Estimation of the Potential Global Nitrogen Flow in a Nitrogen Recycling System with Industrial Countermeasures

This study proposes a nitrogen recycling system that collects and recycles nitrogen compounds from waste gases in the industrial sector, such as those from stationary sources, from industrially processed wastewater containing livestock effluent, and from household wastewater. Multiple scenarios are set, and the potential global flows of anthropogenic nitrogen in 2050 are estimated and compared to assess the effects on the largest planetary boundary problem. In contrast to the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, in which environmental conditions are worsened through a 47% increase in nitrogen emissions by 2050 above the 2010 levels, the agricultural countermeasures scenario produced a reduction in emissions which was less than the 2010 levels. The industrial countermeasures scenario proposed in this study achieved comfortable reductions in nitrogen production by constructing a nitrogen recycling system that installs the nitrogen compounds to ammonia (NTA) technologies. Combining the agricultural and industrial countermeasures achieves a 66% reduction in nitrogen emissions compared with the BAU scenario in 2050. The combination of both countermeasures with a high installation rate of NTA technologies can achieve the reduction of nitrogen emissions beneath the planetary boundary.

[1]  P. Borowski,et al.  Efficiency of Utilization of Wastes for Green Energy Production and Reduction of Pollution in Rural Areas , 2022, Energies.

[2]  A. Ito,et al.  Nitrogen budgets in Japan from 2000 to 2015: Decreasing trend of nitrogen loss to the environment and the challenge to further reduce nitrogen waste. , 2021, Environmental pollution.

[3]  E. Ehimen,et al.  Biogas production from small-scale anaerobic digestion plants on European farms , 2021 .

[4]  L. Torrente‐Murciano,et al.  Current and future role of Haber–Bosch ammonia in a carbon-free energy landscape , 2020, Energy & Environmental Science.

[5]  Mónika Harangi-Rákos,et al.  The Challenge of Feeding the World , 2019, Sustainability.

[6]  H. Moll,et al.  Impacts of biogas production on nitrogen flows on Dutch dairy system: Multiple level assessment of nitrogen indicators within the biogas production chain , 2019, Journal of Industrial Ecology.

[7]  H. Matsumoto,et al.  Effect of the TiO2 crystal structure on the activity of TiO2-supported platinum catalysts for ammonia synthesis via the NO–CO–H2O reaction , 2019, Catalysis Science & Technology.

[8]  Jim W Hall,et al.  Managing nitrogen to restore water quality in China , 2019, Nature.

[9]  T. Hori,et al.  Identification of active and taxonomically diverse 1,4-dioxane degraders in a full-scale activated sludge system by high-sensitivity stable isotope probing , 2018, The ISME Journal.

[10]  H. Aizawa,et al.  Architecture, component, and microbiome of biofilm involved in the fouling of membrane bioreactors , 2017, npj Biofilms and Microbiomes.

[11]  Hisashi Tanaka,et al.  Prospective Application of Copper Hexacyanoferrate for Capturing Dissolved Ammonia , 2016 .

[12]  Hiroshi Habe,et al.  High-resolution phylogenetic analysis of residual bacterial species of fouled membranes after NaOCl cleaning. , 2016, Water research.

[13]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet , 2015, Science.

[14]  Christoph Schmitz,et al.  Reactive nitrogen requirements to feed the world in 2050 and potential to mitigate nitrogen pollution , 2014, Nature Communications.

[15]  C. Peng,et al.  The role of industrial nitrogen in the global nitrogen biogeochemical cycle , 2013, Scientific Reports.

[16]  S. Seitzinger,et al.  Assessing planetary and regional nitrogen boundaries related to food security and adverse environmental impacts , 2013 .

[17]  Allison M. Leach,et al.  The global nitrogen cycle in the twenty-first century , 2013, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[18]  F. Chapin,et al.  Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity , 2009 .

[19]  W. Winiwarter,et al.  How a century of ammonia synthesis changed the world , 2008 .

[20]  A. Obuchi,et al.  Highly Selective NH3 Formation in a NO-CO-H2O Reaction over Pt/TiO2 , 2008 .

[21]  T. Neset,et al.  Food Consumption and Nutrient Flows: Nitrogen in Sweden Since the 1870s , 2006 .

[22]  K. Okamoto,et al.  Prediction of the environmental effects of excess nitrogen caused by increasing food demand with rapid economic growth in eastern Asian countries, 1961–2020 , 2006 .

[23]  G. Asner,et al.  Nitrogen Cycles: Past, Present, and Future , 2004 .

[24]  E. Cowling,et al.  Reactive Nitrogen and The World: 200 Years of Change , 2002, Ambio.

[25]  T. Nanba,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment of Nitrogen Circular Economy-Based NOx Treatment Technology , 2021, Sustainability.

[26]  Allison M. Leach,et al.  A nitrogen footprint model to help consumers understand their role in nitrogen losses to the environment , 2012 .