Water Sector

Australia is experiencing severe water stress. The effects

of climate change and population growth will exacerbate
the scarcity of this resource, potentially impacting on
Australia’s economy. Water utilities must take action to
secure water supplies for the future and continue to
provide water for various uses. At the same time they
acknowledge that water treatment options must take
environmental criteria into account to minimise
environmental burdens.

Environmental assessment of water treatment options requires:

 an holistic approach taking into account the full life cycle of water management options;
 detailed information about the environmental impacts of all material and energy inputs;
and
 a comprehensive understanding of process design trade-offs between energy use and
chemical use (e.g. membrane versus chemical treatment).

Since you ‘can only manage what you can measure’, a quantitative analytical tool is
required. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables the evaluation of the environmental
performance of water treatment processes.

To enable LCAs to be undertaken that are representative of the Australian situation, a project is
underway that will deliver Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data for chemicals used in water and
wastewater treatment processes. Key outputs of the project will include:
 trend analysis of chemicals used in the Australian water treatment industry;
 the quantification of environmental impacts from water treatment chemicals to assist in
differentiating the relative sustainability of design and management options;
 insights into embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions of process inputs for
strategic cost assessment in engineering design; and
 an enhanced understanding of different methods for LCI development achieved by
comparing traditional economics-based Input-Output Analysis with classical process-
based LCA methodology, together with a new hybrid and consequentialist approach.

This project is funded by six of the largest water utilities from five states in Australia (Sydney
Water, Melbourne Water, South Australia Water, Water Corporation, Gold Coast Water and
Yarra Valley Water) and the Australian Research Council. The project is led by the researchers
of the Sustainability Assessment Program at the Water Research Centre, University of New
South Wales

LCA Case Study - 3

 In order to manage uncertainty surrounding industrial emissions
from water utilities and to minimise vulnerability to climate change
risks, improved emissions accounting is needed to ensure that
future emissions reduction measures are targeted.

Why is this project important?

The lack of
The Australian water industry is a large emitter of greenhouse gases. quantification of
There are still several areas of uncertainty surrounding industrial environmental
emissions, one of which relates to chemicals used during water and burdens has both
wastewater treatment operations. Previous LCA studies have relied on environmental
estimates of the energy content of chemicals with no published basis, on and economic
foreign LCI data or on sparse and archaic Australian LCI datasets. This
consequences.
reliance on foreign, obsolete or poorly documented LCI data for
chemicals imposes significant uncertainty on any LCA carried out in the
Australian water industry and is recognised by the Water Services Association of Australia
(WSAA) to increase the industry’s exposure to climate change risk – problematic in an
industry that is highly vulnerable to climate change.

In order to manage uncertainty surrounding industrial emissions and to minimise vulnerability

to climate change risks, improved emissions accounting is needed to ensure that future
emissions reduction measures are targeted. This project will enable comprehensive
calculation of the material and energy burdens associated with water and wastewater
treatment. Taking into account the full life cycle of treatment facilities, this project will lead to
more sustainable design and operation of Australian water and wastewater treatment
facilities and will have direct implications for the future sustainability of Australian urban
settlements.

Linkages to AusLCI
The outputs of this research project will make a major contribution to the AusLCI national
database initiative. As a consistent, national baseline for comparing the environmental
impacts of alternatives, AusLCI will allow industry to:
 make informed decisions regarding the improvement of process efficiencies;
 quantify impacts and formulate mitigation and offset strategies; and
 satisfy environmental policy goals.

Having no internal funding, AusLCI relies on government and industry sector collaboration to
create LCI data. This project demonstrates how organisations within an industry sector can
work together with government and academia to obtain data for more comprehensive
environmental assessments.

Further information
For further information contact:
Mr Matthias Schulz | Sustainability Assessment Program Manager,
| Water Research Centre, University of New South Wales
| E: m.schulz@unsw.edu.au

ALCAS
P.O. Box 12062
A'Beckett St
Melbourne 3001