Christian Remy

• Dr.-Ing.
• LCA expert at Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin

The use of activated sludge models (ASMs) is a common way in the field of wastewater engineering in terms of plant design, development, optimization, and testing of stand-alone treatment plants. The focus of this study was the development of a joint control system (JCS) for a municipal wastewater treatment plant (mWWTP) and an upstream industrial w...

An innovative circular economy (CE) system was implemented at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Brunswick. The performance of the CE system was evaluated for 4 years: the thermal pressure hydrolysis enhanced the methane production by 18% and increased the digestate dewaterability by 14%. Refractory COD formed in thermal hydrolysis and increa...

Der Green Deal der EU-Kommission strebt eine nachhaltigere europäische Wirtschaft an. Ein zentraler Aspekt dabei ist die Förderung der Kreislaufwirtschaft. Im Projekt ULTIMATE engagieren sich die Industrie und der Wassersektor gemeinsam dafür.

Der Klimawandel stellt die Wasserwirtschaft vor immer größere Herausforderungen, insbesondere in West- und Südeuropa aufgrund lang anhaltender Dürren. Wie Abwasser im Sinne der Kreislaufwirtschaft als Ressource genutzt werden kann, zeigt ein Unternehmen aus Lleida.

Non-potable water can be used for those commercial, industrial, agricultural, but also domestic purposes, for which drinking water quality is not necessarily required. In addition to rainwater, water from rivers, local groundwater and grey water, are considered as substitute of drinking water. Based on two different development scenarios for the st...

Bislang wird auf Klärwerken erzeugtes Faulgas vor Ort genutzt, um für den Betrieb der Anlagen Strom und Wärme bereitzustellen. Im Zuge der Energiewende kann das klimaneutrale „grüne Gas“ als Biomethan auch anderen Sektoren zur Verfügung gestellt werden.

Thermal alkaline pretreatment (TAP) of waste activated sludge (WAS) before anaerobic digestion (AD) was reviewed. Focus of the review was on impact of TAP process parameters on biomethane yield (BY) and kinetics of AD and downstream dewatering. With higher initial biodegradability of untreated WAS, effect of TAP on BY decreases. Depending on initia...

Im Projekt E-VENT wurden innovative Verfahren der kommunalen Abwasserreinigung und Klärschlammbehandlung untersucht, um damit den Energieverbrauch von Klärwerken und die damit verbundenen Emissionen von Treibhausgasen (THG) zu senken. Nach einem Screening verschiedener Technologien wurden dazu Labor- und Pilotversuche zur thermischen Hydrolyse von...

This study was completed to understand the resilience of an ion exchange (IEX) process for its ability to remove variable ammonium (NH4⁺-N) loads) and to prove its environmental benefits through a life cycle assessment (LCA). The tertiary 10 m³/day demonstration scale IEX was fed with variable NH4⁺-N concentrations (<0.006-26 mg NH4⁺-N /L) naturall...

Thermal alkaline pretreatment (TAP) of waste activate sludge (WAS) was carried out in pilot-scale over a year to investigate its seasonal effects on anaerobic digestion and its impact on dewaterability, sludge liquor quality and formation of soluble refractory COD (sCODref). Temperature of TAP was set at 65–70 °C and pH was increased by initial dos...

Thermal hydrolysis (TH) increases the anaerobic biodegradability of waste activated sludge (WAS), but also refractory organic and nutrient return load to a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This could lead to an increase in effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the WWTP. The aim of this study was to investigate the trade-off between increase in...

https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/1410/publikationen/2019-02-19_texte_13-2019_phorwaerts.pdf

This paper presents the assessment of a planned scheme of indirect potable reuse (IPR) in the Vendée region of France in its potential risks for human health and ecosystems, and also in its overall environmental impacts. Methods of risk assessment (quantitative microbial and chemical risk assessment) and life cycle assessment (LCA) are used to char...

Recent developments and innovations in the field of P recovery and recycling from municipal sewage sludge claim to provide a sustainable and more efficient alternative to the traditional sludge valorization in agriculture. The method of life cycle assessment (LCA) offers a detailed analysis of the potential environmental impacts associated with dif...

Phosphorus (P) recovery through struvite is already both technically and economically feasible. This has been proved by more than 40 large-scale plants worldwide. However, when designing and implementing these P-recovery technologies, the environmental effects need to be considered. Therefore, a comparative environmental life cycle assessment of ph...

