Life cycle assessment of engineered nanomaterials: State of the art and strategies to overcome existing gaps

Hischier, Roland; Walser, Tobias

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.03.001

Cited by 193 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…It must be noted that the quantification of the ecotoxicity impacts is one of the most debatable items in LCA (Hischier and Walser, 2012). The variability in model outcomes has been reduced thanks to the USEtox TM model, recently developed by an international collaboration of leading LCIA specialists (Rosenbaum et al, 2008).…”

Section: Characterization Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LCA has been proposed and adopted as essential tool to analyse, evaluate, understand and manage the environmental and health effects of the ENMs (Hischier, 2014). Despite all, the LCA studies often do not cover the complete life cycle of ENMs (Hischier and Walser, 2012;Gavankar et al 2012;Miseljic and Olsen, 2014). Hence, most of the studies are cradleto-gate and the environmental impacts primarily reflect the energy and material flows for the extraction of raw materials and manufacturing phases, whereas the environmental impacts related to the release of ENPs into the environment are rarely assessed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is evident that the lack of ecotoxicity CF of ENPs impedes the evaluation of ecotoxicological impacts caused by their emissions into the environment. As far, only two studies have calculated the freshwater-and seawater-ecotoxicity CF of ENPs: Eckelman et al, 2012 andWalser et al, 2012 calculated the CF for carbon nanotubes (CNT) and silver nanoparticles, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Freshwater ecotoxicity characterisation factor for metal oxide nanoparticles: A case study on titanium dioxide nanoparticle

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Section: Characterization Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Freshwater ecotoxicity characterisation factor for metal oxide nanoparticles: A case study on titanium dioxide nanoparticle

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Science of The Total Environment

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“…This is echoed by Hischier and Walser [2]. This has a large effect on the overall life cycle impacts attributed to CNT production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Uncertainty communication in the environmental life cycle assessment of carbon nanotubes

Parsons

Murphy

Lee

et al. 2015

IJNT

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Amidst the great technological progress being made in the field of nanotechnology, we are confronted by both conventional and novel environmental challenges and opportunities. Several gaps exist in the present state of knowledge or experience with nanomaterials. Understanding and managing the uncertainties that these gaps cause in LCAs is essential. Traditionally used for more established technology systems, environmental LCA is now being applied to nanomaterials by policy-makers, researchers and industry. However, the aleatory (variability) and epistemic (system process) uncertainties in LCAs of nanomaterials need to be handled correctly and communicated in the analysis. Otherwise, the results risk being misinterpreted, misguiding decision-making processes and could lead to significant detrimental effects for industry, research and policy-making. Here, we review current life cycle assessment literature for carbon nanotubes, and identify the key sources of uncertainty that need to be taken into consideration. These include: the potential for non-equivalency between mass and toxicity (potentially requiring inventory and impact models to be adjusted); the use of proxy data to bridge gaps in inventory data; and the often very wide ranges in material performance, process energy and product lifetimes quoted.

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“…For this, the findings of each of these elements have been published as individual papers in a scientific journal (Bauer et al 2008;Hischier and Walser 2012; Hischier 2013a, b). The first of these publications by Bauer et al (2008) investigates the first of these above-mentioned elements, i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of manufactured nanomaterials: inventory modelling rules and application example

Hischier

2014

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Nanotechnology-sometimes designated as a 'defining technology for the twenty-first century'-was first mentioned as a new field at the end of the 1950s in the famous speech by Richard P. Feynman (Feynman 1959). Two key characteristics of nanomaterials show up in the various developments in this area: the scale of the material and, related to this, its changes in properties and functionalities, but despite all these opportunities and the growing importance of nanotechnology, knowledge about the potential risks and hazards that may be linked to the various facets of this new technology is still incomplete. Using life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to address potential impacts on the natural environment and human health is a natural application of this methodology, both for the evaluation of manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) and the products they are used in. However, so far, LCA has not been completely adopted for such a use. In fact, none of the public LCI databases contain a single data set for any type of MNM, despite the conclusions from an international workshop of LCA experts who consider LCA to be a suitable tool for an application in the area of nanotechnology (Klöpffer et al. 2006). There have been a few examples of LCA studies published, but most of these studies are far from being comprehensive and complete LCA studies. These weak points, such as the lack of inventory data and missing characterisation factors, are at least partly due to a lack of clear modelling rules for a LCA of MNM, an issue that a recently finished PhD thesis of ETH in Zürich (Hischier 2013c) has taken up. The objective of this PhD work is the provision of the foundation for a clear guidance for coherent and comprehensive inventory modelling of nanomaterials along their complete life cycle. In order to achieve this objective, the thesis work consists of the following elements:1. A general set-up that allows the application of life cycle thinking principles (being the driving force behind the LCA tool) to the whole spectrum of applications of MNM; 2. An up-to-date and comprehensive overview of current published work in the area of 'LCA and nanotechnology' in order to clearly identify weaknesses and missing elements that have so far prevented a coherent and comprehensive application of the LCA process along the complete life cycle of MNM; 3. A framework on the level of inventory modelling that eliminates these weaknesses and missing elements identified beforehand, by keeping in mind the requirements from (the subsequent) impact assessment step; and 4. A first application example of the methodological developments by applying the framework on a display technology (the field emission display technology) using carbon nanotubes.With the developed framework, the thesis aims to contribute to an increased effectiveness in the future, when LCA is used in the area of nanotechnology. For this, the findings of each of these elements have been published as individual papers in a scientific journal (Bauer et al. 2008;Hischier and Walser 2012; His...

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Life cycle assessment of engineered nanomaterials: State of the art and strategies to overcome existing gaps

Cited by 193 publications

References 38 publications

Freshwater ecotoxicity characterisation factor for metal oxide nanoparticles: A case study on titanium dioxide nanoparticle

Freshwater ecotoxicity characterisation factor for metal oxide nanoparticles: A case study on titanium dioxide nanoparticle

Uncertainty communication in the environmental life cycle assessment of carbon nanotubes

Life cycle assessment of manufactured nanomaterials: inventory modelling rules and application example

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