TY - JOUR
T1 - Life cycle assessment comparison of point-of-use water treatment technologies: solar water disinfection (SODIS), boiling water, and chlorination
AU - Nair, Sarita S
AU - Marasini, Ramesh
AU - Buck, Lyndon
AU - Dhodapkar, Rita
AU - Marugan, Javier
AU - Lakshmi, K Vijaya
AU - McGuigan, Kevin G
N1 - Copyright © 2023 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - Numerous different point-of-use (POU) water treatment technologies exist that can remove, reduce or inactivate microbial pathogens present in untreated drinking water. However, there have been uncertainties as to which technology is best suited to rural populations. Environmental impacts of these technologies can bring further threats to rural communities, so the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is frequently used to compare different POU water treatment technologies. The present study uses LCA to compare three treatment options: solar water disinfection (SODIS) using a Transparent Jerrycan (TJC), boiling, and chlorination. A life cycle inventory database is created for each stage, calculating the embodied energy and transportation energy considering daily reliance for all the technologies. Direct carbon dioxide emission at the point of use of energy/fuel, particulate matter formation and smog formation analysis can help to implement the most appropriate technology. The life-cycle assessment in this study indicates that when considering the environmental impact associated with providing sufficient safe drinking water for a family of six over a period of 6 months, SODIS has been found to have better sustainability credentials as a water treatment technology (6.0 kg CO2e per functional unit) with low contribution in all the three impact categories, followed by chlorination (9.8 kg CO2 e per functional unit) and boiling water (6808 kg CO2e per functional unit).
AB - Numerous different point-of-use (POU) water treatment technologies exist that can remove, reduce or inactivate microbial pathogens present in untreated drinking water. However, there have been uncertainties as to which technology is best suited to rural populations. Environmental impacts of these technologies can bring further threats to rural communities, so the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is frequently used to compare different POU water treatment technologies. The present study uses LCA to compare three treatment options: solar water disinfection (SODIS) using a Transparent Jerrycan (TJC), boiling, and chlorination. A life cycle inventory database is created for each stage, calculating the embodied energy and transportation energy considering daily reliance for all the technologies. Direct carbon dioxide emission at the point of use of energy/fuel, particulate matter formation and smog formation analysis can help to implement the most appropriate technology. The life-cycle assessment in this study indicates that when considering the environmental impact associated with providing sufficient safe drinking water for a family of six over a period of 6 months, SODIS has been found to have better sustainability credentials as a water treatment technology (6.0 kg CO2e per functional unit) with low contribution in all the three impact categories, followed by chlorination (9.8 kg CO2 e per functional unit) and boiling water (6808 kg CO2e per functional unit).
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - SODIS
KW - Drinking water
KW - Chlorination
KW - Global warming potential
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213343723007546?via%3Dihub
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85158833380&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jece.2023.110015
DO - 10.1016/j.jece.2023.110015
M3 - Article
SN - 2213-3437
VL - 11
JO - Journal of Environmental Chemical engineering
JF - Journal of Environmental Chemical engineering
IS - 3
M1 - 110015
ER -