IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v67y2014icp53-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental life cycle assessment of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant powered by renewable energy

Author

Listed:
  • Shahabi, Maedeh P.
  • McHugh, Adam
  • Anda, Martin
  • Ho, Goen

Abstract

This paper evaluates life cycle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of a Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant and assesses its performance under three power supply scenarios. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis is conducted for a plant located in Perth, Western Australia (WA). Input and output flows of SWRO plant are based on literature and Perth desalination plants. The Simapro Australian and Ecoinvent databases are used for operational phase Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). An LCI for the construction phase of the plant is developed using economic input–output analysis. Electricity supply scenarios are “100% WA grid”, “100% wind energy” and “92% wind energy plus 8% Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy”. Results indicate that renewable energy powered desalination plants achieve GHG emissions reduction of ∼90% compared to the plant powered by WA grid scenario. For the plant powered by fossil based grid electricity, electricity use in the operational phase is found to be responsible for more than 92% of its GHG emissions. On the other hand, for the plants powered by renewable energy, the highest contribution belongs to chemical use in the operational phase (60%) followed by the construction phase (17%). Indirect emissions due to the electricity consumption in the chemical, wind turbine and PV solar panel manufacturing are found to contribute the lion's share (36–39%) of the life cycle emissions for the renewable energy powered desalination plants. Any improvement in fuel mixes in grid electricity towards cleaner energy sources can be beneficial by reducing impacts associated with upstream electricity use in manufacturing. This work provides the first reference to identify and quantify supply chain contributions to the overall environmental impact associated with renewable energy powered desalination plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Shahabi, Maedeh P. & McHugh, Adam & Anda, Martin & Ho, Goen, 2014. "Environmental life cycle assessment of seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant powered by renewable energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 53-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:67:y:2014:i:c:p:53-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2013.11.050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113006289
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2013.11.050?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Yuxuan & Sun, Tianye, 2012. "Life cycle assessment of CO2 emissions from wind power plants: Methodology and case studies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 30-36.
    2. Oebels, Kerstin B. & Pacca, Sergio, 2013. "Life cycle assessment of an onshore wind farm located at the northeastern coast of Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 60-70.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, J.S. & Chen, G.Q. & Hayat, T. & Alsaedi, A., 2015. "Mercury emissions by Beijing׳s fossil energy consumption: Based on environmentally extended input–output analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1167-1175.
    2. L. Hay & A. H. B. Duffy & R. I. Whitfield, 2017. "The S‐Cycle Performance Matrix: Supporting Comprehensive Sustainability Performance Evaluation of Technical Systems," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 45-70, January.
    3. Latifah Abdul Ghani & Nora’aini Ali & Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran & Marlia M. Hanafiah & Norhafiza Ilyana Yatim, 2021. "Carbon Footprint-Energy Detection for Desalination Small Plant Adaptation Response," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Anwar Aljuwaisseri & Esra Aleisa & Khawla Alshayji, 2023. "Environmental and economic analysis for desalinating seawater of high salinity using reverse osmosis: a life cycle assessment approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(5), pages 4539-4574, May.
    5. Tsai, Yu-Ching & Chiu, Chih-Pin & Ko, Fu-Kuang & Chen, Tzong-Chyuan & Yang, Jing-Tang, 2016. "Desalination plants and renewables combined to solve power and water issues," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1018-1030.
    6. Yuan Yuan & Fengting Qian & Jiaqi Lu & Dungang Gu & Yuhang Lou & Na Xue & Guanghui Li & Wenjie Liao & Nan Zhang, 2022. "Design Optimization and Carbon Footprint Analysis of an Electrodeionization System with Flexible Load Regulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-13, November.
    7. Farayi Musharavati, 2023. "RETRACTED: A Study on Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Seawater Desalination Systems: Seawater Reverse Osmosis Integrated with Bipolar-Membrane-Enhanced Electro-Dialysis Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1, December.
    8. Esmaeil Ahmadi & Benjamin McLellan & Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo & Tetsuo Tezuka, 2020. "The Role of Renewable Energy Resources in Sustainability of Water Desalination as a Potential Fresh-Water Source: An Updated Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-31, June.
