Análise crítica da pegada hídrica cinza na produção de celulose

Abstract

While the Water Footprint (WF) is used as a management tool by the private sector, few published studies simultaneously consider all three of its constituent components in its estimation. The components are the Blue Water Footprint (WFblue), the Green Water Footprint (WFgreen), and the Grey Water Footprint (WFgrey). In the case of cellulose production, the only paper published to date did not consider the WFgrey because of the difficulty in finding data relative to natural water quality or to the effluents’ composition. In this context, this article seeks to analyze the WFgrey contribution to the WF of cellulose as well as its consequences for actions to mitigate the negative impact of production processes on water bodies. The study took place in a hypothetical industry located at the Paraiba do Sul River watershed, Brazil. The analyses considered pollutants, such as total chloride, total phosphorous, and phenol—all