Abstract Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination is a widely adopted desalination technology given its cost effectiveness and lower energy consumption compared to thermal methods. However, SWRO is sensitive to intake water quality and requires strict pretreatment, which requires significant chemical inputs. This study evaluates the relative environmental impacts of water quality (site selection) and specific selection of chemicals on the overall environmental burden of the SWRO process. A life cycle assessment was carried out of environmental emissions based on an existing SWRO plant in the Arabian Gulf, which was remodelled and sized in AqMB® software based on different intake water quality gathered from seawater samples collected from 19 locations across 563 km of Arabian Gulf coastline. The study concluded that a total reduction of close to 25% in different environmental impacts was possible only by optimizing the location of plant, while careful selection of chemicals, particularly those in coagulation, disinfection and pH neutralization, could significantly influence environmental impact categories with high normalized impact such as marine ecotoxicity potential (MAETP). In comparison, renewable energy in the form of wind provided large reductions in certain significant impact categories, but provided a large increase in MAETP compared to natural gas.

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评估 SWRO 海水淡化预处理的水质变化和环境影响

摘要 海水反渗透 (SWRO) 脱盐是一种广泛采用的脱盐技术，与热法相比，它具有成本效益和更低的能耗。然而，SWRO 对进水水质敏感，需要严格的预处理，这需要大量的化学投入。本研究评估了水质（选址）和特定化学品选择对 SWRO 过程整体环境负担的相对环境影响。对基于阿拉伯湾现有 SWRO 工厂的环境排放进行生命周期评估，该工厂根据从阿拉伯湾 563 公里的 19 个地点收集的海水样本收集的不同进水水质，在 AqMB® 软件中进行了改造和大小调整海岸线。该研究得出的结论是，只有通过优化工厂的位置，才能将不同环境影响的总减少近 25%，而仔细选择化学品，特别是用于凝固、消毒和 pH 中和的化学品，可以显着影响环境影响类别，其中高标准化影响，例如海洋生态毒性潜力 (MAETP)。相比之下，风能形式的可再生能源在某些显着影响类别中大幅减少，但与天然气相比，MAETP 大幅增加。可能会显着影响具有高标准化影响的环境影响类别，例如海洋生态毒性潜力 (MAETP)。相比之下，风能形式的可再生能源在某些显着影响类别中大幅减少，但与天然气相比，MAETP 大幅增加。可能会显着影响具有高标准化影响的环境影响类别，例如海洋生态毒性潜力 (MAETP)。相比之下，风能形式的可再生能源在某些显着影响类别中大幅减少，但与天然气相比，MAETP 大幅增加。