Nanoparticle synthesis methodologies
have been developed
over the
last decades for reducing the concentrations of pesticides such as
atrazine in the environment. In this work, life cycle assessment (LCA)
and economic performance analysis tools were used to evaluate the
eco-efficiency transition of two laboratory-scale synthesis processes
for polymeric nanoparticles (NPo) containing atrazine (ATZ), namely,
a double emulsion process (DEm) and a nanoprecipitation process (NPr).
Life cycle inventories for both synthesis processes included the flows
of matter and energy at a laboratory scale, complementing information
from the Ecoinvent database. LCA used the ReCiPe 2016 methodology
with a midpoint (H) to produce NPo + ATZ at a concentration of 1 mg
ATZ mL–1 of final solution (functional unit). For
both processes, freshwater ecotoxicity stood out among the impact
categories evaluated, due to significant electricity consumption.
The DEm process had a 61% higher total environmental impact, compared
to the NPr process. The total cost of the DEm process per functional
unit was 5% higher than that of the NPr process. Therefore, NPr achieved
a gain of 54% for the eco-efficiency transition, in relation to DEm,
for the production of NPo + ATZ. Two steps influenced this result
that only occurred in the DEm process: sonication and the use of dichloromethane.
Therefore, eco-efficiency enabled identification of the greener production
process and the steps that had greater environmental and economic
impacts in two NPo synthesis processes.