Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Environmental and economic life cycle assessment of emerging sludge

treatment routes
Huibin Yuan a, b, Shixin Zhai a, b, Hao Fu a, b, Zhuo Li a, b, Dongfeng Gao c, Hongtao Zhu a, b, *
a
Beijing Key Lab for Source Control Technology of Water Pollution, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083,
China
b
Engineering Research Center for Water Pollution Source Control & Eco-remediation, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Forestry University,
Beijing, 100083, China
c
China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing, 100191, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Panos Seferlis Before implementing large-scale emerging sludge treatment methods, it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive
analysis of their environmental impacts and economic costs at the system level. This study utilizes standardized
Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) accounting methods to evaluate four emerging sludge
Emerging sludge treatment routes treatment routes: anaerobic fermentation (AF), pyrolysis (PY), hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), and alkaline
Life cycle assessment
thermal hydrolysis (ATH). These routes are compared with two traditional sludge treatment routes, anaerobic
Life cycle cost
digestion (AD) and aerobic composting (AC). The results indicate that the conventional route AD is the optimal
Sensitivity analysis
choice in terms of environmental pollution, carbon emission control, and life cycle cost. The emerging routes AF
and ATH have significant environmental benefits from carbon source recovery and protein recovery. However,
they require approximately twice the cumulative energy demand of AD and additional consumption of chem­
icals, which imposes a greater environmental burden. While PY and HTC outperform the conventional sludge
treatment routes in terms of the total environmental impact (1.79E-10, 1.72E-10) due to energy recovery and the
use of clean energy sources. AF and PY demonstrate better economic performance (842.11 and 712.00 CNY)
compared to the traditional route AC (905.06 CNY). However, both HTC and ATH incur costs approximately 1.3
times higher than AC due to their high energy and material demands. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis reveals
that emerging treatment routes are highly influenced by energy and resource recovery and consumption.
Therefore, reducing the energy and resource inputs for emerging routes could significantly decrease their
environmental impact and cost, maximizing their resource recovery advantages.

1. Introduction
With the rapid urbanization in China and the establishment of
sewage treatment facilities, there has been a significant increase in the
production of urban sludge. In 2022, municipal sewage treatment plants
in China generated approximately 13.70 million tons of dry sludge.
Sewage sludge not only contains various pollutants, including heavy
metals, pathogens, toxic inorganic substances, and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons but also contains a substantial amount of nutrients. For
example, carbon can be used as a supplementary carbon source in
sewage treatment (Liu et al., 2020), nitrogen and phosphorus can be
utilized as fertilizers for plant growth (Xiao et al., 2022), and proteins
can be recovered for applications such as foaming agents (Gao et al.,
2020). To achieve the safe and efficient treatment of sludge and promote
its resource utilization, the Chinese government released the "14th
Five-Year Plan for the Development of Urban Sewage Treatment and
Resource Utilization " in 2021 and the "Implementation Plan for
Harmless Treatment and Resource Utilization of Sludge" in 2022. It is
proposed to comprehensively achieve the harmless disposal of sludge
and significantly improve the level of resource utilization of sewage
sludge by 2035 (National Development and Reform Commission, 2021,
2022). Therefore, finding a safe and efficient path for the treatment and
resource utilization of sludge has become a pressing demand in China’s
sludge treatment industry.
Currently, in China, the main technologies for sludge treatment
include anaerobic digestion, aerobic composting, and incineration.

* Corresponding author. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China.
E-mail address: zhuhongtao@bjfu.edu.cn (H. Zhu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141792
Received 15 December 2023; Received in revised form 11 March 2024; Accepted 13 March 2024
Available online 13 March 2024
0959-6526/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Yuan et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792

Among these, aerobic composting is widely applied due to its simplicity comprehensively quantified using standardized LCA and LCC method­
of operation. Anaerobic digestion has also gained extensive attention in ologies. In order to provide a reference, these results were compared
recent years for its efficient energy recovery (Wei et al., 2020; Yang with the two conventional routes (AD, AC). This comparison bridged the
et al., 2015). Sludge incineration is commonly used in developed regions gap between the LCA and LCC of emerging sludge treatment methods.
facing land scarcity issues and with rapid economic growth and suffi­ Secondly, the specific sources of environmental impacts and economic
cient financial support (Chen et al., 2012). However, traditional sludge costs associated with the emerging treatment routes were identified
treatment methods have limitations, such as higher costs, environmental based on the LCA and LCC results. Additionally, sensitivity analyses
risks, and lower efficiency in reduction and resource utilization, thereby were conducted to further elucidate the influence of key parameters,
impeding environmental conservation and sustainable development. such as resource and energy consumption and recovery in the sludge
For instance, aerobic composting has lower resource utilization effi­ treatment process, on the environmental and economic performance.
