Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply
Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Membranes |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/11/1/40 |
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| author | Latifah Abdul Ghani Nora’aini Ali Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran Marlia M. Hanafiah |
| author_facet | Latifah Abdul Ghani Nora’aini Ali Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran Marlia M. Hanafiah |
| author_sort | Latifah Abdul Ghani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO<sub>2</sub> eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:55:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-41a3a55202d24a51838ccb54428eae24 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-0375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:55:10Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Membranes |
| spelling | doaj.art-41a3a55202d24a51838ccb54428eae242023-12-03T12:14:22ZengMDPI AGMembranes2077-03752021-01-011114010.3390/membranes11010040Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water SupplyLatifah Abdul Ghani0Nora’aini Ali1Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran2Marlia M. Hanafiah3Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Terengganu, MalaysiaFaculty of Ocean Engineering Technology and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Terengganu, MalaysiaFaculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Terengganu, MalaysiaDepartment of Earth Sciences and Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, MalaysiaSeawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO<sub>2</sub> eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/11/1/40life cycle assessment (LCA)desalinationenvironmental impactseawater reverse osmosis plantwater supply |
| spellingShingle | Latifah Abdul Ghani Nora’aini Ali Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran Marlia M. Hanafiah Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply Membranes life cycle assessment (LCA) desalination environmental impact seawater reverse osmosis plant water supply |
| title | Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply |
| title_full | Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply |
| title_fullStr | Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply |
| title_short | Environmental Performance of Small-Scale Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant for Rural Area Water Supply |
| title_sort | environmental performance of small scale seawater reverse osmosis plant for rural area water supply |
| topic | life cycle assessment (LCA) desalination environmental impact seawater reverse osmosis plant water supply |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/11/1/40 |
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