Reduction of Nitrates in Waste Water through the Valorization of Rice Straw: LIFE LIBERNITRATE Project
An improved and more sustainable waste management system is required for successful development of technologies based on renewable sources. Rice straw is submitted to controlled combustion reactions and the produced ashes are chemically treated to produce silica. After a chemical activation step, the activated silica shows potential as an adsorbent agent and will be used to remove the excess of nitrates in groundwater and wells in the area of Alginet (Valencia, Spain), selected as a vulnerable zone within the Nitrates Directive. The demonstration activity aims to have a local impact on municipalities of 200 inhabitants or fewer, decreasing from current nitrate concentrations close to 50 mg/…
Identification of effective parameters for anti-inflammatory concentration in València City's wastewater using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis
The current literature about pharmaceutical and personal care compounds (PPCPs) focuses on identifying their concentration and toxicological risk both in surface water and in wastewater. However, the influence of urban areas (population ageing, income level, hospitals and others) has not yet been analysed. Knowing how a population (and its facilities) affects PPCPs' presence in wastewater is important to identify the conditions that are responsible for their presence. In this work, the influence of water consumption, population ageing, income level, hospitals and nursing homes on the anti-inflammatory concentration have been analysed. To fill the gap between the quantitative data on PPCPs' …
Assessing the Finance and Economics of Resource Recovery and Reuse Solutions Across Scales
The recovery and reuse of wastewater can contribute to reducing poverty, improving food security, improving nutrition and health, and managing natural resources more sustainability to protect ecosystems and build climate resilient communities. Reusing wastewater generates both private and public benefits, yet care must be taken to minimize environmental harm and risks to human health. Assessing the costs and benefits of wastewater use is challenging for decision making. Financial analysis of wastewater and other reuse options can underpin decision making from a business standpoint, and economic analysis provides the information needed to support public policy decisions. In this chapter, we …
Monetary valuation of salicylic acid, methylparaben and THCOOH in a Mediterranean coastal wetland through the shadow prices methodology
The presence of pharmaceutical and personal care products and drugs of abuse (PPCPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) indicates discharge of the effluent may not be suitable for the ecological balance of water ecosystems, such as wetlands. These PPCPs degrade water quality, considered as an ecosystem service (ES), provoking serious environmental impacts. Assessing the monetary value of PPCPs can be used as a proxy for environmental status of the ES of water quality (ESWQ). Considering PPCPs as non-desirable outputs of WWTPs, the shadow prices methodology has been implemented using directional distance function to measure the environmental avoided cost of removing salicylic acid (SA), …