Aykaç Özen Hülya, Temiz Ekin, Çoruh Semra
Department of Environmental Engineering, Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Türkiye.
Integr Environ Assess Manag. 2025 Jul 1;21(4):823-832. doi: 10.1093/inteam/vjaf008.
The consideration of scarcity and overexploitation of freshwater at the organizational level has increased interest in the water footprint (WF). The water footprint measures freshwater use for activities, taking into account water consumption and pollution contamination by classifying consumed water into groundwater and surface water (blue water), rainwater (green water), and polluted water (grey water). This study aims to identify a comprehensive WF inventory analysis for a denim washing company and assess the grey WF based on the effluent concentration of pollution indicators (chemical oxygen demand [COD], suspended solids [SS], ammonium nitrogen [NH4-N], and phenol) measured monthly in 2021. The company used well water for its operations, which constituted 61.79% of the total water use of the facility; water used by the company by reverse osmosis (RO) accounted for 37.60% of total water consumption, and rainwater made up 0.61% of the volume of water used overall. The grey water footprints of COD, SS, NH4-N, and phenol were calculated as 59,981.53 m3, 31,747.21 m3, 10,514 m3, and 48,190 m3, respectively. The results illustrate that the COD, which accounted for 40% of the pollutants, had the highest grey WF in the company, corresponding to the amount of freshwater required to assimilate pollutants to meet water quality standards. In addition, the effect of the RO system on the blue WF of this company was analyzed by considering two different scenarios. Reverse osmosis considerably affected the blue WF, accounting for over 37% of this company's water use. It suggests that a wastewater treatment plant using RO is an ideal option for recovering water. The main contributions of this study are comprehensively assessing the water footprint components of the denim washing company and understanding sector-specific water footprint at the organization level.
在组织层面上，对淡水稀缺和过度开发的关注增加了人们对水足迹（WF）的兴趣。水足迹衡量活动中的淡水使用情况，通过将消耗的水分为地下水和地表水（蓝水）、雨水（绿水）以及污水（灰水）来考虑水的消耗和污染。本研究旨在确定一家牛仔布洗涤公司的全面水足迹清单分析，并根据2021年每月测量的污染指标（化学需氧量[COD]、悬浮固体[SS]、铵氮[NH₄-N]和苯酚）的废水浓度评估灰水足迹。该公司运营使用井水，占该设施总用水量的61.79%；公司通过反渗透（RO）使用的水占总用水量的37.60%，雨水占总用水量的0.61%。COD、SS、NH₄-N和苯酚的灰水足迹分别计算为59,981.53立方米、31,747.21立方米、10,514立方米和48,190立方米。结果表明，占污染物40%的COD在该公司具有最高的灰水足迹，相当于将污染物同化以达到水质标准所需的淡水量。此外，通过考虑两种不同情景分析了RO系统对该公司蓝水足迹的影响。反渗透对蓝水足迹有很大影响，占该公司用水量的37%以上。这表明使用RO的废水处理厂是回收水的理想选择。本研究的主要贡献在于全面评估了牛仔布洗涤公司的水足迹组成部分，并在组织层面了解特定行业的水足迹。
