Golroudbary Saeed Rahimpour, El Wali Mohammad, Kraslawski Andrzej
School of Engineering Science, Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), LUT University, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland.
School of Engineering Science, Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM), LUT University, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland.
Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jul 1;672:515-524. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.439. Epub 2019 Apr 1.
Phosphorus (P) is an important critical material essential for crops cultivation and animal husbandry. Effective phosphorous recycling is considered one of the most significant factors in alleviating its criticality. However, despite the importance of phosphorous recycling, its sustainability is not studied extensively. This paper aims to answer the question if recycling of phosphorus is an environmentally sustainable option. To address this problem, two issues are analyzed in this paper: energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in phosphorous recycling. The analysis was performed by simulating mass and energy flows in the global phosphorus supply chain (from mining to recycling) in order to understand and analyze its environmental impact in 2000-2050. The results of simulation show that around 82% of recycled phosphorous originates from manure. Moreover, the calculations indicate that about 70% of total GHG emissions from phosphorous recycling is caused by wastewater processing. In addition, the results show that phosphorous obtained from recycled wastewater constitutes only 2% of the whole amount recovered in the recycling process. Therefore, the obtained results show a clear need for a detailed analysis of the sustainability of phosphorous recycling processes. Moreover, the analysis of scenarios of phosphorus consumption indicates that GHG emissions increase slowly in the mining phase and grow exponentially in the recycling stage. The main finding of this paper contradicts the general opinion about environmental friendliness of recycling. It shows that phosphorus recycling is not a sustainable solution in a longer perspective.
磷（P）是作物种植和畜牧业所需的一种重要关键物质。有效的磷回收被认为是缓解其关键性的最重要因素之一。然而，尽管磷回收很重要，但其可持续性并未得到广泛研究。本文旨在回答磷回收是否是一种环境可持续选择的问题。为解决这一问题，本文分析了两个问题：磷回收中的能源消耗和温室气体（GHG）排放。通过模拟全球磷供应链（从采矿到回收）中的质量和能量流进行分析，以便了解和分析其在2000 - 2050年的环境影响。模拟结果表明，约82%的回收磷来自粪便。此外，计算表明，磷回收产生的温室气体排放总量中约70%是由废水处理造成的。此外，结果表明，从回收废水中获得的磷仅占回收过程中回收总量的2%。因此，所得结果表明显然需要对磷回收过程的可持续性进行详细分析。此外，对磷消费情景的分析表明，温室气体排放在采矿阶段增长缓慢，而在回收阶段呈指数增长。本文的主要发现与关于回收环境友好性的普遍观点相矛盾。它表明从长远来看，磷回收不是一个可持续解决方案。
