[eBook Code] Integrated Sustainable Urban Water, Energy, and Solids Management (eBook Code, 1st)

Preface xi

Integrated Sustainable Urban Water, Energy, and Solids Management 1

1 Sustainability Goals for Urban Water and Solid Waste Systems 3

1.1 Introduction to Urban Sustainability 3

1.2 Historic and Current Urban Paradigms 8

Paradigms of Urbanization 9

1.3 Global Climate Changes 14

1.4 Need for a Paradigm Shift to Sustainability 16

1.5 Population Increase, Urbanization, and the Rise of Megalopolises 19

Waste Accumulation 23

Brief Outlook Toward the Future 23

1.6 What is a Sustainable Ecocity? 24

Impact of Global Warming and Continuing Overuse of Resources 28

The UN 2015 Resolution of Sustainability 28

2 The New Paradigm of Urban Water, Energy, and Resources Management 31

2.1 The Search for a New Paradigm 31

2.2 From Linear to Hybrid Urban Metabolism 33

Circular Economy 37

2.3 Urban Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change 40

Engineering and Infrastructure Hazards and Disaster Resilience 42

Socioecological or Governance Resilience 48

3 Goals and Criteria of Urban Sustainability 51

3.1 Review of Existing Sustainability Criteria 51

LEED Criteria for Buildings and Subdivisions 53

Triple Net-Zero (TNZ) Goals 54

Water Footprint 56

GHG (Carbon Dioxide) Net-Zero Footprint Goal 58

Water/Energy Nexus 60

Ecological Footprint 60

3.2 Zero Solid Waste to Landfill Goal and Footprint 61

Landfill Gas (LFG) 64

Exporting Garbage 68

Swedish Recycling Revolution 68

3.3 Importance of Recycling versus Combusting or Landfilling 69

4 Origin of Hydrogen Energy, GHG Emissions, and Climatic Changes 73

4.1 Introduction to Energy 73

Energy Definitions and Units 73

Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) 76

4.2 Hydrogen Energy 79

Blue and Green Sources of Hydrogen on Earth 79

Hydrogen as a Source of Energy 84

Vision of Hydrogen Role in the (Near) Future 89

4.3 Carbon Dioxide Sequestering and Reuse 91

Stopping the Atmospheric CO₂ Increase and Reversing the Trend 91

Sequestering CO₂ 93

Non-CCUS Reuse of Carbon Dioxide 96

Recycling 97

4.4 Solar and Wind Blue Power 98

Solar Power 98

Wind Power 103

Green and Blue Energy Storage 106

4.5 Food/Water/Energy/Climate Nexus 108

4.6 World and US Energy Outlook 110

5 Decentralized Hierarchical Urban Water, Used Water, Solids, and Energy Management Systems 117

5.1 Economy of Scale Dogma Forced Centralized Management 45 Years Ago 117

5.2 Distributed Building and Cluster Level Designs and Management 119

Cluster or Neighborhood Level Water and Energy Recovery 121

5.3 Flow Separation: Gray Water Reclamation and Reuse 126

Tap a Sewer, Keep the Liquid, and Sell the Solids 132

Integrated District Water and Energy Providing Loop 136

Energy Savings and GHG Reduction by Gray Water Reuse in Clusters 137

6 Biophilic Sustainable Landscape and Low Impact Development 141

6.1 Urban Nature and Biophilic Designs 141

Biophilic Designs 142

6.2 Low-Impact Development 144

Classification of LID (SUDS) Practices 149

6.3 Restoring, Daylighting, and Creating Urban Water Bodies 165

Stream Restoration 165

Waterscapes 169

Vertical Forests and Systems 170

6.4 Biophilic Urban Biomass Management and Carbon Sequestering 171

Lawns and Grass Clippings 172

Other Vegetation 172

7 Building Blocks of the Regional Integrated Resources Recovery Facility (IRRF) 175

7.1 Traditional Aerobic Treatment 175

GHG Emissions from Traditional Regional Water/Resources Recovery Facilities 178

7.2 Energy-Producing Treatment 179

Anaerobic Digestion and Decomposition 179

Comparison of Aerobic and Anaerobic Treatment and Energy Recovery (Use) Processes 182

