IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v25y2023i7d10.1007_s10668-022-02317-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants

Author

Listed:
  • Diego Teixeira Michalovicz

    (International Material Flow Management, Institute for Applied Material Flow Management)

  • Patricia Bilotta

    (Augusto Motta University Centre (UNISUAM)
    Centre of Studies in Eco-Socioeconomics (Necos) of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR))

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of methane emissions taxation on the recovery of the investments required for implementing technologies that use biogas energy in small wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Brazil. It is based on the hypothesis that the adoption of a national methane emission tax policy would encourage small WWTPs to become sustainable power plants. The procedure involved 173 anaerobic plants to analyze: (a) methane production; (b) available useful energy; (c) investments and avoided costs for implementing STHIL system (thermal drying sludge) and motor generator (electricity generation); (d) financial impact for two scenarios (C1: no emissions tax; C2: with tax). Positive environmental and financial results were observed for WWTPs, varying according to the period of time analyzed for both technologies. Investments must be made in cogeneration in anaerobic WWTPs for achieving satisfactory results. Taxation must not be viewed simply as a punitive instrument; on the contrary, it should be seen as a tool to encourage continuous process improvement. The circular economy may support the enlargement of the wastewater collection and treatment system, guaranteeing widespread sanitation conditions in urban areas. However, the actual implementation of a methane emission tax in Brazil still requires many rounds of discussion among sanitation companies, government, and civil society, to establish emission limits, and unit taxes, as well as to consolidate a carbon trade to follow through with this decision in the sanitation sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego Teixeira Michalovicz & Patricia Bilotta, 2023. "Impact of a methane emission tax on circular economy scenarios in small wastewater treatment plants," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6575-6589, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:25:y:2023:i:7:d:10.1007_s10668-022-02317-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-022-02317-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-022-02317-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-022-02317-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lauer, Markus & Hansen, Jason K. & Lamers, Patrick & Thrän, Daniela, 2018. "Making money from waste: The economic viability of producing biogas and biomethane in the Idaho dairy industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 621-636.
    2. Lawrence H. Goulder & Andrew R. Schein, 2013. "Carbon Taxes Versus Cap And Trade: A Critical Review," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(03), pages 1-28.
    3. Vittoria Loviscek, 2021. "Triple Bottom Line toward a Holistic Framework for Sustainability: A Systematic Review," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 25(3), pages 200017-2000.
    4. Hájek, Miroslav & Zimmermannová, Jarmila & Helman, Karel & Rozenský, Ladislav, 2019. "Analysis of carbon tax efficiency in energy industries of selected EU countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Michael Schäfer & Oliver Gretzschel & Heidrun Steinmetz, 2020. "The Possible Roles of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Sector Coupling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Pin, Bruno Vasconcelos da Rosa & Barros, Regina Mambeli & Silva Lora, Electo Eduardo & Almazan del Olmo, Oscar & Silva dos Santos, Ivan Felipe & Ribeiro, Eruin Martuscelli & Victor de Freitas Rocha, J, 2020. "Energetic use of biogas from the anaerobic digestion of coffee wastewater in southern Minas Gerais, Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 2084-2094.
    7. Thompson, Ethan & Wang, Qingbin & Li, Minghao, 2013. "Anaerobic digester systems (ADS) for multiple dairy farms: A GIS analysis for optimal site selection," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 114-124.
    8. Zhu, Tong & Curtis, John & Clancy, Matthew, 2019. "Promoting agricultural biogas and biomethane production: Lessons from cross-country studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Zhang, Jun & Osmani, Atif & Awudu, Iddrisu & Gonela, Vinay, 2013. "An integrated optimization model for switchgrass-based bioethanol supply chain," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1205-1217.
    10. Mittal, Shivika & Ahlgren, Erik O. & Shukla, P.R., 2019. "Future biogas resource potential in India: A bottom-up analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 379-389.
    11. Kari-Anne Lyng & Lise Skovsgaard & Henrik Klinge Jacobsen & Ole Jørgen Hanssen, 2020. "The implications of economic instruments on biogas value chains: a case study comparison between Norway and Denmark," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(8), pages 7125-7152, December.
    12. D’Adamo, Idiano & Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Huisingh, Donald & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2021. "A circular economy model based on biomethane: What are the opportunities for the municipality of Rome and beyond?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1660-1672.
