Life-Cycle Assessment Study for Bio-Hydrogen Gas Production from Sewage Treatment Plants Using Solar PVs

Hind Barghash (), Zuhoor AlRashdi, Kenneth E. Okedu () and Peter Desmond
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Hind Barghash: Department of Engineering, German University of Technology, Muscat PC 130, Oman
Zuhoor AlRashdi: Department of Engineering, German University of Technology, Muscat PC 130, Oman
Kenneth E. Okedu: Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering, National University of Science and Technology, Muscat PC 111, Oman
Peter Desmond: Institute of Environmental Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: Currently, there is a global challenge of water scarcity due to climate change, rising temperatures, and other factors. One way to address this growing global challenge is by implementing technology to treat polluted water by reusing it in areas such as irrigation, cooling, and energy production, based on bio-hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas can be produced by several methods, including dark fermentation. In this study, hydrogen gas was produced by 1L of sludge and Treated Effluent (TE) with several methods, using a reactor with a volume of 0.96 H 2 L/L media. The Life-Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) process was used to study resource depletion, the ecosystem, and human impacts, and efforts were made to reduce the negative impacts by implementing several solutions. In this study, OpenLCA software was used as a tool for calculating the impacts, along with the ecoinvent database. Further analysis was carried out by comparing the LCIA with and without the use of solar energy. The results show that implementing hydrogen gas production with a solar energy system will help to obtain the best solution and reduce the carbon footprint, with 1.12 × 10 4 kg CO 2 equivalent and a water depletion of 2.83 × 10 4 m 3 .

Keywords: life-cycle assessment; impact assessment; inventory analysis; OpenLCA; ecoinvent database; ReCiPe method; treated water; wastewater treatment; solar energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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