Acid Fermentation and Its Hydrogen Production 184

Anaerobic Treatment 188

7.3 Triple Net-Zero: COF Future Direction and Integrated Resource Recovery Facilities 189

Goals of the Future IRRFs and Enabling Technologies 190

Energy Recovery in a Centralized Concept with Anaerobic Treatment and Digestion as the Core Technology 192

Anaerobic Energy Production and Recovery Units and Processes 194

High Rate Anaerobic Treatment Systems 195

7.4 Co-Digestion of Sludge with Other Organic Matter 203

7.5 Conversion of Chemical and Sensible Energy in Used Water into Electricity and Heat 207

8 Integrating Gasification and Developing an Integrated “Waste To Energy” Power Plant 211

8.1 Traditional Waste-to-Energy Systems 211

Incineration 212

Heat Energy to Dry the Solids 215

8.2 Pyrolysis and Gasification 216

Gasification of Digested Residual Used Water Solids with MSW 218

Gasification of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) 221

8.3 Converting Biogas to Electricity 232

Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) to Syngas and Then to Hydrogen 234

8.4 Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) and Microbial Electrolysis Cells (MECs) 235

Increasing Hydrogen Energy Production 236

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) 236

Modifications of MFCs to MECs for Hydrogen Production 238

Hybrid Fermentation and the MEC System 241

8.5 Hydrogen Yield Potential by Indirect Gasification 242

Sources of Energy Hydrogen 244

Maximizing Hydrogen Energy Yield by Selecting the Proper Technologies 251

8.6 Hydrogen Fuel Cells 249

Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFCs) 250

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) 253

Producing Hydrogen and Oxygen by Electrolysis 254

Gas Separation 256

8.7 The IRRF Power Plant 257

Hydrogen-CO₂ Separator 260

Carbon Dioxide Sequestering in an IRRF 262

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Concentration by the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell 264

9 Nutrient Recovery 265

9.1 The Need to Recover, Not Just Remove Nutrients 265

9.2 Biological Nutrient Removal and Recovery 267

Traditional Nutrient Removal Processes 267

Anammox 268

Phosphorus Biological Removal and Limited Recovery 270

MEC Can Recover Struvite 272

9.3 Unit Processes Recovering Nutrients 273

Urine Separation 273

Nutrient Separation 274

Phytoseparation of Nutrients 275

Chemical Removal and Recovery of Nutrients 283

Phosphorus Flow in the Distributed Urban System 285

Nutrients in Gasifier Ash 286

10 Building the Sustainable Integrated System 291

10.1 Assembling the System 291

Concepts, Building Blocks, and Inputs 291

10.2 Upgrading Traditional Systems to Cities of the Future 295

Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Plan 295

Danish Billund BioRefinery 296

Integrating MSW 299

10.3 Visionary Mid-Twenty-First Century Regional Resource Recovery Alternative 304

The Power Plant 309

10.4 Water–Energy Nexus and Resource Recovery of Three Alternative Designs 311

Three Alternatives 311

Inputs to the Analyses 315

CO₂/Kw-h Ratio for the Alternatives 319

Discussion and Results 321

11 Closing the Quest Toward Triple Net-Zero Urban Systems 337

11.1 Community Self-Reliance on TMZ System for Power and Recovering Resources 337

11.2 Economic Benefits and Approximate Costs of the 2040+ Integrated Water/Energy/MSW Management 341

Cost of Green and Blue Energies is Decreasing 342

11.3 Can It Be Done in Time to Save the Earth from Irreversible Damage? 349

Political-Economical Tools 349

The Process to Achieve the Goals 351

References 357

Index 385