Constructing the Ecological Sanitation: a Review on Technology and Methods
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Journal of Cleaner Production 125 (2016) 1e21 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro Review Constructing the ecological sanitation: a review on technology and methods * Ming Hu, Bin Fan , Hongliang Wang, Bo Qu, Shikun Zhu State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China article info abstract Article history: Wastewater often contains valuable resources (e.g. organic matter and nutrients). Different from con- Received 29 April 2014 ventional sanitation approaches, the ecological sanitation (Eco-San) system is based on the closure of Received in revised form material flow cycles to recover resources with minimized demands on other resources. The review 29 February 2016 comprehensively summarized the main components of the Eco-San system (user interface, collection Accepted 2 March 2016 and conveyance, storage and primary treatment, and reuse/disposal), the frequently-used evaluation Available online 15 March 2016 methods, and the framework of evaluation index system. Some typical practical cases were discussed to demonstrate the managerial implications and popularize the applications of the Eco-San system. The Keywords: fi fi Ecological sanitation results show that the Eco-San systems are bene cial to resource ef ciency, agricultural use of the organic Evaluation matters and nutrients, and energy recovery although some shortages exist (e.g. high cost, cultural Wastewater treatment constraints, and complex operation and management). The evaluation methods can help to identify the Sustainability restriction factors, contributing factors and measures to improve the efficiency of the future Eco-San Rural system. The setting, selection and quantification are three critical steps when using the evaluation indices to complete the evaluation process. This study not only provides the methods for both developing novel Eco-San systems (combinations of the components) and improving the Eco-San systems (evalu- ation of the combinations) to solve the wastewater problem in rural areas. Considering the challenges or limitations in the Eco-San research, the recommendations for future research may mainly focus on the combination of different components, methods for sustainability assessment, quantification of the evaluation index, and implementation of more real Eco-San cases. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . .................................................. 2 2. Facility and function units of Eco-San systems . ..................................... 3 2.1. User interface . .........................3 2.1.1. Waterless toilet . .........................4 2.1.2. Urine diverting water-flush toilet . .........................5 2.1.3. Vacuum toilet . .........................5 2.2. Collection and conveyance section . .........................6 2.2.1. Gravity sewage system . .........................6 2.2.2. Vacuum sewage system . .........................6 2.2.3. Motorized emptying and transport system . .........................6 2.3. Storage and primary treatment . .........................6 2.3.1. Septic tank . .........................7 2.3.2. Cesspit . .........................7 * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ86 10 62849142. E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Fan). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.012 0959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 2 M. Hu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 125 (2016) 1e21 2.4. Urine treatment . .....................................................7 2.4.1. Separation and storage of urine . .........................................7 2.4.2. Stabilization of urine . .........................................7 2.4.3. Clinoptilolite loaded through ion exchange/adsorption . .............................7 2.4.4. Struvite precipitation . .........................................8 2.4.5. Volume reduction . .........................................8 2.5. Treatment of solid wastes . .........................................8 2.5.1. Prevention of pathogens . .........................................8 2.5.2. Composting . .........................................8 2.5.3. Anaerobic co-digestion . .........................................8 2.5.4. Pyrolysis . .........................................9 2.6. Treatment of black and brown water . .........................................9 2.6.1. Anaerobic digestion . .........................................9 2.6.2. Evapotranspiration tank system . .........................................9 2.6.3. Agricultural application . .........................................9 2.7. Treatment of gray water . ........................................10 2.7.1. Soil filter . ........................................10 2.7.2. Constructed wetland . ........................................10 2.7.3. Trickling filter . ........................................10 3. Managerial implications . ..................... 10 4. Evaluation methods . ..................... 14 4.1. Life cycle assessment (LCA) . ........................................14 4.2. Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) . ........................................14 4.3. Economic evaluation method (EEM) . ........................................15 4.4. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) . ........................................15 4.5. Fuzzy evaluation method (FEM) . .. ........................................16 5. Evaluation indices . ..................... 16 5.1. Economic indices . ....................................................16 5.2. Environmental indices . ........................................16 5.3. Social indices . ...................................................16 5.4. Comprehensive indices . ........................................17 6. Results....................................................................................................... ..................... 18 7. Observations .................................................................................................. ..................... 18 8. Conclusions . ..................... 18 Acknowledgments . ..