Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a primary ozone-depleting substance and powerful greenhouse gas. N2O emissions from secondary-level wastewater treatment processes are relatively well understood as a result of intensive international research effort in recent times, yet little information exists to date on the role of sewers in wastewater management chain N2O dynamics. Here we provide the first detailed assessment of N2O levels in the untreated influent (i.e. sewer network effluent) of three large Australian metropolitan wastewater treatment plants. Contrary to current international (IPCC) guidance, results show gravity sewers to be a likely source of N2O. Results from the monitoring program revealed hydraulic flow rate as a strong driver for N2O generation in gravity sewers, with microbial processes (nitrification and possibly denitrification) implicated as the main processes responsible for its production. Results were also used to develop a presumptive emission factor for N2O in the context of municipal gravity sewers. Considering the discrepancy with current IPCC Guidelines, further work is warranted to assess the scale and dynamics of N2O production in sewers elsewhere.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. 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 22 July 2014.
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#24,378,550
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#25,608
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Outputs of similar age from Science of the Total Environment
#103
of 139 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,953,699 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 19th percentile – i.e., 19% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 139 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 22nd percentile – i.e., 22% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
