TY - JOUR
T1 - Benchmarking industrial water purification systems with the aid of life cycle assessment
AU - Yalamacilar, Busra Burcu
AU - Elginoz, Nilay
AU - Babuna, Fatos Germirli
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Desalination Publications. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Water is among the essential inputs of many industrial production processes. Substantial amounts of water with varying qualities is of importance in running quite a number of industrial sectors. The water quality requirements necessitate the application of different water purification systems. This study concentrates on comparing the environmental impacts of reverse osmosis and an ion exchange system that treat the water supplied from a well to a quality suitable for boiler water makeup. Life cycle assessment methodology is adopted for this evaluation. Purification system with the ion exchanger requires 18.6% less energy in comparison with the reverse osmosis system. However, substantially higher environmental impacts are obtained for the ion exchanger system when compared with the treatment scheme of reverse osmosis. Hence, the reverse osmosis system should be favored. Changing the source of energy from the grid mix to wind power is observed to further reduce abiotic depletion potential (fossil), human toxicity potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and terrestric ecotoxicity potential for the reverse osmosis system.
AB - Water is among the essential inputs of many industrial production processes. Substantial amounts of water with varying qualities is of importance in running quite a number of industrial sectors. The water quality requirements necessitate the application of different water purification systems. This study concentrates on comparing the environmental impacts of reverse osmosis and an ion exchange system that treat the water supplied from a well to a quality suitable for boiler water makeup. Life cycle assessment methodology is adopted for this evaluation. Purification system with the ion exchanger requires 18.6% less energy in comparison with the reverse osmosis system. However, substantially higher environmental impacts are obtained for the ion exchanger system when compared with the treatment scheme of reverse osmosis. Hence, the reverse osmosis system should be favored. Changing the source of energy from the grid mix to wind power is observed to further reduce abiotic depletion potential (fossil), human toxicity potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and terrestric ecotoxicity potential for the reverse osmosis system.
KW - Environmental impacts
KW - Ion exchange
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - Reverse osmosis
KW - Water purification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099840472&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5004/dwt.2021.26574
DO - 10.5004/dwt.2021.26574
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099840472
SN - 1944-3994
VL - 211
SP - 422
EP - 431
JO - Desalination and Water Treatment
JF - Desalination and Water Treatment
ER -