In recent decades, emerging contaminants (ECs) have surfaced as one of the key environmental problems threatening ecosystems and public health. Most emerging contaminants are present in low concentrations, and therefore often remain undetected and are also referred to as 'micropollutants'. Despite this, many ECs raise considerable concerns regardin...

This study provides an overview of established processes as well as recent progress in emerging technologies for advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). In addition to a discussion of major reaction mechanisms and formation of by-products, data on energy efficiency were collected in an extensive analysis of studies reported in the peer-reviewed litera...

Circular economy for nutrients! How to transfer buzz words into solid results? So far the potential to recover and recycle phosphorus remains untapped or is just inefficiently used as in the case of sewage sludge, manure and food waste. To provide alternatives to argued traditional nutrient recycling routes, various technical solutions have been de...

Phosphorus recovery from wastewater has considerable potential to supplement limited fossil phosphorus reserves. Reliable cost data are essential for investor and policymaker decisions. In this study, investment and operational costs for nine phosphorus (P) recovery processes were calculated from the investor's perspective, taking into account all...

Purpose The objective was to provide comprehensive life cycle inventories for the construction and renovation of sewers. A detailed inventory was provided with multiple options of pipe materials, diameters and site-specific characteristics, and was embedded into the Excel®-based tool SewerLCA. The tool allows for life cycle evaluation of different...

27 techniques de gestion des eaux pluviales, actuellement en vigueur, ont été étudiées à différentes échelles: à l'échelle des immeubles (bâtiments végétalisés, utilisation d'eau de pluie), à l'échelle du quartier (infiltration, dépavage, lacs artificiels et cours d'eau, traitement décentralisé) et enfin à l'échelle du bassin versant (traitement ce...

In this study, based on actual data, various scenarios for the recovery of phosphorus are developed and assessed with regard to ecological and economic impacts for large wastewater treatment plants in Germany. Strategies are identified in order, in the medium- term, to achieve a phosphorus recycling rate of over 50 % related to the overall potentia...

Phosphorus (P) is a limited resource, which can neither be synthesized nor substituted in its essential functions as nutrient. Currently explored and economically feasible global reserves may be depleted within generations. China is the largest phosphate fertilizer producing and consuming country in the world. China's municipal wastewater contains...

In recent years, trace organic chemicals (TOrC) have been detected in the aquatic environment. Besides urban and agricultural run-offs, wastewater treatment plant effluents are the most significant TOrC emitters. For the removal of these compounds advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) including UV/H2O2, UV/O3, photo catalysis and electrolytic AOP (eA...

Der vorliegende Abschlussbericht fasst die Ergebnisse des Forschungsvorhabens IST4R (Integration der Spurenstoffentfernung in Technologieansätze der 4. Reinigungsstufe) zusammen, in dem verschiedene Verfahrenskombination von Aktivkohle und Ozonung zur Entfernung von anthropogenen Spurenstoffen als weitergehende Abwasserreinigung untersucht wurden....

A partially closed water cycle may exist in urban areas, whereby treated municipal wastewater is discharged into surface waters used as a source for the drinking water supply. A number of organic micro-pollutants (OMP) can be found in the different water compartments. In the near future, climatic and demographic changes probably contribute to an in...

Stickstofflimitation in Binnengewässern - Ist Stickstoffreduktion ökologisch sinnvoll und wirtschaftlich vertretbar? Abschlussbericht NITROLIMIT Phase II

Energy and resource recovery from municipal wastewater is a pre-requisite for an efficient and sustainable water management in cities of the future. However, a sound evaluation of available processes and pathways is required to identify opportunities and short-comings of the different options and reveal synergies and potentials for optimisation. Fo...

Within Work Area 5 of the DEMEAU project, selected innovative technologies and tools for emerging contaminants removal and monitoring are assessed in their environmental and economic benefits and impacts by using life-cycle based tools such as environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and economic Life Cycle Costing (LCC). Six case studies were ass...

This document brings together recommendations for impact in the water market which were elaborated for water technologies to eliminate emerging contaminants from wastewater or drinking water and to detect contaminations based on their effects. The recommendations provided in this document were developed within the DEMEAU project funded under the 7...

Micropollutants (MPs) represent a toxicological threat to environment and human health when released to water bodies. Therefore technologies like ozonation or adsorption by activated carbon are applied to reduce local MP discharges from waste water treatment plants. These however require additi-onal electricity and chemical inputs which cause envir...

