Journal Article

An eco-environmental efficiency analysis of Malaysia sewage treatment plants: an incorporated window-based data envelopment analysis and ordinary least square regression

Fallahiarezoudar, Ehsan, Ahmadipourroudposht, Mohaddeseh, Yakideh, Keikhosro, Ngadiman, NorHasrul Akhmal

2022

Overview

Most human activities that use water produced sewage. As urbanization grows, the overall demand for water grows. Correspondingly, the amount of produced sewage and pollution-induced water shortage is continuously increasing worldwide. Ensuring there are sufficient and safe water supplies for everyone is becoming increasingly challenging. Sewage treatment is an essential prerequisite for water reclamation and reuse. Sewage treatment plants’ (STPs) performance in terms of economic and environmental perspective is known as a critical indicator for this purpose. Here, the window-based data envelopment analysis model was applied to dynamically assess the relative annual efficiency of STPs under different window widths. A total of five STPs across Malaysia were analyzed during 2015–2019. The labor cost, utility cost, operation cost, chemical consumption cost, and removal rate of pollution, as well as greenhouse gases’ (GHGs) emissions, all were integrated to interpret the eco-environmental efficiency. Moreover, the ordinary least square as a supplementary method was used to regress the efficiency drivers. The results indicated the particular window width significantly affects the average of overall efficiencies; however, it shows no influence on the ranking of STP efficiency. The labor cost was determined as the most influential parameter, involving almost 40% of the total cost incurred. Hence, higher efficiency was observed with the larger-scale plants. Meanwhile, the statistical regression analysis illustrates the significance of plant scale, inflow cBOD concentrations, and inflow total phosphorus concentrations at α = 5 % on the performance. Lastly, some applicable techniques were suggested in terms of GHG emission mitigation. Graphical abstract

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Aquatic Pollution / Cost analysis / Data analysis / Data envelopment analysis / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecotoxicology / Efficiency / Emissions / Environment / Environmental assessment / Environmental Chemistry / Environmental Health / Environmental science / Greenhouse gas emissions / Greenhouse gases / Greenhouse Gases - analysis / greenhouses / Humans / Inflow / Labor / Labor costs / Least squares / Least-Squares Analysis / Malaysia / operating costs / Phosphorus / pollution / Reclamation / Regression analysis / Research Article / sewage / Sewage - analysis / Sewage disposal / sewage treatment / Sewage treatment plants / Statistical analysis / total phosphorus / Urbanization / Waste Water Technology / Wastewater treatment plants / Water demand / Water Management / Water pollution / Water Pollution - analysis / Water Pollution Control / Water reclamation / Water reuse / Water shortages / Water supply