ciency and may release pathogens into the environment, causing sec­ These findings establish a scientific foundation for the technical opti­
ondary pollution (Dai et al., 2021; Tan et al., 2023). Sludge incineration mization and application of emerging sludge treatment methods.
emits harmful gases and requires a relatively high level of cost invest­
ment (Zhang et al., 2022a). Emerging sludge treatment technologies 2. Materials and methods
have the potential to address these issues by achieving sludge harm­
lessness, enhancing resource utilization, and reducing costs. For 2.1. LCA methodology
example, the emerging anaerobic fermentation process that produces
volatile fatty acids (VFAs) not only demonstrates efficient and stable According to ISO 14044, the main steps of LCA are (1) definition of
sludge reduction performance but also allows VFAs to serve as a carbon objectives and scope, (2) life cycle inventory analysis, (3) life cycle
source for wastewater treatment denitrification, offering greater eco­ impact assessment, and (4) interpretation of the results of life cycle
nomic advantages compared to traditional processes (Liu et al., 2018). impact assessment. The following sections describe the specific pro­
High-temperature pyrolysis of sludge can reduce heavy metal emissions cedures used in this study.
and generate low-molecular-weight compounds for fuel or chemical
utilization (Barry et al., 2019; Luo et al., 2021). Hydrothermal carbon­ 2.1.1. Goal and scope of LCA
ization technology has lower energy consumption compared to tradi­
tional thermal treatment methods, and alkaline hydrothermal extraction (1) Functional unit
is an efficient approach for protein recovery (Gao et al., 2020; Liu et al.,
2022). These emerging technologies have potentials that might not only In this study, the functional unit (FU) is set as 1 ton of dry solids (1t
mitigate the environmental impacts associated with sludge, but also DS). All conversions of material, energy, and pollutant inputs and out­
reduce energy consumption and facilitate resource recovery, sustain­ puts throughout the processes are relative to the treatment of 1t DS. The
ability promotion, and social attention capture. However, before overall characteristics of typical dry sludge (DS) are based on Chinese
adopting these technologies, a comprehensive analysis of their envi­ averages: Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is 41.85% DS, Total Nitrogen
ronmental and economic aspects is essential. The selection of an (TN) is 2.52% DS, Total Phosphorus (TP) is 1.15% DS (Cheng et al.,
appropriate waste treatment strategy is crucial and complex, requiring 2022). Detailed information is provided in Table S1 (Supplementary
not only performance data but also assessments within the context of Materials).
economic and environmental sustainability (Yoshida et al., 2018). Sus­
tainability assessment tools, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and (2) System boundary and scenario description
Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analysis, play a significant role in evaluating the
environmental and economic impacts of products, processes, or services. In this study, two traditional sludge treatment routes and four
These tools have been extensively applied in the field of sludge man­ emerging sludge treatment routes, as illustrated in Fig. 1, were evalu­
agement (Chen et al., 2019; Guinée et al., 2011). ated. All of them start from the gravity thickening of sludge.
Several studies have compared different sludge treatment pathways AD Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Thermal Hydrolysis
using LCA and LCC. Suh and Rousseaux (2002) evaluated five sludge - Anaerobic Digestion - Filter Pressing Dewatering - Land Application.
treatment pathways and found that anaerobic digestion was the most AC Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Aerobic
environmentally friendly option. Murray et al. (2008) combined
input-output modeling with LCA and concluded that anaerobic digestion
typically emerged as the optimal treatment process. Xu et al. (2014) and
Li et al. (2017a) conducted LCA and LCC studies and found that
anaerobic digestion and its combined treatment processes exhibited
favorable performance in terms of energy, environment, and economics.
However, Tarpani et al. (2020) indicated that anaerobic digestion had a
significant impact on freshwater ecotoxicity. Zhang et al. (2022b) con­
ducted a comprehensive statistical analysis and found that anaerobic
digestion had outstanding carbon-negative emission attributes. Huang
et al. (2023) evaluated four sludge treatment pathways and identified
co-incineration in coal-fired power plants as the best overall performer.
Despite the progress made in these studies, there is still a knowledge gap
between traditional and emerging sludge treatment technologies in
terms of LCA and LCC. The environmental and economic benefits of
emerging technologies remain debatable, and the adoption of these
technologies is accompanied by a high level of uncertainty (Ding et al.,
2021; Huang et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2022b).
Therefore, this study aims to address the insufficient investigation
into the environmental and economic performance of emerging sludge
treatment methods. Firstly, the environmental impacts and economic
costs of four emerging treatment routes (AF, PY, HTC, ATH) were Fig. 1. System boundary.

2
H. Yuan et al.
Composting - Land Application.
AF Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Alkaline Thermal
Pretreatment - Anaerobic Fermentation - Filter Pressing Dewatering -
Land Application.
PY Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Thermal Drying -
Pyrolysis Carbonization - Land Application.
HTC Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Hydrothermal
Carbonization - Filter Pressing Dewatering - Biofuel.
