Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Brescia, via Branze 38, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; MISTRAL c/o DSMC - Università degli Studi di Brescia, Viale Europa, 11, I-25123 Brescia, Italy.
ICA, Società di Ingegneria Chimica p.er l'Ambiente srl, Via Stezzano, 87 c/o Parco Scientifico Tecnologico Kilometro Rosso, I-24126 Bergamo, Italy.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2018 Jan;147:742-748. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.09.031. Epub 2017 Oct 10.
The suitability evaluation of any industrial process should rely on economic, technical, social and, in particular, environmental aspects. The Commission Recommendation 2013/179/UE enables the improvement and the harmonization of the conventional evaluation of environmental footprints, such as LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), Carbon and Water Footprint, by suggesting the assessment of life cycle environmental performance of products and organisations (PEF, OEF). Novelty aspects reside in including new impact categories (namely, human toxicity cancer effects, human toxicity not-cancer effects and eco-toxicity). This paper presents an application of PEF/OEF protocol to the example case of an activated sludge wastewater treatment plant. Strengths and criticisms of this approach are discussed, by taking into consideration the possible final goal of the suitability assessment. Valuably, the adoption of bioassays (i.e., the input of their results in the models for calculating the life cycle environmental performance) for a more reliable evaluation of the impact on the ecosystem and human health is proposed.
任何工业过程的适用性评估都应依赖于经济、技术、社会，特别是环境方面。委员会建议 2013/179/UE 通过建议评估产品和组织的生命周期环境绩效（PEF、OEF），改进和协调传统的环境足迹评估，如生命周期评估（LCA）、碳足迹和水足迹。新颖之处在于纳入了新的影响类别（即人类毒性癌症效应、人类毒性非癌症效应和生态毒性）。本文将 PEF/OEF 协议应用于活性污泥废水处理厂的实例。通过考虑适用性评估的可能最终目标，讨论了这种方法的优缺点。有价值的是，提出了采用生物测定法（即将其结果输入到计算生命周期环境性能的模型中）来更可靠地评估对生态系统和人类健康的影响。
