Virtual Water Footprint at Industry (Case study: Detergent industry)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 M.Sc. student, Department of Water Sciences and Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Water Sciences and Engineering, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Due to its location in arid and semi-arid climates and also with the increasing growth of water consumption, Iran is facing a serious risk of water crisis in agriculture, drinking and industry. To deal with it, we must be more sensitive to the types of water consumption. The industrial sector is one of the major consumers of water resources in the country and water consumption management in this sector should be considered, in addition to saving water consumption, to meet the water needs of industries in the future. The present study was conducted on one of the large detergent factories in Qazvin province. A system boundary analysis is provided for a detergent and the range of water consumption factors is determined. Using the information received from the factory and related calculations, the total water footprint of the factory in 2019 is 26.64 cubic meters per ton of product. The amount of direct and indirect water footprints is estimated to be 0.658  and 25.9 cubic meters per ton of product, respectively, which indicates the high share of detergent production in water consumption. In this study, the gray water footprint in this industry is calculated to be 14.5 cubic meters per ton and the amount of footprint is very effective on the overall water footprint of the factory.

Keywords

References

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Iranian journal of Ecohydrology
Volume 7, Issue 4
January 2021
Pages 855-871

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History

  • Receive Date: 11 May 2020
  • Revise Date: 09 September 2020
  • Accept Date: 09 September 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 December 2020
  • Publish Date: 21 December 2020

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