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Abstract

Urine recycling is an emerging promising approach for enhancing resource recovery and mitigating environmental impacts in sanitation systems. This study presents a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of a urine dehydration system implemented at three levels of decentralization: (i) toilet-level units within bathrooms; (ii) basement-level units serving multiple households; and (iii) centralized neighborhood-scale facilities using dedicated sewers for off-site processing. Each configuration is assessed using both consequential and attributional system models across five impact categories: global warming potential, acidification, freshwater and marine eutrophication, and cumulative energy demand. The basement-level system consistently shows the lowest impacts, with up to 50% lower global warming potential than the other configurations. Centralized treatment is the most energy-efficient per liter of urine treated, but the sewer infrastructure burden offsets this advantage. Sensitivity analysis shows that substituting sulfuric acid for citric acid and achieving >52% heat recovery can yield net-negative emissions at the basement level. The choice of the LCA system model strongly affects results: attributional with substitution yields net-negative impacts, whereas consequential provides more conservative but robust estimates. The findings underscore the need for methodological transparency in LCA and provide guidance for scaling sustainable decentralized urine recycling.

Keywords

life cycle assessment; eco technology; urinerecycling; resource recovery; source separation

Published in

Environmental Science and Technology
2025, volume: 59, number: 39, pages: 21160–21173
Publisher: AMER CHEMICAL SOC

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences
Water Treatment

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c09248

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143964