The feasibility of adoption of catalytic removal of nitrate in Saudi Arabia's groundwater: A gate-to-gate environmental analysis

Arguably, one of the most damaging impacts is the nitrate contamination in groundwater that imposes a high risk towards human health. Thus, to control the nitrate level in drinkable water, purification of groundwater technology plays a crucial role. In this study, we investigated the environmental footprints of catalytic removal of nitrate in groundwater using Cu–Pd catalysts, creating a sustainable water system in Saudi Arabia. The functional unit of 1 L of groundwater was adopted in the system boundaries, which includes four processes, consisting of the upstream: Raw material extraction system (U1), midstream: Catalytic synthesis system (U2) and Nitrate removal water treatment (U3), as well as downstream: Transportation of purified groundwater (U4). Based on the life-cycle assessment, the hot spots in this process were being underpinned as follows: U4 > U2 > U1 > U3. The end-point impacts score for the whole catalytic nitrate removal process is calculated to be 78.75 mPt. Also, from sensitivity analysis, the factors that contributed the least to highest impacts towards climate change and human health is found to be as follow: amount of groundwater > raw material transportation distance > catalyst loading > transportation pipeline.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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