Environmental life cycle assessment of zero liquid discharge treatment technologies for textile industries, Tirupur – A case study

Abstract

Inventorisation of inputs (chemicals and energy) for treating textile wastewater using pretreatment, reverse osmosis (RO) and evaporator for two representative textile wastewater treatment plants have been studied. All life cycle inventory data were recalculated per functional unit, which was defined as treatment of 1 m³ of textile wastewater. Evaporator consumes 48 % of electricity, which contributes for more global warming potential (GWP) than other treatment units. Total GWP for plant I and II are 4.49 kg CO₂ eq and 5.56 kg CO₂ eq respectively. During electricity generation, CO₂ emission is comparatively high (98.5 % of total emissions). The results indicate that RO system of plant I and II consumes less energy and GWP are 8.9 x 10⁻³ kg CO₂ eq and 0.011 kg CO₂ eq respectively. Human health impact is 7.4 E-05 for CO₂ emission, which is less for other emissions. The results can be used for strategic decisions for minimizing environmental impacts of zero liquid treatment technologies.