IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i12p9268-d1166547.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Potential Benefits and Disbenefits of the Application of Water Treatment Residuals from Drinking Water Treatment Processes to Land in Scotland: Development of a Decision Support Tool

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Minto

    (School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK)

  • Daniel Gilmour

    (School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK)

  • M. Ehsan Jorat

    (School of Applied Sciences, Abertay University, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK)

  • Irene Tierney

    (IMTeco Ltd., Dundee DD2 3QB, UK)

Abstract

Water Treatment Residuals (WTRs) are a by-product of the addition of chemical coagulants to water during the water treatment process and are a mixture of water and organic and inorganic matter that coagulates during the treatment process. WTRs often contain metals such as iron, aluminium, and manganese that have been oxidised as part of the process or are constituents of the coagulation chemicals used. The metals within WTRs are of interest with regard to applying these sludges to agricultural land. WTRs can also contain beneficial organic matter and nutrients (primarily nitrogen). The nature of the benefits delivered is largely dependent on the quality of the raw water and these beneficial components are generally found in much smaller quantities in WTRs than are found in sewage sludge produced from wastewater. However, WTRs can still be used to enhance the physical properties of soils. As urban populations increase in size, it is anticipated that the tonnage of WTRs will increase significantly in the future. At present, the majority of WTRs are disposed of in landfills; however, landfill charges are increasing significantly, making disposal of an increasing tonnage of WTRs financially unviable. In terms of a circular economy, the procedure of reusing WTRs for alternative applications satisfies the Scottish Government’s goals in terms of waste prevention and reducing the amount of material being sent to landfill as set out in the Proposals for Legislation in 2019. Given the potential benefits in terms of cost savings and compliance with government legislation, and the complexities of understanding where and when WTRs can be used in land applications, we developed a Decision Support Tool (DST) that uses data obtained from an extensive review of approaches in other countries to assist in decision making. We also conducted a pre-application analysis and provided guidance on when and where WTRs can be used in land applications and when they are not suitable, presented in a simplified format that requires few inputs from the user in order to simplify the process and removes the requirement for a specialist operator during pre-application analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Minto & Daniel Gilmour & M. Ehsan Jorat & Irene Tierney, 2023. "Potential Benefits and Disbenefits of the Application of Water Treatment Residuals from Drinking Water Treatment Processes to Land in Scotland: Development of a Decision Support Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-17, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:12:p:9268-:d:1166547
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9268/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/12/9268/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:12:p:9268-:d:1166547. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.