Assessment of environmental sustainability of drinking water treatments for arsenic removal

•Treatments for arsenic removal in drinking water have an impact on environment.•A combined approach with LCA and environmental prices was used.•Energy use and addition of reagents are the major sources of environmental impacts.•A mix of energy from hydro and wind power is suggested to mitigate the impacts. To date, few studies that developed a complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are available in literature, but they are limited to non-conventional processes and did not take into consideration the entire drinking water treatment plant (DWTP). Moreover, few data of the environmental impact are currently available for some of the most widely applied technologies such as biological filtration and coagulation. This study aims to overcome this research gap carrying out a LCA in order to identify (i) what is the most impactful process, and (ii) what possible solutions for mitigating the impact can be proposed. Focusing on the treatment for arsenic removal, the results showed that coagulation was the most impactful process mainly due to the electricity consumption while, looking at the entire DWTP, disinfection prevails. In view of potential up-grade, the use of green energy can effectively increase the sustainability. [Display omitted]