Impact of Small-Scale Geothermal Power Plant Replenishment with A Life Cycle Assessment

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is life cycle thinking replenishment in which the targets are environmental aspects and impacts generated in one product life cycle. The benefits of LCA can be taken into consideration in several choices of system, for example, the comparison of the Small-scale geothermal power plant (Unit-SS) replenishment to Unit-1. LCA results in the form of the impact of the production process per product is 1 kWh electricity. The biggest impact on Unit-1 and Unit-SS is acidification. Acidification comes from the release of NCG into the air from the cooling tower. The acidification impact of Unit-1 result is 0.018139 kg SO2eq/kWh. Furthermore, normalizing impact result shows that the acidification impact is much greater than the impact of global warming, toxicity, and other impacts. The contribution impact of the addition of small-scale when compared to the impact of Unit-1 operations has a positive impact or tends to have a lower environmental impact. The Unit-SS has the potential for acidification of 0.002407 kg SO2eq/kWh lower than Unit-1. In addition, the Unit-SS has more efficient steam consumption by design than Unit-1. Therefore, less impact of Unit-SS can be suspected relate with steam consumption. Another alternative suggestion based on the analysis is an opportunity for further research on the efficiency of the gas removal system which has a positive impact on the distribution of NCG.