Research on carbon emissions from wastewater treatment

With the “Kyoto Protocol” the entry into force, wastewater treatment as one of the greenhouse gas emissions under the project has aroused increasing concern. In this paper, mass balance method and emission factor method were used to estimate the CO₂ emissions of sewage treatment. The CO₂ emissions remained relatively stable from 2001 to 2006, and reached its peak in 2006 with 19.638 million tons. From 2007, emissions amount tend to decrease. In 2008, The CO₂ emissions from wastewater treatment plant reached to 18.16 million tons, which equal to 0.67% of the total CO₂ emissions in the year. The study of the CO₂ emissions from sewage treatment is imminent.