Brought to you by The International Water Association

Resource Theme: GHG

How Chiang Mai’s Wastewater Utility is building Capacity on sustainable and innovative Solutions to reduce its Carbon Footprint

In the city of Chiang Mai, the WaCCliM project supports the Wastewater Management
Authority (WMA) in assessing opportunities to reduce its carbon footprint. A baseline
study identified the leaks of untreated wastewater, caused by fractured pipes in the
wastewater collection system, as the main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
in Chiang Mai. A large amount of untreated wastewater is flowing directly into the
public canal. Because of this, the city is producing significant amounts of methane
(CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both gases with a larger global warming potential than
carbon dioxide (CO2). The emissions from direct discharge of untreated wastewater
account for 579,900 kg CO2 per year in the city.
The cooperation between WaCCliM and the WMA in Thailand has raised the
local awareness for the challenges in the wastewater sector and the need for
improvements in the urban water management in order to achieve resilient water
utilities. Therefore, knowledge transfer and capacity building are necessary for longterm
success and continuous progress.

A model-based approach for reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions of drinking water transmission systems: a WaCCliM Project Case Study

The Water and Wastewater Companies for Climate Mitigation (WaCCliM) project aims to improve the efficiency of water and wastewater companies in Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and Jordan, reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and improve the carbon balance of the water sector, while maintaining and/or improving service levels. As part of the project, hydraulic modelling software was used to simulate the Cusco, Peru drinking water transmission system and evaluate various scenarios (water loss reduction, pump replacement, and system reconfiguration) and their energy impacts. Results showed the transmission system’s pumping energy could be reduced up to 40 percent depending on the scenario. A holistic view on the total urban water cycle has also helped to identify that a combined effort to conserve water at the end user level, reduce water loss, reuse water, and rainwater harvesting will ultimately make the biggest impact on the transmission system’s energy consumption and GHG emissions, and lead to the most sustainable and resilient urban water management for SEDACUSCO and the City. This study has also demonstrated that water distribution system models can play an invaluable role in water utility climate change mitigation and adaptation planning.

Methane emission during municipal wastewater treatment

Study focused on amount of methane that is emitted from a plant, but also of the possible sources and sinks of methane on the plant. In this study, the methane emission from a full- scale municipal wastewater facility with sludge digestion was evaluated during one year.

Towards A New Decision Support System for Design, Management and Operation of Wastewater Treatment Plants for the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases Emission

This paper presents the development of an ongoing research project aiming at setting-up an innovative mathematical model platform for the design and management of WWTPs. The final goal of the project by means of this platform is to minimize the environmental impact of WWTPs through their optimization in terms of energy consumptions and emissions, which can be regarded as discharged pollutants, sludge and GHGs.

A guide for the selection of municipal wastewater treatment processes to facilitate decision making, with a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (in Spanish)

This Selection Guide facilitates preliminary decision making regarding the most appropriate process to treat municipal wastewater. This Process Selection Guide was designed to support the evaluation of sanitation projects from a Climate Change Mitigation approach that is conducive to Sustainable Development, although without neglecting criteria for compliance with Mexican environmental regulations and technical or economic feasibility.

This Descriptive Brochure and its supplementary MS Excel © book are supporting tools to evaluate the possibilities of treatment trains in municipal wastewater treatment plants. The recommended processes and their combinations reduce gaseous emissions maximally and show technical-economic viability.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND DISCHARGE – Danish Center for Environment and Energy

This report presents the status of methodological development within the sub-sector 5.D Wastewater treatment and discharge. Focus of the report is to present a COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) mass balance for the Danish wastewater treatment plants, verifying the country-specific methane emis- sion factor, and the resulting level of methane emission from anaerobic sludge digestion, at the Danish wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The latter requested for by the UNFCCC expert review team.

Energy Recovery from the Water Cycle: Thermal Energy from Drinking Water

For a specific case, the effects of cold recovery from drinking water were analyzed on three decisive criteria: the effect on the GHG emissions, the financial implications, and the effect on the microbiological drinking water quality. It is shown that cold recovery from drinking water results in a 90% reduction of GHG emissions, and that it has a positive financial business case: Total Cost of Ownership reduced with 17%. The microbial drinking water quality is not affected, but biofilm formation in the drinking water pipes increased after cold recovery.

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