    9. Esmaeil Ahmadi & Benjamin McLellan & Seiichi Ogata & Behnam Mohammadi-Ivatloo & Tetsuo Tezuka, 2020. "An Integrated Planning Framework for Sustainable Water and Energy Supply," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-37, May.
    10. Pugsley, Adrian & Zacharopoulos, Aggelos & Mondol, Jayanta Deb & Smyth, Mervyn, 2016. "Global applicability of solar desalination," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 200-219.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niklas Andersen & Ola Eriksson & Karl Hillman & Marita Wallhagen, 2016. "Wind Turbines’ End-of-Life: Quantification and Characterisation of Future Waste Materials on a National Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-24, November.
    2. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Mohamed R. Gomaa & Hegazy Rezk & Ramadan J. Mustafa & Mujahed Al-Dhaifallah, 2019. "Evaluating the Environmental Impacts and Energy Performance of a Wind Farm System Utilizing the Life-Cycle Assessment Method: A Practical Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-25, August.
    4. Yashuang Feng & Lixiao Zhang, 2023. "The GHG Intensities of Wind Power Plants in China from a Life-Cycle Perspective: The Impacts of Geographical Location, Turbine Technology and Management Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    5. Ozoemena, Matthew & Hasan, Reaz & Cheung, Wai Ming, 2016. "Analysis of technology improvement opportunities for a 1.5 MW wind turbine using a hybrid stochastic approach in life cycle assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 369-382.
    6. Campos-Guzmán, Verónica & García-Cáscales, M. Socorro & Espinosa, Nieves & Urbina, Antonio, 2019. "Life Cycle Analysis with Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A review of approaches for the sustainability evaluation of renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 343-366.
    7. Shalini Verma & Akshoy Ranjan Paul & Nawshad Haque, 2022. "Selected Environmental Impact Indicators Assessment of Wind Energy in India Using a Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-16, May.
    8. Li, Jinying & Li, Sisi & Wu, Fan, 2020. "Research on carbon emission reduction benefit of wind power project based on life cycle assessment theory," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 456-468.
    9. Nurullah Yildiz & Hassan Hemida & Charalampos Baniotopoulos, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of a Barge-Type Floating Wind Turbine and Comparison with Other Types of Wind Turbines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Cao, Yijia & Wang, Xifan & Li, Yong & Tan, Yi & Xing, Jianbo & Fan, Ruixiang, 2016. "A comprehensive study on low-carbon impact of distributed generations on regional power grids: A case of Jiangxi provincial power grid in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 766-778.
    11. Mendecka, Barbara & Lombardi, Lidia, 2019. "Life cycle environmental impacts of wind energy technologies: A review of simplified models and harmonization of the results," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 462-480.
    12. Nugent, Daniel & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Assessing the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from solar PV and wind energy: A critical meta-survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 229-244.
    13. Fangyi Li & Zhaoyang Ye & Xilin Xiao & Dawei Ma, 2019. "Environmental Benefits of Stock Evolution of Coal-Fired Power Generators in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, October.
    14. Francisco Haces-Fernandez, 2020. "GoWInD: Wind Energy Spatiotemporal Assessment and Characterization of End-of-Life Activities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    15. Cui, Qi & He, Ling & Han, Guoyi & Chen, Hao & Cao, Juanjuan, 2020. "Review on climate and water resource implications of reducing renewable power curtailment in China: A nexus perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    16. Zhao, Xiaoli & Cai, Qiong & Zhang, Sufang & Luo, Kaiyan, 2017. "The substitution of wind power for coal-fired power to realize China's CO2 emissions reduction targets in 2020 and 2030," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 164-178.
    17. Simas, Moana & Pacca, Sergio, 2014. "Assessing employment in renewable energy technologies: A case study for wind power in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 83-90.
    18. Alizadeh, Sadegh & Avami, Akram, 2021. "Development of a framework for the sustainability evaluation of renewable and fossil fuel power plants using integrated LCA-emergy analysis: A case study in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1548-1564.
    19. Gabriel A. González-Reyes & Susana Bayo-Besteiro & Jordi Vich Llobet & Juan A. Añel, 2020. "Environmental and Economic Constraints on the Use of Lubricant Oils for Wind and Hydropower Generation: The Case of NATURGY," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, May.
    20. Murillo Vetroni Barros & Cassiano Moro Piekarski & Antonio Carlos De Francisco, 2018. "Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation in Brazil: An Analysis of the 2016–2026 Period," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:67:y:2014:i:c:p:53-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.