This report is a methodology guidelines for sustainability assessment of water treatment technologies and processes, based on the approach developed within the DEMEAU project. This approach includes environmental, economic and social aspects using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and an analysis of drivers and barriers based o...

To sustain good harvests, each year more than one million tonnes of mineral phosphorus have to be imported to the European Union (van Dijk et al., unpublished data), while the potential to recover and recycle this essential resource remains untapped or is just inefficiently used as in the case of sewage sludge, manure and food waste. In recent year...

Aquifer recharge with reclaimed water is a promising means to store and supply on demand reclaimed water of high quality for further non-potable reuse. The reuse applications may include indirect agricultural or landscape irrigation, saltwater intrusion barriers, subsidence mitigation or aquifer replenishment. As an alternative to high-pressure or...

For improved exploitation of the energy content present in the organic matter of raw sewage, an innovative concept for treatment of municipal wastewater is tested in pilot trials and assessed in energy balance and operational costs. The concept is based on a maximum extraction of organic matter into the sludge via coagulation, flocculation and micr...

Integrated planning of stormwater management requires a quantitative description of positive and negative effects of possible measures. We suggest quantifying these effects with generic performance indicators within eight categories: building physics and services, landscape quality, urban climate, biodiversity, groundwater, surface water, direct co...

Different technologies for tertiary wastewater treatment are compared in their environmental impacts with life cycle assessment (LCA). Targeting very low phosphorus concentration (50-120 μg/L) and seasonal disinfection of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) secondary effluent, this LCA compares high-rate sedimentation, microsieve, dual media filtrati...

In urban areas, water often flows along a partially closed water cycle in which treated municipal wastewater is discharged into surface waters which are one source of raw waters used for drinking water supply. A number of organic micro-pollutants (OMP) can be found in different water compartments. In the near future, climatic and demographic change...

This study exemplifies the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a tool to quantify the environmental impacts of processes for wastewater treatment. In a case study, the sludge treatment line of a large wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is analysed in terms of cumulative energy demand and the emission of greenhouse gases (carbon footprint). Sludge...

This study investigates the cumulative energy demand (CED) of different systems for the management of urban wastewater, following the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment. In a hypothetical case study for an urban area (5,000 inhabitants), all relevant processes for wastewater collection and treatment and the construction of infrastructure are desc...

Source-separation systems for urban wastewater management collect the different wastewater flows separately to facilitate the recovery of valuable resources from wastewater (energy, nutrients). Thus, they are claimed to be more sustainable than the conventional concept of combined drainage and treatment. This hypothesis is verified in this study by...

Conventional and source-separating urban sanitation systems are compared with regard to their ecological sustainability using the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment. A substance flow model of all relevant processes in a settlement with 5,000 inhabitants is set up and evaluated with environmental indicators for resource demand and emissions to air...

Die Vereinten Nationen haben das Jahr 2008 zum Internationalen Jahr der Sanitärversorgung ausgerufen. Der Weltwassertag am 22. März erhält damit eine besondere Bedeutung - nicht zuletzt, weil eines der zentralen Millenniumsziele der Vereinten Nationen verfehlt zu werden droht. Das Ziel, die Zahl jener Menschen, die keinen Zugang zu adäquaten Sanitä...

Conventional and alternative sanitation concepts are compared in terms of their ecological performance via the methodology of LCA. Alternative scenarios include urine separation, faeces composting and digestion, and greywater treatment in a soil filter or technical plant. Urine and faeces are used as secondary fertilizers in agriculture after adequ...

An estimated 1 billion people are living both without access to clean drinking water or electricity. The small photovoltaic (PV)-powered hybrid membrane system described here is designed to address the plight of some of these people. PV and membrane technologies are chosen due to suitability for operation in remote and often harsh conditions. An ul...

Zusammenfassung Bisherige Analysen des Energieverbrauchs in der Abwasserreini-gung beschränken sich oft auf die naheliegende Erfassung des Stromverbrauchs. Im Sinne einer ganzheitlichen Betrachtung sollten aber auch andere Formen der Energie erfasst werden, wie zum Beispiel für die Herstellung von benötigten Chemikalien wie Flockungs-und Flockungsh...

Previously, the analysis of energy demand for wastewater treatment was often limited to one-dimensional analyses of electricity demand. However, a comprehensive analysis requires the inclusion of all different contributions to energy demand, such as the energy required to produce chemicals (e.g. coagulants and flocculants) and transport sludge, and...