ATH Route: Thickening - Centrifugal Dewatering - Alkaline Hydro­
thermal Hydrolysis - Land Application.
Additionally, to better reflect the actual conditions of the sludge
treatment plant, the following assumptions and limitations were
considered for the system boundary:
(1) In the calculation of environmental impacts, the construction of
the plant, vehicles, machinery, and auxiliary equipment is
excluded from the system boundary. The transportation distance
from the wastewater treatment plant to the sludge treatment
plant and the distance for land application are assumed to be 20
km (Yoshida et al., 2013).
(2) The biogas generated from anaerobic digestion is utilized for
combined heat and power (CHP) generation. In this process, 35%
of the energy in the biogas is converted to electricity, and an
additional 50% is converted to heat (Li et al., 2017a). The py­
rolysis oil and gas produced during pyrolysis are burned with an
85% thermal efficiency, providing heat for thermal drying and
pyrolysis (Huang et al., 2023).
(3) Electricity, residue, sludge fermentation liquid, hydrothermal
charcoal, and protein concentrate recovered after processing
through each route are considered to be utilized for energy and
resources without further treatment (Zhang et al., 2022b).
(4) The CO2 generated during the sludge treatment process is
considered carbon-neutral (IPCC., 2006).
(5) Wastewater and exhaust gas generated during the sludge treat­
ment process are treated, as detailed in Table S9 (Supplementary
Materials)
In all routes, the sludge thickening process is the same. Except for
AD, the remaining routes require dewatering to a fixed moisture con­
tent. with polyacrylamide (PAM) used as a coagulant for dewatering. In
the AD route, the overheated steam used for hydrothermal treatment is
generated by a biogas steam boiler. After hydrolysis, 70% of the organic
matter in the sludge is degraded, and the biogas yield is 312 m3/t DS (Li
et al., 2017b), with a Lower Heating Value (LHV) of 23 MJ/m3. The
biogas is utilized in a combined heat and power (CHP) system, providing
heat for hydrothermal treatment, and the remaining energy generates
electricity output. In the AC route, the dewatered sludge is transported
to a composting plant, where it is composted with straw as an organic
additive (Dong et al., 2014). In the AF route, the equipment for alkaline
hydrolysis operates and the heat demand comes from electricity. Sub­
sequently, anaerobic fermentation is carried out, and the products of
anaerobic fermentation undergo Filter Pressing Dewatering. The filtrate
is used as a carbon source for the sewage treatment plant (Liu et al.,
2018). In the PY route, the dehydrated sludge is subjected to thermal
drying to reduce the sludge moisture content from 80% to 40%. The
dried sludge is then pyrolyzed at 500 ◦ C, yielding 500 kg of pyrolysis
char, 312.5 kg of pyrolysis gas, and 437.5 kg of pyrolysis oil (Wang,
2016). The pyrolysis oil and gas are directly burned to provide heat for
thermal drying and pyrolysis, with excess energy being used as addi­
tional steam output. In the HTC route, the dehydrated sludge is heated in
a reactor at 180 ◦ C and 1.2 MPa for 4 h (Cheng et al., 2023). Hydro­
thermal char is used as a substitute for biofuels. In the ATH route, the
dehydrated sludge undergoes hydrolysis for 2 h at pH = 12 and 90 ◦ C.
After solid-liquid separation, the protein in the liquid phase is used as an
animal protein foaming agent after steam concentration (Xue et al.,
2014). Residues from all treatment routes except HTC are utilized for
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Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
land application to replace nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers.
2.1.2. Life cycle inventory analysis
The life cycle inventory (LCI) is an integral part of the LCA and in­
cludes input data (materials and energy) and output data (pollutants,
materials, and energy). Data for this study primarily originates from
surveys or experimental data found in various publications and indus­
trial reports released by government agencies and researchers. Back­
ground data is sourced from the Ecoinvent3.8 database. Additionally,
the fate of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in each pathway is deter­
mined through mass balance calculations, with a summary presented in
Tables S3–S8 (Supplementary Materials).
2.1.3. Life cycle impact assessment
The environmental impact assessment relies on openLCA 1.11.0
software (https://openlca.org), utilizing the CML-IA baseline method
embedded in the Ecoinvent3.8 database. This method was employed to
determine the environmental impacts of six routes for sludge treatment,
which is one of the most commonly used methods in LCA (Li and Feng,
2018; Zhang et al., 2022b). The impact indicators covered in this
method consisted of global warming potential (GWP; kg CO2 eq), human
toxicity potential (HTP; kg dichlorobenzene (1,4-DB) eq), freshwater
ecotoxicity potential (FEP; kg 1,4-DB eq), terrestrial ecotoxicity poten­
tial (TEP; kg 1,4-DB eq), eutrophication potential (EP; kg PO3− 4 eq),
abiotic depletion potential (ADP; kg Sb eq), abiotic depletion potential
(fossil fuels) (ADP (F); MJ eq), ozone layer depletion potential (ODP; kg
CFC-11 eq), photochemical oxidation potential (PCOP; kg C2H4 eq), and
acidification potential (AP; kg SO2 eq). Subsequently, normalization
results for the environmental impacts were obtained using the "World
2000″ normalization factors.
