Grey water footprint assessment of geothermal water resources in the southeastern anatolia region

Abstract

This paper aimed to determine the grey water footprint (GWF) of geothermal water resources and to investigate the effect of biochar adsorption on grey water footprint in Southeastern Turkey. In this paper, GWF has been calculated in terms of iron (Fe), arsenic (As), manganese (Mn), boron (B), and chrome (Cr) concentrations for fifteen observation geothermal resources located in Southeastern Anatolia Region. In this study, a new approach based on the GWF was developed in order to determine the geothermal water pollution. Grey water footprints related to fifteen geothermal resources were investigated. In the second stage of the study, the effect of biochar adsorption on GWF was estimated using Monte Carlo simulation. The results revealed that arsenic led to higher GWF than other pollutant parameters in geothermal water resources. Biochar application could reduce the GWF according to Monte Carlo simulation. The total average reduction of GWF would be approximately 95, 93.1, 87.5, 96, and 90% respectively for Fe, As, Mn, B and Cr pollution if biochar adsorption is applied for geothermal water treatment.