Pia Alexandra Wiche Latorre

93 Pages·2012·1.47 MB·English

Water and Energy Consumption at
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Thesis by
Pia Alexandra Wiche Latorre

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
Chemical and Life Sciences Engineering Division
Chemical and Biological Engineering

Thuwal, Makkah Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
May 2012
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Examination Committee Approvals Form

The thesis of Pia Alexandra Wiche Latorre is approved by the examination committee.

Committee Chairperson: Suzana Nunes

Committee Member: Thomas Missimer
Committee Member: Gary Amy
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© 2012
Pia Alexandra Wiche Latorre
All Rights Reserved
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ABSTRACT
Water and Energy Consumption of the King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology
Pia Alexandra Wiche Latorre
Saudi Arabia is the greatest exporter of oil in the world and also the country with
greatest desalination capacity. It is considered a rich country but not a developed
one. Because water is scarce while energy is abundant, it becomes important to
evaluate the environmental performance of populations in Saudi Arabia with
regards to these two aspects. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(KAUST) is a gated community in Saudi Arabia with high living standards where
water and energy are free of cost (no constraint over use). Four environmental
sustainability indicators were used to determine the environmental performance of
KAUST in comparison to other countries. It was found that per capita, KAUST is
between the five greatest water and energy consumers in the world. Important
factors to this result are the fact that KAUST is still under construction, that the peak
capacity for permanent residents has not yet been reached and that there is little
control over the water and energy systems at KAUST. It was concluded that KAUST
should reduce its water and energy consumption per capita. To this means, some
proposed solutions were to have wide-spread awareness-raising campaigns to all
people working and living in KAUST, and to improve control over air conditioning
control systems.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would have not existed without the support of my advisor, Prof. Suzana
Nunes. I extend you my gratitude for believing in this idea from the first moment, and
for supporting this project so much. I hope this becomes a “measuring tradition” at
KAUST!
This project would have not been possible without all the staff members that kindly
helped me to get the data for this study, specially A’laa El-Kady and Edwin Caluya
(SWRO and WWTP), Elie Charro (campus management), Jaleel Mohamed, and
Muhammad Waseem (community horticulture), Salah El-Tawm (campus
horticulture), Sufiyan Khan (KAUST environmental engineer), and finally Melinda
Parshall (LEED office).
Thanks to all my KAUST friends, but especially to Rkia Laamarti, Guy Ngongang and
Patricia Hurd for all the good times at KAUST and for being excellent team mates in all
the projects we had together. I loved sharing so much with you guys.
Thank you, Danilo, for holding me together through KAUST, for your love, support, respect, and
inspiration, for being an inseparable partner in adventures and for teaching me how to
express myself, even when I felt injustice.
Thanks to my family and my best friend for being patient while I have been away, and
for all the energy you’ve sent me from overseas. I wouldn’t have made it without you.
Last but not least, thank you God, for bringing me this far, and for taking me further.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Examination Committee Approvals Form ...................................................................................................... 2
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................................... 4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................................... 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................. 6
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 9
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................................................................... 10
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 13
1.1 Saudi Arabia .......................................................................................................................................... 15
1.1.1 King Abdullah University of Science and Technology ............................................... 19
1.2 Energy and Climate Change ........................................................................................................... 21
1.2.1 IPCC carbon balances .............................................................................................................. 25
1.2.2 Carbon footprint standards .................................................................................................. 26
1.3 Water and environmental impacts.............................................................................................. 28
1.3.1 Arid regions ................................................................................................................................. 30
1.4 The Water-Energy Nexus ................................................................................................................ 33
Chapter 2. Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 35
2.1 Water accounting ............................................................................................................................... 36
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2.2 Water Impact Assessment .............................................................................................................. 37
2.3 Energy accounting .............................................................................................................................. 38
2.4 Energy impact assessment ............................................................................................................. 40
2.4.1 Assumptions ............................................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 3. Internal Water and Energy Consumption at KAUST .................................................. 41
