Comparative life cycle assessment of seawater desalination technologies enhanced by graphene membranes
Comparative life cycle assessment of seawater desalination technologies enhanced by graphene membranes
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DOI：
10.1016/j.desal.2023.116418
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发表时间：
2023-04
期刊：
影响因子：
9.9
通讯作者：
C. Skuse;Raphael Tarpani;Patricia Gorgojo;A. Gallego-Schmid;A. Azapagic
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Skuse;Raphael Tarpani;Patricia Gorgojo;A. Gallego-Schmid;A. Azapagic
氧化石墨烯（GO）增强膜的开发是为了解决反渗透（RO）和膜蒸馏（MD）技术的主要限制，其中包括高电力和热能消耗。这项研究首次进行了生命周期评估，以确定使用 GO 增强膜对通过 RO 和 MD 海水淡化的环境影响的影响。根据ReCiPe影响评估方法，评估了四种情景并量化了十八种环境影响。 RO-GO 情景的平均影响比 RO 低 3-7%。气候变化影响减少3-8%，可避免释放380-850 kt CO2eq。如果这些膜用于当前的海水反渗透系统，则全球每年都会减少。 MD-GO 情景的影响平均比 MD 情景低 27-34%。总体而言，RO-GO 系统是最有利的，对于大多数类别而言，其影响低于 MD-GO。然而，在 MD 海水淡化中使用太阳热能代替天然气，与主要由化石燃料驱动的 RO 相比，九个类别的影响降低 43-93%。这包括气候变化，降低 64%；然而，淡水生态毒性将高出四倍多。这项工作的结果表明了 GO 增强膜的潜在环境效益，并讨论了提高 RO 和 MD 性能所需的未来发展。
Graphene oxide (GO)-enhanced membranes are being developed to solve major limitations in both reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) technologies, which include high electricity and thermal energy consumption. This study performed, for the first time, a life cycle assessment to determine the effects of using GO-enhanced membranes on the environmental impacts of seawater desalination via RO and MD. Four scenarios were evaluated and eighteen environmental impacts were quantified according to the ReCiPe impact assessment method. The average impacts for the RO-GO scenarios were lower than those of RO by 3–7 %. The reduction in the climate change impact was 3–8 %, which could avoid the release of 380–850 kt CO2eq. per year globally if these membranes were used in current seawater RO systems. The MD-GO scenarios had, on average, 27–34 % lower impacts than the MD scenarios. Overall, the RO-GO systems were the most favourable, with lower impacts than MD-GO for most categories. However, using solar-thermal energy instead of natural gas in MD desalination would lead to 43–93 % lower impacts in nine categories than RO powered predominantly by fossil fuels. This includes climate change, which would be 64 % lower; however, freshwater ecotoxicity would be more than four-times higher. The results of this work indicate the potential environmental benefits of GO-enhanced membranes and discuss the future developments needed to improve the performance of RO and MD.