Development of Life Cycle Water Demand Footprints for the Energy Pathways

• Author / Creator

  Ali, Babkir SM

• The water-energy nexus refers to the relationship between water and energy, wherein each one needs the other. This thesis examines that part of the water-energy nexus concerned with water needed for energy production, conversion, and utilization. There has been limited focus on assessing the life cycle water footprints of energy pathways. Such an approach assesses the water requirement for the various unit operations in energy pathways from fuel extraction to its final energy form. A study of the life cycle water footprints of different energy pathways with a focus on minimizing water use could help in policy formation and investment decisions. The main objective of this research is to establish a benchmark for water demand coefficients for energy pathways based on a complete life cycle. The focus is on the assessment of different energy pathways and development of life cycle water demand coefficients through comprehensive modeling. The research includes the evaluation of energy pathways based on both conventional and non-conventional sources of energy, and the energy sources assessed are coal, natural gas, oil, biomass, wind, solar, hydroelectricity, nuclear, and geothermal. The initial focus is on power production. The conversion efficiency of power generation is correlated to developed water demand coefficients to study the effect of a power plant’s performance on water use. Coal-based power generation has high water use compared to gas-fired power generation due to differences both in conversion efficiency and the unit operations of fuel extraction. Biomass-based power generation has the highest water demand coefficients over the complete life cycle and wind has the lowest. This study found complete life cycle water consumption coefficients for power generation for coal transported by conventional means to be 0.96 – 3.21 L/kWh and 0.07 – 2.57 L/kWh for gas-fired power plants. Excluding biomass and hydroelectricity pathways, non-conventional energy technology has complete life cycle water consumption coefficients of 0.005 – 4.39 L/kWh. The corresponding range for biomass pathways is 259.6 – 1164.01 L/kWh. Throughout the complete life cycle of a transportation fuel produced from the oil sands in Alberta 2.08 – 4.19 volume of water per volume of oil are consumed, and the corresponding fuel from crude oil extracted from five selected oil fields in North America consumes 1.71 – 8.25 volume of fresh water per volume of oil. The water demand coefficients developed in this study could be used in making decision regarding selection of water efficient pathways.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Power generation
  • Water-energy nexus
  • Oil sands

• Graduation date

  Spring 2017

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3794198Z

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.