Insight into nitrous oxide emissions from biological wastewater treatment and biosolids disposal

Abstract

All degradable organic materials are decomposed by microorganisms, and considerable amounts of nitrogen end up as gaseous metabolites. No matter what procedure is chosen for getting rid of organic wastes (wastewater treatment, landfiling, and composting), microbial communities will always be involved in the decomposition process, and hence, emissions of greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide (N2O), are inevitable with these processes. N2O is an influential greenhouse gas, vital on climate change, and also is a depleting substance of stratospheric ozone. Any instantaneous or eventual N2O emissions during wastewater treatment, biosolids landfilling, and composting must be measured as anthropogenic intrusion of global N2O cycle, and thus plays a decisive role in ozone depletion. This paper reviews the current available literatures concerning N2O emissions from wastewater treatment facilities, biosolids landfilling, and composting. The outcome of this survey portrays that each process can release a huge amount of N2O to the atmosphere. � 2010 ASCE.