2.2. Life cycle cost analysis
In this study, the LCC includes both economic costs and environ­
mental costs (Zhang et al., 2022a). Economic costs often encompass
investment costs, operational costs, and energy and resource recovery
benefits, i.e., revenue from the sale of products and by-products of
sludge treatment such as fertilizer and electricity (Francini et al., 2019).
Environmental costs refer to the mitigation costs of the global warming
effects induced by CO2 emissions from sludge treatment and disposal
(Jamasb and Nepal, 2010; Woon and Lo, 2016). The quantified func­
tional unit aligns with the LCA, focusing on the treatment of 100 tons of
residual sludge with a moisture content of 99% (1 t DS). LCC analysis is
conducted in the following sequence: establish goals and scope, inves­
tigate basic assumptions (such as discount rates and material market
prices), organize fundamental data (such as carbon emission data for
each route), calculate individual cost components (such as material and
energy costs), and discount them to present value. Detailed calculations
are provided in S2 (Supplementary Materials).
2.3. Sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis can explore the impact of fluctuations in key data
on the assessment results, providing stronger support for technical im­
provements and applications. In this study, a one-at-a-time method is
chosen for sensitivity analysis. This method involves making changes to
a single key input parameter and observing its effect on the overall re­
sults. The variables manipulated in the sensitivity analysis are the key
input parameters in the LCA and mid-life cycle cost results, such as
resource and energy consumption. This method is computationally
straightforward and results are easily communicated, making it one of
the most widely used methods in the scientific community over the years
(Saltelli et al., 2006).
H. Yuan et al.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Environmental impact of sludge treatment and disposal routes
3.1.1. Impact of sludge treatment and disposal routes on GWP and air
pollution
Sludge treatment is a significant source of carbon emissions in our
country. Considering China’s goals of sustainable development and
"peak carbon, carbon neutrality," the magnitude of carbon emissions in
the sludge treatment and disposal process is a crucial indicator for
assessing the effectiveness of sludge treatment paths. This section pro­
vides a detailed analysis of the Global Warming Potential (GWP) for the
six sludge disposal routes (Fig. 2a). Among all the routes, the GWP of
emerging routes is consistently higher than that of traditional ones. The
net carbon emissions of ATH (642.79 kg CO2 eq) are the highest, fol­
lowed by AF (542.78 kg CO2 eq). This is due to the substantial con­
sumption of thermal energy and chemicals in their respective sludge
treatment processes, and the detailed analysis of material input and
energy requirements is provided in Table S9 and Fig. S1 (Supplementary
Materials). Although the carbon recovery from AF brings significant
environmental benefits, the overall GWP remains relatively high. For
HTC, the main reason for its lower GWP is the minimal consumption of
thermal energy, only 80 m3 of natural gas during the treatment process.
PY’s lower GWP is attributed to the combustion of pyrolysis oil and
pyrolysis gas, replacing a significant portion of thermal energy con­
sumption in the treatment process. Among traditional sludge treatment
routes, AC outperforms emerging routes due to the fertilizer substitution
effect and lower consumption. AD, with heat recovery from biogas CHP
and electricity generation, stands out as the only process with negative
carbon emissions (− 429.01 kg CO2 eq).
Fig. 2. The (a) GWP, (b) ODP, (c) PCOP, and (d) AP of the 6 routes for sludge treatment and disposal. The different sections represent contributions from the process
flow and the recovery of resources and energy. Positive values indicate environmental benefits, while negative values signify environmental burdens.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
ODP (Ozone Depletion Potential), PCOP (Photochemical Oxidation
Potential), and AP (Acidification Potential) are typical categories of at­
mospheric pollution impacts. The contributions of the process and the
offsets of ODP, PCOP, and AP through regenerative electricity, fertilizer
substitution, and resource recovery are displayed in Fig. 2b-d,
respectively.
Generally, the variations in ODP, PCOP, and AP depend on the in­
direct releases of CFCs, NOx, and SOx in electricity and material con­
sumption. The more materials and energy consumed in the sludge
treatment process, the more severe these impacts become. Therefore, AF
has the highest ODP in all routes, followed by ATH. It can be observed
that the carbon recovery in AF brings significant environmental benefits.
For PCOP, the environmental benefits of carbon recovery in AF are
sufficient to offset the environmental impacts of significant chemical
agent consumption in sludge treatment, making it show a net environ­
mental benefit. The same applies to the electricity recovery in AD. On
the other hand, the environmental benefits of protein recovery in ATH
are minimal, resulting in its highest environmental impact. Regarding
AP, NOx emissions from land use are one of the main contributors to its
variations. Therefore, AF’s high consumption of chemical agents and
NOx emissions from land use make it the route with the highest AP. AD,
with its electricity recovery, becomes the route with the lowest AP.
