Life Cycle Assessment of Magnetite Production Using Microfluidic Devices: Moving from the Laboratory to Industrial Scale

Abstract

Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) have important applications in several industrial and scientific fields for the remediation of contaminated soil and water, for instance. Emerging technologies such as microfluidic techniques have been adapted to continuously synthesize MNPs showing appealing results, such as a narrower size distribution. Therefore, this approach might become important for producing MNPs to meet industrial requirements. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to analyze and evaluate the impacts of the synthesis of MNPs performed in microfluidic devices. This LCA considers all of the steps required for MNP production at a laboratory and possible industrial scales. The LCA results showed that the rivets suitable for device inlets and outlets and the chemicals required for the synthesis process have the highest contribution to all impact categories, i.e., 80 and 90%, respectively. These results thus contribute to determining the overall environmental performance of each step during the synthesis of MNPs. The contribution analysis reveals that the manufacturing stage has a contribution of 97% at the lab scale, while the operation stage shows a contribution of 82% at the industrial scale. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the possible scenarios for replacing rivets required to manufacture microfluidic devices.

Biosensors for Public Health and Environmental Monitoring: The Case for Sustainable Biosensing

“… Environmental analysis using life cycle analysis methodology on the industrial production of biosensors. Reproduced with permission under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 from ref 130 Copyright 2023, American Chemical Society. …”

Perspectives from the 2022 Cohort of the American Chemical Society Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy

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Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrotropic Antisolvent Crystallization and Antisolvent Crystallization: A Comparative Study

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