Financial, Economic and Environmental Analyses of Upgrading Reverse Osmosis Plant Fed with Treated Wastewater

Foroogh Nazzari Chamaki, Glenn Jenkins () and Majid Hashemipour
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Foroogh Nazzari Chamaki: Department of Banking and Finance, Eastern Mediterranean University
Majid Hashemipour: Faculty of Engineering, Cyprus International University, North Cyprus

No 1503, Working Paper from Economics Department, Queen's University

Abstract: One of the most effective strategies to mitigate water shortages worldwide is to reuse the treated wastewater for freshwater production employing reverse osmosis (RO) technology. This strategy is appropriate in urban areas of arid or semi-arid regions as it can provide a sustainable and reliable water source close to the consumers. One of the drawbacks of RO is the high variability of production costs due to the electricity intensity. In addition, depending on the electricity source, it can also result in substantial environmental costs.This study showed that upgrading pumping and RO membrane systems of a wastewater reuse plant in Cyprus can significantly alleviate these drawbacks in terms cost, water recovery rate, and air pollution. The water recovery rate of the upgraded RO plant increased from 43.2 to 75 percent which results in a substantial net financial benefit due to less quantity of wastewater to be purchased and more potable water to be produced. The upgraded system also reduced the electricity requirement from 3.63 kWh/m3 to 1.92 kWh/m3. Pollution emissions decreased substantially because of the reduction in electricity requirements. The beneficiaries of these lower emissions costs are the residents of Cyprus and global society. Overall, the benefit of upgrading the plant is highly attractive with more than 65 percent of annual real internal rates of re-turn in financial and economic terms. Positive net present values are realized for all the scenarios considered.

Keywords: circular economy; reused wastewater; reverse osmosis; levelized cost; economic cost; membrane technologies; emission cost; environmental externalities; distributive analysis; energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H43 I38 L95 Q25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2023-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-reg
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https://www.econ.queensu.ca/sites/econ.queensu.ca/files/wpaper/qed_wp_1503.pdf First version 2023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Financial, Economic, and Environmental Analyses of Upgrading Reverse Osmosis Plant Fed with Treated Wastewater (2023)
Working Paper: Financial, Economic and Environmental Analyses of Upgrading Reverse Osmosis Plant Fed with Treated Wastewater (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qed:wpaper:1503

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