Overall, in ODP and PCOP, the environmental benefits of carbon
recovery in the emerging route AF are the most significant, but it also
has the highest environmental impact due to high energy and material
consumption. In AP, the conventional route AD exhibits the least envi­
ronmental impact, while the emerging route HTC closely approximates
its performance.
H. Yuan et al.
3.1.2. Impact of sludge treatment and disposal routes on toxicity
Different methods of sludge treatment have varying effects on the
removal of heavy metals and other pollutants. Improper use of sludge
treatment methods may result in severe secondary pollution. Therefore,
the harmless treatment of sludge is necessary to reduce potential hazards
to public health and the environment (Liang and Zhou, 2022). Fig. 3a
illustrates the relative values of six routes, namely HTP, FEP, and TEP,
while the contributions of the process flow and the offset of regenerated
electricity or by-products for HTP, FEP, and TEP are separately depicted
in Fig. 3b-d.
The HTP (Human Toxicity Potential) is generally associated with
toxic substances emitted during the production and use of chemical
products, such as VOCs and NOx. As shown in Fig. 3a and b, in all
treatment routes, the HTP of emerging routes is consistently higher than
that of traditional sludge treatment routes. This is because emerging
routes typically consume more chemical substances compared to tradi­
tional routes, and AF consumes the most because its pretreatment re­
quires large amounts of NaOH and Ca(OH)2. While AF demonstrates
considerable environmental benefits in terms of carbon source recovery,
its substantial consumption of chemical substances during the pre-
treatment process results in a much higher HTP compared to tradi­
tional routes, as is the case with ATH. Additionally, the significant
consumption of coagulants (PAM, FeCl3) during sludge dewatering is a
major factor contributing to higher HTP. Therefore, the marginal envi­
ronmental benefits from the brown coal recovery of HTC appear insig­
nificant, resulting in its highest HTP. Traditional routes like AD and AC,
besides having lower chemical consumption, also exhibit greater envi­
ronmental benefits due to power recovery and fertilizer substitution,
making their HTP superior to emerging routes as another major reason.
Land application of treated sludge results in the release of heavy
metals and nutrients directly into the soil and indirectly into the water
Fig. 3. (a) Relative HTP, FEP, and TEP values of the 6 routes for sludge treatment and disposal. Each toxicity potential impact indicator in the 6 routes for sludge
treatment and disposal is standardized, with the largest value set as +100%. The smaller values in the remaining routes are then expressed as a percentage relative to
this maximum value. The different sections represent contributions to (b) HTP, (c) FEP, and (d) TEP from the process flow and the recovery of resources and energy.
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Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
bodies, making it a major source of TEP and FEP. As illustrated in
Fig. 3a, c, and 3d, among all treatment routes, the emerging route HTC
exhibits the smallest FEP, followed by PY. While the FEP of emerging
routes, including HTC, AF, and ATH, is higher than that of traditional
routes AD and AC, this is attributed to the production and utilization of
chemical agents consumed during sludge dewatering and treatment
processes, leading to the emission of pollutants into water bodies and
causing freshwater ecotoxicity. Regarding TEP, the performance of
emerging routes is superior, with all emerging routes having lower TEP
than the traditional route AD. Except for HTC, which lacks a land
application process, PY is the route with the smallest TEP. This is due to
the partial volatilization of heavy metals during high-temperature py­
rolysis, leading to a decrease in heavy metal content in the pyrolytic
char. In contrast, AF and ATH exhibit better heavy metal immobilization
effects than AD due to the addition of alkaline substances during the
treatment process. Overall, in terms of FEP and TEP, emerging routes
demonstrate similar or even better environmental performance.
3.1.3. Impact of sludge treatment and disposal routes on resource and
energy depletion
Fig. 4a-c illustrate the non-biological depletion of fossil fuels and
mineral resources for the six sludge treatment routes. The fertilizer
substitution effect is the primary influencing factor on the environ­
mental benefits of each route. Therefore, except for HTC, the ADP
(Abiotic Depletion Potential) of emerging routes is superior to the
traditional route AD, showing values close to 0 or negative. Addition­
ally, notably, the environmental benefits from the carbon source re­
covery of AF almost offset its significant environmental impact from the
substantial material and energy consumption during sludge treatment.
