Life Cycle Assessment of Power Generation Methods: A Case Study of Al Layyah Power Station in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Power generation projects represent the core infrastructure system in any country. Due to their drastic environmental impact, countries have started to move away from traditional power plants that focus on coal, and oil fuels, and began to rely on more sustainable power generating methods such as natural gas and steam turbine. Currently the Layyah Power Station in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates uses both natural gas and steam turbines for power generation. An additional process that is currently being proposed is the combined-cycle power system, using a combination of both steam and natural gas. A life cycle assessment for the three different types of turbines was performed to assess their environmental impact and create a baseline for comparison to aid in future decision-making. The results show that the steam turbine and the natural gas turbine have a high impact on the climate change and fossil fuel reserves depletion respectively, whereas the combined turbine helps in the trade-off to reduce the total environmental impact.