment of domestic wastewater has been recognized as a feasible technology to reduce energy
demand from the valorization of streams with high-organic load. However, there are many factors that influence the
environmental and economic profiles of the process, such as the effluent pollutant load, operating temperature and
methane emissions in the treated effluent and in the air. Therefore, all these parameters must be optimized taking
into account not only the technical performance (i.e. biogas production), but also environmental and economic
implications. This chapter presents a dual approach to highlight the characteristics of anaerobic treatment of
domestic wastewater with life-cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis and how to approach these
methodologies in diverse case studies.