3.1 Goal and Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 41
3.2 Accounting ............................................................................................................................................. 47
3.2.1 Water use ..................................................................................................................................... 47
3.2.2 Energy Use ................................................................................................................................... 66
3.3 Sustainability assessment ............................................................................................................... 69
3.3.1 Water ............................................................................................................................................. 69
3.3.2 Energy ............................................................................................................................................ 73
3.4 Response formulation ...................................................................................................................... 74
3.4.1 Water ............................................................................................................................................. 75
3.4.2 Energy ............................................................................................................................................ 77
Chapter 4. Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 81
4.1 Remarks on the methodology ....................................................................................................... 81
4.2 Virtual water......................................................................................................................................... 82
4.3 Green Areas and Irrigation ............................................................................................................. 83
4.4 Liquid emissions from KAUST ...................................................................................................... 84
4.5 Air conditioning .................................................................................................................................. 85
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4.6 Other impacts of KAUST .................................................................................................................. 86
4.7 Final remarks ....................................................................................................................................... 87
Chapter 5. Conclusions and future work ............................................................................................... 89
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................... 91
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
cap capita (head, person)
CHP Chilled water plant
ESDI Environmental sustainable development indicator(s)
ET Evapotranspiration
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
GDP Gross domestic product
GHG Greenhouse gas
GPC Global protocol for community-scale greenhouse gas emissions
GWP Global Warming Potential
IPCC International Panel on Climate Change
KAUST King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
LCA Life cycle assessment
NWC National Water Company
RO Reverse osmosis
SD Standard deviation
SDI Sustainable development indicator(s)
SS Satellite energy station (substation)
SWRO Seawater reverse osmosis
WHO World Health Organization
WWTP Wastewater treatment plant
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1.1. Life cycle of a product. .................................................................................................................. 13
Figure 1.2. Aereal view of KAUST with highlighted areas. .................................................................. 20
Figure 1.3. GHG emissions for year 2004, by type of gas, in CO equivalents. .............................. 23
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Figure 1.4. CO emissions per kWh of produced energy over entire life cycle. PV:
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photovoltaics, Hydro: Hydroelectricity, Geo: Geothermal (Evans et al., 2009). .......................... 24
Figure 1.5. Per capita carbon dioxide emission for Saudi Arabia for the period 1960 – 2008
(The World Bank, 2011). .................................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 3.1. Schematic diagram of the water flow through the zones in KAUST. WWTP:
wastewater treatment plant; SWRO: reverse osmosis. Thick lines: input to system; Broken
lines: outputs from system. ............................................................................................................................... 42
Figure 3.2. Energy grid of KAUST. In bright red, the national grid and solar power plant. In
pink, five satellite energy stations (SS). ........................................................................................................ 44
Figure 3.3. Variation of evapotranspiration for selected cities in Saudi Arabia. Green: Jeddah;
Cyan: Riyadh; Red: Dhahran; Purple: Yanbu; Black: Medina (Rain Bird company). .................. 50
Figure 3.4. Precipitation over KAUST for year 2011. .............................................................................. 58
Figure 3.5. Monthly energy consumption by sector in KAUST. Blue diamonds: CHP; Red
squares: SS 1 (campus – includes solar); Purple crosses: SS 3 (community); Cyan asterisks:
SWRO and WWTP; Green triangles: SS 2 (community); Orange circles: services area. ........... 66
Figure 3.6. Total energy consumption in KAUST by month for year 2011. In red, the total
energy consumption. In blue the contribution of the Saudi national grid. .................................... 68
Figure 3.7. Position of intake mouth of the SWRO plant (blue pin) and discharge pipe end for
the joint WWTP/SWRO liquid emissions at KAUST (pink pin) (Google Earth, 2009). ............. 70
Figure 3.8. Salinity of the raw Red sea water and discharge water. ................................................. 71
Figure 3.9. Energy consumption for air conditioning in Building 2 between October 20th and
December 11th 2011. ............................................................................................................................................ 78