Life cycle assessment of water treatment processes in Malaysia: A quest for greener practice.

Accessibility to water resources is an invaluable asset for any communities worldwide while ensuring the water quality that is on par for safe consumption is often a challenge of water treatment plants. Adding to the challenge, water treatment processes are not without environmental burdens. In this study, various water treatment processes in Malaysia were evaluated and assessed for the environmental impacts in order to identify ways to make water treatment greener. The life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied as a tool for the identification. The identified environmental impacts include global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication, ozone depletion and human health (particulate air and cancer toxicity). Electricity generation associated with water treatment processes is identified as the most prominent contributor at 64-79% for GWP and eutrophication and 32-62% for human health but not for ozone depletion. With chlorine compounds identified as one of the concurrent greenhouse gasses, chlorine contributes the most in ozone depletion (56%). Meanwhile, aluminium involved in alum production for the chemical coagulation process is the second most contributor at 13-32% for combined GWP, eutrophication and ozone depletion and 28-45% for human health mostly due to the prolonged exposure and toxicity. The outcomes of the LCA study exposed a flaw in the energy generation nexus which relies on fossil fuels as primary energy resources thus, posing significant effects to the environment. Nevertheless, a more sustainable approach towards energy generation had to be looked into in order to pave the way for more sustainable water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]