Using life cycle assessment at an early stage of design and development of zero discharge brine treatment and recovery

It is critical that the development of new technologies to solve environmental problems do not shift the burdens (impacts) to other mediums. Therefore, to ensure the optimum environmental design of water treatment and recovery systems, it is pertinent to apply life cycle assessment (LCA) at an early stage of development. Using LCA at an early developmental stage is known as prospective LCA and is particularly challenging due to the low data availability or quality. The aim of this study is to highlight the opportunities and challenges of using prospective LCA in the development of water treatment and recovery technologies. To do this we utilise two case studies from the EU Zero Brine project and apply LCA at two developmental stages. The treatment systems are specifically tailored for each case to treat the individual brine compositions and selectively recover its constituents. The first stage LCAs are based on laboratory experiments and engineering-based calculations, whilst the second stage assessments use improved input data from pilot plants and simulation. The paper compares the analyses of both stages, identifies key differences and discusses these disparities. In addition, it provides insights on the challenges of applying LCA for the design and development of wastewater treatment and recovery systems.