The study of potable water treatment process in Algeria (boudouaou station) -by the application of life cycle assessment (LCA)

Environmental impact assessment will soon become a compulsory phase in future potable water productionprojects, in algeria, especially, when alternative treatment processes such sedimentation ,coagulation sand filtrationand desinfection are considered. an impact assessment tool is therefore developed for the environmentalevaluation of potable water production. in our study the evaluation method used is the life cycle assessment (lca)for the determination and evaluation of potential impact of a drink water station ,near algiers (seal-boudouaoua).lca requires both the identification and quantification of materials and energy used in all stages of the product’s life,when the inventory information is acquired, it will then be interpreted into the form of potential impact “ eco-indicators99” towards study areas covered by lca, using the simapro6 soft ware for water treatment process is necessary todiscover the weaknesses in the water treatment process in order for it to be further improved ensuring qualitylife. the main source shown that for the studied water treatment process, the highest environmental burdensare coagulant preparation (30% for all impacts), mineral resource and ozone layer depletion the repartition ofthe impacts among the different processes varies in comparison with the other impacts. mineral resources aremainly consumed during alumine sulfate solution preparation; ozone layer depletion originates mostly fromtetrachloromethane emissions during alumine sulfate production. it should also be noted that, despite the smalldoses needed, ozone and active carbone treatment generate significant impacts with a contribution of 10% formost of the impacts.moreover impacts of energy are used in producing pumps (20-25 ghc) for plant operation and the unitaryprocesses (coagulation, sand filtration decantation) and the most important impacts are localized in the sameequipment (40-75 ghc) and we can conclude that:– pre-treatment, pumping and edr (edr: 0.-6 0 kg co2 eq. /produced m3) are the process-units with higherenvironmental impacts.– energy consumption is the main source of impacts on climate change.– chemicals consumption (e.g. coagulants, oxidants) are the principle cause of impacts on the ozone layer depletion.– conventional plants: pre-treatment has high ghg emissions due to chemicals consumption.