IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i10p2912-d233436.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Cycle Assessment of a Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine with a Focus on the Chemicals Used in Water Conditioning

Author

Listed:
  • Catalina Ferat Toscano

    (Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Ciudad de México, Mexico)

  • Cecilia Martin-del-Campo

    (Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Ciudad de México, Mexico)

  • Gabriela Moeller-Chavez

    (Dirección de Ingeniería Ambiental y Biotecnología. Universidad Politécnica del Estado de Morelos, Paseo Cuauhnáhuac No. 566, 62550 Jiutepec, Morelos, Mexico)

  • Gabriel Leon de los Santos

    (Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Ciudad de México, Mexico)

  • Juan-Luis François

    (Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510 Ciudad de México, Mexico)

  • Daniel Revollo Fernandez

    (CONACYT-Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco, Av. San Pablo No. 180, 02200 Ciudad de México, Mexico)

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of thermoelectric plants frequently focus on impacts related to fuel and water consumption. The purpose of this research was to determine the environmental impact of the chemicals used for water conditioning in a Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant in Mexico. An LCA of the electricity generation process was carried out using the SimaPro software with the ReCiPe method, which includes 18 midpoint environmental impact categories. The process was broken down into stages, which were analyzed separately. To complete the study, an analysis of the fuel cycle and the materials used for maintenance works were included. Results showed that the most affected impact categories were water depletion (9.77 × 10 −1 m 3 /MWh), due mainly to the high volume of water consumption in the cooling systems and the reverse osmosis process; freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.59 × 10 −2 kg 1,4 -DB eq/MWh), and human toxicity (1.1 × 10 −1 kg 1,4-DB eq/MWh)—due to the production and consumption of the chemicals used. One such chemical is hydrazine, which is a highly toxic compound to humans and other living organisms. It is worth mentioning that traces of some chemicals in wastewater discharges could be considered as emerging pollutants because of their potential health hazards, which have not been reported yet.

Suggested Citation

  • Catalina Ferat Toscano & Cecilia Martin-del-Campo & Gabriela Moeller-Chavez & Gabriel Leon de los Santos & Juan-Luis François & Daniel Revollo Fernandez, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of a Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine with a Focus on the Chemicals Used in Water Conditioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:10:p:2912-:d:233436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/10/2912/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/10/2912/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tan, Reginald B.H. & Wijaya, David & Khoo, Hsien H., 2010. "LCI (Life cycle inventory) analysis of fuels and electricity generation in Singapore," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4910-4916.
    2. Santoyo-Castelazo, E. & Gujba, H. & Azapagic, A., 2011. "Life cycle assessment of electricity generation in Mexico," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1488-1499.
    3. Burcin Atilgan & Adisa Azapagic, 2016. "Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Electricity Generation in Turkey on a Life Cycle Basis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Hondo, Hiroki, 2005. "Life cycle GHG emission analysis of power generation systems: Japanese case," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2042-2056.
    5. Weisser, Daniel, 2007. "A guide to life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric supply technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1543-1559.
    6. Atilgan, Burcin & Azapagic, Adisa, 2016. "An integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 168-186.
    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. Rong Xie & Muyan Chen & Weihuang Liu & Hongfei Jian & Yanjun Shi, 2021. "Digital Twin Technologies for Turbomachinery in a Life Cycle Perspective: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-22, February.

    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. Orfanos, Neoptolemos & Mitzelos, Dimitris & Sagani, Angeliki & Dedoussis, Vassilis, 2019. "Life-cycle environmental performance assessment of electricity generation and transmission systems in Greece," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1447-1462.
    2. Song, Cuihong & Gardner, Kevin H. & Klein, Sharon J.W. & Souza, Simone Pereira & Mo, Weiwei, 2018. "Cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions from dams in the United States of America," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 945-956.
    3. M. A. Parvez Mahmud & Nazmul Huda & Shahjadi Hisan Farjana & Candace Lang, 2018. "Environmental Impacts of Solar-Photovoltaic and Solar-Thermal Systems with Life-Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Varun, & Prakash, Ravi & Bhat, I.K., 2012. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions estimation for small hydropower schemes in India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 498-508.
    5. António A. Martins & Marta Simaria & Joaquim Barbosa & Ricardo Barbosa & Daniela T. Silva & Cristina S. Rocha & Teresa M. Mata & Nídia S. Caetano, 2018. "Life cycle assessment tool of electricity generation in Portugal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 129-143, December.
    6. Dino, Ipek Gürsel & Meral Akgül, Cagla, 2019. "Impact of climate change on the existing residential building stock in Turkey: An analysis on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and occupant comfort," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 828-846.
    7. Markéta Šerešová & Jiří Štefanica & Monika Vitvarová & Kristina Zakuciová & Petr Wolf & Vladimír Kočí, 2020. "Life Cycle Performance of Various Energy Sources Used in the Czech Republic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    8. Li, Xin & Ou, Xunmin & Zhang, Xu & Zhang, Qian & Zhang, Xiliang, 2013. "Life-cycle fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission intensity of dominant secondary energy pathways of China in 2010," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 15-23.
    9. Yu, Shiwei & Wei, Yi-Ming & Guo, Haixiang & Ding, Liping, 2014. "Carbon emission coefficient measurement of the coal-to-power energy chain in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 290-300.
    10. Marimuthu, C. & Kirubakaran, V., 2013. "Carbon pay back period for solar and wind energy project installed in India: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 80-90.
    11. Dianfa Wu & Zhiping Yang & Ningling Wang & Chengzhou Li & Yongping Yang, 2018. "An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model and AHP Weighting Uncertainty Analysis for Sustainability Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Units," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, May.
    12. Avri Eitan, 2021. "Promoting Renewable Energy to Cope with Climate Change—Policy Discourse in Israel," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    13. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2008. "Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2940-2953, August.
    14. Xue-Ting Jiang & Rongrong Li, 2017. "Decoupling and Decomposition Analysis of Carbon Emissions from Electric Output in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-13, May.
    15. Lucas, Alexandre & Neto, Rui Costa & Silva, Carla Alexandra, 2013. "Energy supply infrastructure LCA model for electric and hydrogen transportation systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 70-80.
    16. Santoyo-Castelazo, E. & Gujba, H. & Azapagic, A., 2011. "Life cycle assessment of electricity generation in Mexico," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1488-1499.
    17. Paul E. Hardisty & Tom S. Clark & Robert G. Hynes, 2012. "Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Electricity Generation: A Comparative Analysis of Australian Energy Sources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-26, March.
    18. Shaikh, Mohammad A. & Kucukvar, Murat & Onat, Nuri Cihat & Kirkil, Gokhan, 2017. "A framework for water and carbon footprint analysis of national electricity production scenarios," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 406-421.
    19. Turconi, Roberto & Boldrin, Alessio & Astrup, Thomas, 2013. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation technologies: Overview, comparability and limitations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 555-565.
    20. Evans, Annette & Strezov, Vladimir & Evans, Tim J., 2009. "Assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 1082-1088, 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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:10:p:2912-:d:233436. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.