Urine luck: Environmental assessment of yellow water management in buildings for urban agriculture

IF 11.2 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENGINEERING, ENVIRONMENTAL

Resources Conservation and Recycling Pub Date : 2024-11-04 DOI:10.1016/j.resconrec.2024.107985

María Virginia Maiza , Joan Muñoz-Liesa , Anna Petit-Boix , Verónica Arcas-Pilz , Xavier Gabarrell

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Abstract

The increasing global demand for agricultural production poses challenges to maintain the needs for critical fertilizers such as nitrogen. This study explores the potential of human urine as a source of renewable nitrogen for fertilizer production. Through a life cycle assessment, three different urine management strategies were compared: (S1) an artificial wetland, (S2) an on-site lab-scale aerobic reactor for nitrogen recovery, and (S3) a centralized wastewater treatment plant. While scenario S2 had the highest impacts in 6 out of 8 categories, an advantage in marine eutrophication was identified. S2 showed high energy demand (750 kg MJ-eq) and ecotoxicity (602 kg 1.4-DCB-eq.) mainly due to energy requirements. Nitrogen production exceeded 2.3 times the yearly nitrogen demands of the building tomato production. Upscaling S2 reduces impacts up to 2 times, lowering the payback time from 29 to 13 years. Therefore, implementing large-scale nitrogen recovery systems in cities is encouraged.

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尿运：城市农业建筑黄水管理的环境评估

全球对农业生产的需求日益增长，这给维持氮肥等关键肥料的需求带来了挑战。本研究探讨了人尿作为肥料生产的可再生氮源的潜力。通过生命周期评估，对三种不同的尿液管理策略进行了比较：（S1）人工湿地；（S2）现场实验室规模的氮回收好氧反应器；（S3）集中式污水处理厂。虽然方案 S2 在 8 个类别中的 6 个类别中影响最大，但在海洋富营养化方面具有优势。S2 显示出较高的能源需求（750 千克 MJ-当量）和生态毒性（602 千克 1.4-DCB-eq.氮产量超过了建筑番茄生产年氮需求量的 2.3 倍。扩大 S2 的规模最多可将影响降低 2 倍，将投资回收期从 29 年降至 13 年。因此，鼓励在城市中实施大规模氮回收系统。

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来源期刊

Resources Conservation and Recycling 环境科学-工程：环境

CiteScore

22.90

自引率

6.10%

发文量

625

审稿时长

23 days

期刊介绍： The journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling welcomes contributions from research, which consider sustainable management and conservation of resources. The journal prioritizes understanding the transformation processes crucial for transitioning toward more sustainable production and consumption systems. It highlights technological, economic, institutional, and policy aspects related to specific resource management practices such as conservation, recycling, and resource substitution, as well as broader strategies like improving resource productivity and restructuring production and consumption patterns. Contributions may address regional, national, or international scales and can range from individual resources or technologies to entire sectors or systems. Authors are encouraged to explore scientific and methodological issues alongside practical, environmental, and economic implications. However, manuscripts focusing solely on laboratory experiments without discussing their broader implications will not be considered for publication in the journal.