Traditional routes exhibit the best environmental benefits due to their
low consumption in sludge treatment and the highest fertilizer
H. Yuan et al.
Fig. 4. The (a), (b), (c) ADP/ADP(F) and (b) EP of the 6 routes for sludge treatment and disposal.
substitution effect. ADP (fossil fuels) is closely related to energy con­
sumption. Hence, except for AF, the ADP (fossil fuels) of emerging
sludge treatment routes is higher than that of traditional routes, because
they require higher energy consumption in the sludge treatment process,
and the detailed analysis of energy requirements is provided in Fig. S1
(Supplementary Materials). While AF also consumes a substantial
amount of electrical and thermal energy, its carbon source recovery
brings significant environmental benefits that almost completely offset
its environmental impact. In contrast, traditional route AD, benefiting
from power recovery, results in a negative value for ADP (fossil fuels).
3.1.4. Impact of sludge treatment and disposal routes on eutrophication
By analyzing the direct emissions (Tables S3–S8 in Supplementary
Materials) of nutrients (N, P) and the indirect emissions from the con­
sumption of energy and materials in sludge, the EP (Eutrophication
Potential) generated by six sludge treatment routes were obtained. As
shown in Fig. 4d, fertilizer substitution reduces EP, but the nutrient
input from sludge treatment by-products in land use also increases EP. It
is evident that pollution released during land application is the main
source of EP for all routes except HTC. Therefore, EP values for HTC and
PY are superior to AC, while AD exhibits lower EP due to the offsetting
effect of power regeneration. The emerging route ATH mitigates the
environmental impact from chemical consumption and land application
through protein recovery, making it the route with the lowest EP.
Conversely, limited environmental benefits from carbon source recovery
result in AF having the highest EP.
3.1.5. Total environmental impact potential
After obtaining results for different environmental impact indicators,
the total environmental impact potential was calculated using normal­
ization and weighting methods in the OpenLCA software. Fig. 5 illus­
trates the contributions of various treatment processes and impact
categories to the total environmental impact potential. As shown in
Fig. 5a, it is evident that land application is the primary environmental
impact source for each route except HTC. Therefore, HTC becomes the
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Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
route with the lowest total environmental impact potential due to the
absence of land application emissions. Emerging routes show a polarized
performance, where AF and ATH, despite having more benefits in
resource recovery, fail to offset the environmental impact from corre­
sponding energy and material consumption, resulting in the highest
total environmental impact potential. In contrast, PY, with the minimum
land application pollution emissions and the reuse of thermal energy,
becomes the route with environmental performance second only to HTC.
As shown in Fig. 5b, AF and ATH, despite having a lower contribu­
tion to the main environmental impact indicator TEP compared to AD,
exhibit total environmental impact potentials 1.34 times and 1.36 times
higher than AD due to higher FEP and HTP. PY and HTC also have higher
HTP. Therefore, the high consumption of energy and materials resulting
in elevated FEP and HTP is a major factor contributing to the significant
differences in environmental performance between emerging routes and
traditional routes. Furthermore, the GWP of emerging routes is signifi­
cantly higher than that of traditional routes, further confirming that the
energy and resource recovery brought by emerging routes are insuffi­
cient to offset the environmental burden caused by the sludge treatment
process. As for other impact categories, ADP, ADP (fossil fuels), AP, EP
do not constitute the primary components of the total environmental
impact potentials for each route. Additionally, the contributions of ODP
and PCOP across all treatment routes are nearly negligible.
3.2. LCC analysis
In order to comprehensively analyze the advantages and disadvan­
tages of traditional and emerging sludge treatment routes, a LCC anal­
ysis was conducted for six sludge treatment routes, and the results are
shown in Fig. 6. Overall, the LCC ranking of each route is HTC > ATH >
AC > AF > PY > AD. Construction investment, energy costs, and ma­
terial costs are the most significant components of the economic costs for
each route. Except for the negative environmental cost of AD, recycling
benefits are the only income, and environmental costs contribute
minimally across all routes. In terms of construction investment, the
H. Yuan et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792

benefits refer to income from energy and material recovery, so from the
perspective of recycling benefits, AF generates the highest income from
the recovery of carbon sources in sludge, followed by the traditional AD
route, which also yields considerable income from power recovery. HTC,
recovering biofuels, has the lowest income, approximately half of AF’s
recycling benefits.
Therefore, overall, the traditional AD route, due to lower energy and
material consumption and higher income, emerges as the most
economically viable route, followed by PY. AF, due to its highest income
balancing material costs, results in a lower LCC compared to AC. In
contrast, HTC and ATH perform poorly in both expenditure and income,
resulting in a significantly higher LCC compared to other routes.

3.3. Sensitivity analysis

Upon comprehensive analysis, it is evident that GWP (Global

Warming Potential), EP (Eutrophication Potential), and HTP (Human
Toxicity Potential) are crucial impact categories in the LCA results. The
consumption and recovery of energy and materials emerge as significant
contributors to both LCA and LCC, representing key factors causing
differences in results between emerging and traditional routes.
Therefore, sensitivity analyses were conducted on the fluctuations in
energy and material consumption during sludge pretreatment and sta­
bilization processes for each treatment route, as well as on the variations
in energy and resource recovery rates. These analyses aimed to assess
the impact on both LCA and LCC results. The outcomes are presented in
Fig. 7.