    13. Zakeri, Atefe & Dehghanian, Farzad & Fahimnia, Behnam & Sarkis, Joseph, 2015. "Carbon pricing versus emissions trading: A supply chain planning perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 197-205.
    14. Jumoke Oladejo & Kaiqi Shi & Xiang Luo & Gang Yang & Tao Wu, 2018. "A Review of Sludge-to-Energy Recovery Methods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-38, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cristian Mardones, 2021. "Analysis on complementarity between a CO2 tax and an emissions trading system to reduce industrial emissions in Chile," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(5), pages 820-833, August.
    2. Padi, Richard Kingsley & Douglas, Sean & Murphy, Fionnuala, 2023. "Techno-economic potentials of integrating decentralised biomethane production systems into existing natural gas grids," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    3. Sher, Farooq & Smječanin, Narcisa & Hrnjić, Harun & Bakunić, Emir & Sulejmanović, Jasmina, 2024. "Prospects of renewable energy potentials and development in Bosnia and Herzegovina – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    4. Malladi, Krishna Teja & Sowlati, Taraneh, 2020. "Impact of carbon pricing policies on the cost and emission of the biomass supply chain: Optimization models and a case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    5. Mardones, Cristian & Cabello, Martin, 2019. "Effectiveness of local air pollution and GHG taxes: The case of Chilean industrial sources," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 491-500.
    6. Dariusz Kusz & Bożena Kusz & Ludwik Wicki & Tomasz Nowakowski & Ryszard Kata & Władysław Brejta & Anna Kasprzyk & Marek Barć, 2024. "The Economic Efficiencies of Investment in Biogas Plants—A Case Study of a Biogas Plant Using Waste from a Dairy Farm in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-23, July.
    7. Ozgur Kabadurmus & Mehmet S. Erdogan, 2020. "Sustainable, multimodal and reliable supply chain design," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 292(1), pages 47-70, September.
    8. Idiano D’Adamo & Claudio Sassanelli, 2022. "Biomethane Community: A Research Agenda towards Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-22, April.
    9. D’Adamo, Idiano & Falcone, Pasquale Marcello & Huisingh, Donald & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2021. "A circular economy model based on biomethane: What are the opportunities for the municipality of Rome and beyond?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1660-1672.
    10. Limin Su & Yongchao Cao & Wenjuan Zhang, 2023. "Low-Carbon Supply Chain Operation Decisions and Coordination Strategies Considering the Consumers’ Preferences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.
    11. Frans P. Vries & Nick Hanley, 2016. "Incentive-Based Policy Design for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(4), pages 687-702, April.
    12. Hongpeng Guo & Zhihao Lv & Junyi Hua & Hongxu Yuan & Qingyu Yu, 2021. "Design of Combined Auction Model for Emission Rights of International Forestry Carbon Sequestration and Other Pollutants Based on SMRA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    13. Pal, Ankit & Ilango, G. Saravana, 2024. "Design and techno-economic analysis of an off-grid integrated PV-biogas system with a constant temperature digester for a cost-effective rural application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    14. Rohan Best & Paul J. Burke, 2020. "Energy mix persistence and the effect of carbon pricing," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), pages 555-574, July.
    15. Carrilho-Nunes, Inês & Catalão-Lopes, Margarida, 2022. "The effects of environmental policy and technology transfer on GHG emissions: The case of Portugal," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 255-264.
    16. Ritter, Hendrik & Zimmermann, Karl, 2019. "Cap-and-Trade Policy vs. Carbon Taxation: Of Leakage and Linkage," EconStor Preprints 197796, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    17. Marius Dalian Doran & Maria Magdalena Poenaru & Alexandra Lucia Zaharia & Sorana Vătavu & Oana Ramona Lobonț, 2022. "Fiscal Policy, Growth, Financial Development and Renewable Energy in Romania: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model with Evidence for Growth Hypothesis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, December.
    18. Qian Dai & Jiaqi Yang & Dong Li, 2018. "Modeling a Three-Mode Hybrid Port-Hinterland Freight Intermodal Distribution Network with Environmental Consideration: The Case of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-26, August.
    19. Ba, Birome Holo & Prins, Christian & Prodhon, Caroline, 2016. "Models for optimization and performance evaluation of biomass supply chains: An Operations Research perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P2), pages 977-989.
    20. Wesseh, Presley K. & Lin, Boqiang, 2018. "Optimal carbon taxes for China and implications for power generation, welfare, and the environment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 1-8.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:25:y:2023:i:7:d:10.1007_s10668-022-02317-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.