A case study of comparative techno-economic and life cycle assessment of tap water versus household reverse osmosis-based drinking water systems in a North Indian city

Abstract

Household reverse osmosis (RO)-based water purifiers have gained popularity in India due to concerns about the quality of tap water. However, the widespread adoption of these systems has significant impacts on water pricing and the environment. The objective of this study was to assess the techno-economic performance and life cycle assessment (LCA) of household RO-based water purifiers in Srinagar city of North India. Our results demonstrate that household ROs reduce the concentration of important dietary minerals such as fluoride and magnesium in drinking water by 50%. In addition, the average total water cost from a household RO is three to four times more than what is being paid for tap water. Two different scenarios were compared in LCA. The first scenario was safe drinking water from a conventional drinking water treatment plant (scenario 1), while the second scenario was water from a household RO system (scenario 2). The results showed that the environmental impacts of abiotic depletion, acidification of water bodies, eutrophication, global warming and ozone depletion in scenario 2 were higher than in scenario 1. The findings infer that water utilities should encourage citizens to rely on conventional tap water as a cheaper and environmentally friendly option compared to household ROs.