# Life Cycle Assessment of Low-Cost Membrane Bioreactor and Activated Sludge Systems for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment in Arid Regions

## TL;DR

This study compares the environmental sustainability of decentralized wastewater treatment systems in a small Saudi community, finding that a low-cost membrane bioreactor outperforms centralized systems in most impact categories.

## Contribution

The study provides a novel life cycle assessment comparing low-cost decentralized wastewater treatment with centralized systems in arid regions.

## Key findings

- The LC-MBR system outperformed the centralized option in 13 out of 15 midpoint environmental impact categories.
- The LC-MBR reduced human health impacts by 8% and resource depletion by 60% compared to the centralized system.
- Tertiary treatment in LC-MBR significantly reduced freshwater eutrophication.

## Abstract

Small communities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) without a sewerage system commonly rely on septic tanks and long-distance transport of wastewater to the nearest centralized treatment facilities, resulting in high operational costs, social nuisance, and limited opportunities for treated effluent reuse. For a small community of 1300 persons in Al Qaraa (Qassim, KSA), this study performs life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a low-cost membrane bioreactor (LC-MBR)-type for decentralized on-site treatment as an alternative to wastewater transportation to a conventional extended aeration activated sludge process (EA-ASP)-type centralized system operating in the nearest larger city of Al-Bukayriyah. SimaPro® 8.3.0.0 with the ecoinvent 3.0 database and ReCiPe 16 midpoint methodology shows that the decentralized LC-MBR scenario outperformed the centralized option with a 49 km-long wastewater transportation route in 13 out of 15 selected midpoint categories when considering relative and normalized impacts. In the EA-ASP, primary treatment dominated environmental impacts across most categories, driven by high energy demand for wastewater pumping, whereas freshwater and marine eutrophication were primarily influenced by treatment efficiency. With smaller normalized values, secondary treatment had a greater relative impact on urban and agricultural land occupation categories, attributed to the use of clay and rice bran in low-cost membrane fabrication in an LC-MBR. Tertiary treatment in the LC-MBR scenario, incorporating coagulation and granular activated carbon, significantly reduced freshwater eutrophication. Although normalized endpoint impacts indicated comparable ecosystem impacts for both systems, the LC-MBR resulted in 8% lower impacts on human health and 60% lower on resource depletion. Overall, the findings support decentralized wastewater treatment as a sustainable solution for small communities in arid regions and provide valuable insights for policy and decision-making.