Ultrafiltration versus sedimentation-based pretreatment in Fujairah-1 RO plant: Environmental impact study

Our findings indicate that a membrane-based pretreatment has a lower environmental impact, throughout the system's life cycle, than the existing sedimentation-based pretreatment in the Fujairah-1 desalination plant. This result holds under all alternative energy mix assumptions; including renewable, natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy. Our findings also show that the most significant contributor to the overall environmental impacts of both pretreatment systems is energy consumption.