Publication // Water-energy-food security nexus based selection of energy recovery from wastewater treatment technologies

Highlights

• We focused on the energy recovery from wastewater treatment technologies.
• The criteria are the water-energy-food (WEF) security nexus principles.
• The WEF nexus concept refers to the sustainability criteria.
• The integration of decision making methods is employed.
• The up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) option is selected.

Abstract

According to the increasing demand of human society to the electrical energy, the choice of a comprehensive decision making for energy recovery from wastewater treatment technologies selection is very important. Water-energy-food (WEF) security nexus which is one of the most notable concepts in recent years that have emerged in research across many disciplines, can be used as a decision making tool to evaluate actions in different energy sectors. Behbahan city in the southwest of Iran has been chosen for the experiment. An extended methodology based on two multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods called entropy and linear assignment under intuitionistic fuzzy environment has been chosen to support the synthetic decision to prioritize energy recovery from wastewater treatment technologies. Thirteen criteria including water security principles (Access, Safety, and Affordability), energy security principles (Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Acceptability, Applicability, and Adaptability) and food security principles (Availability, Access, Utilization, and Stability) have been considered. In terms of the warm and dry weather in Behbahan city, choosing the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) option as the most appropriate option seems rational. The anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR), micro-algae cultivation (MAC), and microbial fuel cells (MFC) options were selected as the second, third, and fourth options, respectively.

Published

February 2021

By

Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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