Household reverse osmosis (RO)-based water purifiers have gained popularity in India due to concerns about the quality of tap water. However, the widespread adoption of these systems has significant impacts on water pricing and the environment. The objective of this study was to assess the techno-economic performance and life cycle assessment (LCA) of household RO-based water purifiers in Srinagar city of North India. Our results demonstrate that household ROs reduce the concentration of important dietary minerals such as fluoride and magnesium in drinking water by 50%. In addition, the average total water cost from a household RO is three to four times more than what is being paid for tap water. Two different scenarios were compared in LCA. The first scenario was safe drinking water from a conventional drinking water treatment plant (scenario 1), while the second scenario was water from a household RO system (scenario 2). The results showed that the environmental impacts of abiotic depletion, acidification of water bodies, eutrophication, global warming and ozone depletion in scenario 2 were higher than in scenario 1. The findings infer that water utilities should encourage citizens to rely on conventional tap water as a cheaper and environmentally friendly option compared to household ROs.

由于对自来水质量的担忧，家用反渗透 (RO) 净水器在印度越来越受欢迎。然而，这些系统的广泛采用对水价和环境产生了重大影响。本研究的目的是评估印度北部斯利那加市家用反渗透净水器的技术经济性能和生命周期评估 (LCA)。我们的结果表明，家用 RO 可以将饮用水中氟化物和镁等重要膳食矿物质的浓度降低 50%。此外，家庭RO的平均总水成本是自来水的三到四倍。LCA 中比较了两种不同的场景。第一个场景是来自传统饮用水处理厂的安全饮用水（场景 1），第二种情况是来自家用反渗透系统的水（情况2）。结果表明，情景 2 中的非生物耗竭、水体酸化、富营养化、全球变暖和臭氧消耗对环境的影响高于情景 1。研究结果表明，自来水公司应鼓励公民依赖传统自来水作为水源。与家用 RO 相比，这是更便宜且环保的选择。