3.3.1. Impact of energy and material recovery EP, GWP, and HTP
As shown in Fig. 7a-c, with the increase in energy and material re­
covery, the results for various impact categories of AD, AF, PY, and ATH
exhibit a noticeable decrease in trend. Additionally, AC’s HTP results
Fig. 5. Normalized environmental impact potential of the 6 routes for sludge
also show significant improvement. Specifically, as the energy and
treatment and disposal: (a) Comparison by treatment process, and (b) Com­
material recovery increase from the initial value of 85%–115%, for
parison by impact categories.
GWP, PY decreases by 391.91 kg CO2 eq due to the heat output,
exhibiting the greatest fluctuation. However, in terms of EP, ATH shows
the most significant variation, decreasing by 0.49 kg PO3−4 eq. When the
resource recovery increases by 15%, the environmental impact can be
reduced by 1.17 times. In terms of HTP, the environmental impact of AF
and PY decreases by 91.36 kg 1,4-DB eq and 109.01 kg 1,4-DB eq,
respectively, representing a 25% and 110% reduction respectively. This
indicates that the environmental impact of emerging routes AF, PY, and
ATH is highly sensitive to resource recovery efficiency. Increasing their
resource recovery rate can greatly reduce the environmental impact
during the treatment process, demonstrating good environmental
performance.

3.3.2. Impact of energy and resource consumption on EP, GWP, and HTP
As shown in Fig. 7d-f, with the decrease in energy and material
consumption, the environmental impact potentials of various categories
for AD, AF, PY, and ATH significantly decrease, while AC and HTC show
almost no change. Specifically, as the energy and material values
decrease from the initial 115%–85%, the emerging route PY shows the
Fig. 6. LCC of the 6 routes for sludge treatment and disposal.
most significant change. The EP, GWP, and HTP of PY decrease by 0.28
kg PO3−
4 eq, 438.06 kg CO2 eq, and 99.36 kg 1,4-DB eq, respectively. This
is because when the excess heat generated by the pyrolysis gas and
sludge AF route is significantly lower than other routes, while the con­
pyrolysis oil combustion exceeds the heat consumed by sludge treat­
struction investment costs of other emerging routes are similar to those
ment, the excess heat can be used as steam output, thereby offsetting the
of traditional treatment routes. For material costs, AF has the highest
environmental impact substantially. For AF and ATH, when energy and
cost, accounting for 45% of the economic cost, which is related to its
resource consumption decrease by 15%, the environmental impact can
significant consumption of chemical agents. In contrast, PY has the
be reduced by around 15%–20%. Specifically, EP decreases by 0.19 kg
lowest material costs as chemical agents are almost unnecessary in the
PO3− 3−
4 eq and 0.13 kg PO4 eq, GWP decreases by 194.04 kg CO2 eq and
sludge drying and pyrolysis processes. Regarding energy costs, ATH and
181.98 kg CO2 eq, and HTP decreases by 75.55 kg 1,4-DB eq and 44.5 kg
HTC are significantly higher than other sludge treatment routes, ac­
1,4-DB eq, indicating that reducing energy and material consumption
counting for 34% and 31% of their total economic costs, respectively.
can significantly reduce the environmental impact of emerging sludge
This is a major contributing factor to their relatively high LCC. Recycling
treatment routes, thus leveraging the advantages of sludge resource

7
H. Yuan et al.
Fig. 7. Sensitivity of the LCA and LCC results. Impact of energy and material recovery on (a) EP, (b) GWP, (c) HTP, and (h) LCC. Impact of energy and material
consumption on (d) EP, (e) GWP, (f) HTP, and (g) LCC.
utilization. In addition, the traditional route AD shows a sensitivity to
energy and resource consumption second only to PY. To be specific, EP,
GWP, and HTP decrease by 0.22 kg PO3− 4 eq, 249.81 kg CO2 eq, and
80.47 kg 1,4-DB eq, respectively, due to the offsetting effect of regen­
erative electricity on environmental impact.
3.3.3. Impact of energy and resource recovery and consumption on LCC
Fig. 7g and h respectively show the impact of energy and resource
recovery and consumption fluctuations on LCC. As the energy and
resource recovery rates increase, the LCC of all routes, except HTC,
decreases to varying degrees. The most significant is PY, where a 15%
increase in energy and resource recovery allows sludge drying and py­
rolysis to gradually eliminate the need for additional heat input, even
generating excess heat for economic benefits. The LCC can be reduced by
up to 30%. AF and ATH also exhibit relatively significant changes, with
LCC decreasing by approximately 11% and 6%, respectively, while the
traditional routes AD and AC show similar changes. With the decrease in
energy and resource consumption, the LCC of each route decreases to
varying degrees. PY remains the route with the most pronounced
changes, as the reduction in energy consumption allows for surplus heat
output and brings about energy recovery benefits. When energy and
resource consumption decrease by 15%, the LCC can be reduced by
approximately 42%. For AF and ATH, LCC can be reduced by around
11% and 7%, respectively. The sensitivity of traditional routes AD and
AC is close to each other, while among the emerging routes, HTC shows
the lowest sensitivity, with an LCC reduction of around 4%.
