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Life Cycle Assessment of a Celery Paddy Macrocosm Exposed to Manufactured Nano-TiO2

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Abstract

Objective

This study analyzes the environmental effects of nano-TiO2 exposure using Life cycle assessment (LCA) within a modelled system of a celery paddy macrocosm through different trophic levels in order to complement existing risk assessment studies of bioaccumulation.

Methods

LCA in GaBi software was used to model a celery paddy macrocosm system that includes celery (Apium graveolens), with different trophic levels such as, fresh water, land use, algae (Chlorella vulgaris), and immature rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), as well as the use of electricity in the macrocosm system and exposure to nano-TiO2. A functional unit of 0.5 kg and exposure to nano-TiO2 was selected to analyze the different environmental impact categories.

Results

The use of nano-TiO2 in freshwater was related to marine aquatic ecotoxicity, mainly because of the large amount of inorganic emissions in air and emissions of hydrogen fluoride and beryllium in fresh water. Normalized values show that from a global perspective, the greatest repercussions involve marine aquatic ecotoxicity and human toxicity, the latter mainly influenced by air emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Nano-TiO2 also had some effects on eutrophication impact category related to ammonia emissions.

Conclusion

The normalized global values also showed large effects in marine aquatic ecotoxicity and human toxicity. In addition, nano-TiO2 use in a macrocosm as nutrient showed repercussions in eutrophication. Therefore, a broader study that includes the material flow during feedstock processing of nano-TiO2 is necessary to determine the repercussions of this nanomaterial in other life-cycle stages, especially use and end of life.

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  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Kyung Hee University, 1732 Deogyeong-daero, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 17104, Republic of Korea

    Cristal Céspedes & Min-Kyeong Yeo

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  1. Cristal Céspedes
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Correspondence to Min-Kyeong Yeo.

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Céspedes, C., Yeo, MK. Life Cycle Assessment of a Celery Paddy Macrocosm Exposed to Manufactured Nano-TiO2. Toxicol. Environ. Health Sci. 10, 288–296 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13530-018-0377-x

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