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A greenhouse gas source of surprising significance: anthropogenic CO2 emissions from use of methanol in sewage treatment

Overview of attention for article published in Water Science & Technology, February 2017
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Title
A greenhouse gas source of surprising significance: anthropogenic CO2 emissions from use of methanol in sewage treatment
Published in
Water Science & Technology, February 2017
DOI 10.2166/wst.2017.033
Pubmed ID
Authors

John L. Willis, Ahmed Al-Omari, Robert Bastian, Bill Brower, Christine DeBarbadillo, Sudhir Murthy, Christopher Peot, Zhiguo Yuan

Abstract

The impact of methanol (CH3OH) as a source of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) in denitrification at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has never been quantified. CH3OH is the most commonly purchased carbon source for sewage denitrification. Until recently, greenhouse gas (GHG) reporting protocols consistently ignored the liberation of anthropogenic CO2 attributable to CH3OH. This oversight can likely be attributed to a simplifying notion that CO2 produced through activated-sludge-process respiration is biogenic because most raw-sewage carbon is un-sequestered prior to entering a WWTP. Instead, a biogenic categorization cannot apply to fossil-fuel-derived carbon sources like CH3OH. This paper provides a summary of how CH3OH use at DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWTP; Washington, DC, USA) amounts to 60 to 85% of the AWTP's Scope-1 emissions. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and Water Environment Federation databases suggest that CH3OH CO2 likely represents one quarter of all Scope-1 GHG emissions attributable to sewage treatment in the USA. Finally, many alternatives to CH3OH use exist and are discussed.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 24 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 24 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 3 13%
Student > Bachelor 3 13%
Researcher 3 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 2 8%
Lecturer 1 4%
Other 4 17%
Unknown 8 33%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Engineering 6 25%
Environmental Science 5 21%
Chemical Engineering 1 4%
Unspecified 1 4%
Social Sciences 1 4%
Other 1 4%
Unknown 9 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 February 2017.
All research outputs
#14,918,889
of 22,952,268 outputs
Outputs from Water Science & Technology
#2,011
of 2,983 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#242,532
of 420,377 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Water Science & Technology
#11
of 59 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,952,268 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,983 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 3.0. This one is in the 31st percentile – i.e., 31% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 420,377 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 39th percentile – i.e., 39% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 59 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 77% of its contemporaries.