8
Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
3.4. Optimization strategies for emerging sludge treatment routes
Based on the analysis of the LCA results, although the emerging
sludge treatment routes can provide favorable environmental benefits
through the utilization of sludge resources, they still require improve­
ment compared to traditional sludge treatment routes in effectively
controlling both environmental pollution and carbon emissions. There­
fore, it is necessary to propose corresponding optimization strategies to
achieve sustainable development in sludge treatment. Specifically, the
main drawback of the AF route is the significant consumption of NaOH
and Ca(OH)2 in its pretreatment process, resulting in 319.17 kg CO2 eq
of carbon emissions and 175.60 kg 1,4-D,B eq of pollutant emissions
(GWP and HTP). The ATH route also imposes a substantial environ­
mental burden due to the high energy consumption in its hydrolysis
process, leading to 459.42 kg CO2 eq of carbon emissions and 107.12
1,4-D,B eq of emissions (GWP and HTP). However, when the energy and
resource consumption is reduced by 15%, GWP is reduced by 194.04 kg
CO2 eq and 181.98 kg CO2 eq, and HTP is reduced by 75.55 kg 1,4-D,B
eq and 44.5 kg 1,4-D,B eq, respectively. Therefore, the development and
utilization of resource-based clean chemicals such as biomass ash and
steel slag, the selection of clean heat sources, and the optimization of
heat recovery systems are promising options to demonstrate the carbon
emission reduction benefits of AF and ATH resource recovery (Huang
et al., 2023; Yin et al., 2023).
Regarding PY, a 15% reduction in energy and material recovery
would result in an additional 195.96 kg CO2 eq of carbon emissions,
H. Yuan et al.
emphasizing the need to focus on stabilizing the yield of high calorific
value products in this route study. Although the environmental burden
of HTC is small and relatively stable, its high LCC (1185.71 CNY) may
limit its further application as an unfavorable factor, and reducing en­
ergy consumption (34% of energy cost) should have a positive effect on
cost reduction.
3.5. Limitations of the study
After presenting the findings of this study, it is crucial to outline its
limitations, which should be addressed in future research endeavors.
Firstly, due to cost and time constraints, the lifecycle inventory used in
this study experiences necessary truncation of system coverage, limiting
the comprehensive assessment of the supply chain for any given product.
As a result, the environmental impacts of the sludge treatment routes are
underestimated compared to actual outcomes. Secondly, in this study,
the outcomes of LCA and LCC are discussed separately, making it diffi­
cult to compare the overall performance of different sludge treatment
routes. Therefore, it is essential to employ a hybrid life cycle inventory
analysis to mitigate errors arising from system truncation. Additionally,
integrating the results of LCA and LCC using multi-criteria decision
analysis methods such as Analytic Hierarchy Process and Entropy
Weight Method is crucial for a comprehensive assessment of their
combined performance (Huang et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2018).
4. Conclusions
In this study, emerging routes AF, PY, HTC, and ATH were compared
with traditional routes AD and AC using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) analyses. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis
was conducted on the LCA results. According to the findings of this
study, AD remains the preferred choice in terms of simultaneous control
of environmental pollution and carbon emissions due to its lower or
even negative toxicity and carbon emissions. The emerging routes AF
and ATH demonstrate significant environmental benefits through
resource recovery. However, their high energy and material consump­
tion contribute to higher environmental pollution and carbon emissions.
AD is also the optimal choice in terms of LCC. However, AF stands out
with the highest income from carbon source recovery, and ATH exhibits
notable economic benefits from protein recovery. The sensitivity anal­
ysis indicates that reducing energy and material consumption in
emerging routes or transitioning to cleaner energy and chemicals can
greatly improve their environmental performance. In a word, while the
traditional AD route remains superior in terms of environmental and
economic aspects, the emerging routes show promise in environmental
benefits through resource recovery. By reducing energy and material
consumption or adopting cleaner energy and chemicals, the environ­
mental performance of the emerging routes can be significantly
improved.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Huibin Yuan: Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation,
Resources, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation.
Shixin Zhai: Investigation. Hao Fu: Methodology. Zhuo Li: Investiga­
tion. Dongfeng Gao: Supervision, Methodology. Hongtao Zhu: Writing
– review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition,
Conceptualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
9
Journal of Cleaner Production 449 (2024) 141792
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
This study was financially supported by the National key research
and development program of China (Grant No. 2022YFE0208800) and
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
52270117).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141792.
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