Life Cycle Assessment of RO Water Desalination System Powered by Different Electricity Generation Alternatives
Date
2017-11-26
Authors
صبيح, إسراء عبدالفتاح
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
An-Najah National University
Abstract
This study will contribute to reduce the shortage of fresh water in Al-Murashahat area by using Al-Fashkha springs water source and applying the best water desalination technology from environmental and cost aspects. This will be through designing RO system which serves the area and choosing the best energy source by evaluating them in terms of their life cycle assessment.
In this study a life cycle analysis was performed on three RO desalination systems. The first system is RO system operated by PV (RO-PV system). The second system is RO system operated by electricity generated from coal (RO-coal electricity system). The third system is RO system operated by electricity generated from natural gas (RO-natural gas electricity system). The open LCA software, Ecoinvent database was used, and the CML baseline LCIA method was chosen for the evaluation of systems impact on its 10 categories for functional unit of 50 m3/day.
For all systems, it was found that the water distribution process contributes most to the overall environmental impact followed by the operation process. Across all impact categories the RO-PV system has the least environmental impact, however the RO-coal electricity system has the largest environmental impact.
The cost of water produced from RO system operated by electricity generated from coal or natural gas is lower than the cost of water produced from RO-PV system, where the cost of 1m3 water produced by RO-PV system calculated to be 1.80 $/m3, however the cost of 1m3 water produced by RO-electricity systems calculated to be 1.27 $/m3.