Chemical exergy as a unified and objective indicator in the assessment and optimization of land treatment systems

► Chemical exergy as a single exergetic indicator evaluating performance of vegetation. ► Indicator for the quality of wastewater, soil solution, and produced biomass. Used also to calculate treatment potential and effluent use efficiency. ► Chemical exergy can be used as common platform to compare different plant species. ► Insights into the efficiency with which vegetation use the applied wastewater. ► Further research is needed especially in the domain of environmental impacts.