WP5.1 Defining unique selling propositions for each technology

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The objectives of this work package are:

  • To conduct a comprehensive and holistic assessment of the sustainability profiles of promising new water technologies identified in WA 1-4
  • To quantify potential benefits, in environmental and economic terms, to foster uptake and implementation of emerging technologies by the water sector

The following tasks (with deliverables and milestones) are planned:

T5.1.1: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts of emerging technologies with LCA will be conducted, following the methodology of ISO 14040/44. This includes the definition of goal and scope of the ‘LCA, data collection for the Life Cycle inventory and transfer to a substance flow model, calculation of environmental indicators from input-output balances in impact assessment, and discussion and interpretation of the results. These results will be compared with business as usual (BAU) situations/technologies applied in the target application areas of the new technologies.

T5.1.2: Improving impact assessment in LCA

The currently limited impact assessment of micro-pollutants and other emerging pollutants in human and ecotoxicity will be enhanced by building upon the recently developed international consensus model USEtox. Quality datasets on water footprint will be provided by Quantis’ Water DataBase for all background processes of the life cycle to gain an overall picture of the impact on water resources.

T5.1.3: Life Cycle Costing (LCC)

For the economic assessment, an inquiry of factors that determine the economic feasibility of new water/wastewater treatment technologies will be conducted. Economically reliable options will be identified by estimating the life cycle costs of the currently best-available competing technologies and compared and benchmarks provided.

T5.1.4: Guidelines for LCA of water technologies

Guidelines will be developed for the LCA methodology for the consistent assessment of water technologies in their environmental sustainability profile. Field-tested guidelines will be provided for application within future studies of environmental sustainability of water technologies.

T5.1.5: Formulation of Unique Selling Proposition

The results of LCA and LCC will help to formulate USPs of the emerging technologies with quantitative information of their benefits in environmental and economic sustainability for the most promising application areas. These results will be defined by key parameters and tipping levels for each new technology, which will be benchmarked against reference technologies in their respective areas of application.

 

To download the deliverables that are already completed, please see the results section.

Work Package: