Life-cycle assessment of membrane-based desalination technologies and alternatives

Global freshwater scarcity is projected to be affecting almost half of the world’s population by 2025. Desalination has become a reliable option to provide freshwater, especially with climate change and its direct impact on water resources. The desalination technology transforms some non-traditional water sources either by processing brackish water or seawater into potable water.  The sustainability and environmental impacts of different desalination technologies are a concern due to energy and resource consumption. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is being utilized to study the environmental sustainability of different technologies. This chapter provides a global overview of LCA research publications concerning salt and brackish water desalination technologies and their alternatives.  The global warming potential-related information of membrane, thermal, and emerging technologies has been discussed. Moreover, the life cycle inventories of the published literature were compared to obtain conclusive results. The carbon footprint of the top eleven desalinated water producers globally and its correlation to papers published in those countries was performed. Furthermore, a brief state of the art of technical-economic assessments is taken part in this chapter to provide holistic conclusions.