Shahid Beheshti University Sustainable Earth Trends 3060-6225 6 1 2026 01 01 Selection of an Optimal Alternative for Wastewater Disposal in Combined Cycle Power Plants for Semi-arid Areas Using Analysis Hierarchical Process (AHP) 45 54 105278 10.48308/set.2025.238283.1106 EN Sedigheh Rahmati Kishehkhaleh Department of Environmental Pollutants Research, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran Seyed Hossein Hashemi Department of Environmental Pollutants Research, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0002-5351-3630 Mahdi Jalili Ghazizade Department of Environmental Pollutants Research, Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran Hamid Bastani HSE Manager of 2 MAPNA MD2 Company, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2025 01 07 Living in arid and semi-arid regions is disrupted due to lack of water, and fossil fuel sources of combined cycle thermal power plants play an important role in generating electricity in these areas. The wastewater of these plants often contains various pollutants, including heavy metals, whose discharge to the environment can have a wide range of negative impacts. In this study, a model is presented to select the optimum disposal option of combined cycle power plants in semi-arid areas using the Analysis Hierarchical Process (AHP). The criteria and sub-criteria for determining optimal wastewater disposal in combined cycle power plants were selected based on consultation with experts in three main technical (11 sub-criteria), economical (4 sub-criteria), and environmental (4 sub-criteria). The wastewater disposal option indicated that the environmental and technical criteria score for the evaporation pond is 0.069 and 0.126 and 0.228 and 0.205 for the zero liquid discharge, respectively. The results showed that environmental and then technical and economic criteria are the most important. Also, the most important environmental, technical, and economical sub-criteria are the safety of workers and people, system performance to achieve output standards, and operation and maintenance costs, respectively. To evaluate the model, the proposed method was applied to two combined cycle power plants in Yazd Province with an arid and semi-arid climate in central Iran. The results showed that regarding the characteristics of the power plants and the conditions of the area that is facing water shortage, the best option for disposal of wastewater in both plants is zero liquid discharge. https://sustainearth.sbu.ac.ir/article_105278_af37e10b95069990c2d0c9b6e81e4664.pdf