ANG, P., BUSTAMANTE, P. R. H., THONIYOT, P., & KHOO, H. H. (2022). Life Cycle-Atom Economy and Life Cycle Assessment as a Hybrid Sustainability Assessment Tool. In Life Cycle Assessment (pp. 91–111). WORLD SCIENTIFIC. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811245800_0006
Abstract:
While Atom Economy (AE) is an important concept in green chemistry, the spectrum it covers is limited as raw materials that make up the reactants of a production process are not accounted for. Life Cycle (LC) concepts derived from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are therefore incorporated with AE to form an implicit LC-AE framework, for a holistic sustainable assessment of a production route. AE and LC-AE of the production routes for four selected industrial solvents: Tetrahydrofuran (THF), 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF), N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) and Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) are investigated. A decrease in LC-AE percentages from AE percentages are observed which indicate that the processes are more inefficient when considering the production route’s cradle. LC-AE of the alternatives for THF and DMF, namely 2-MeTHF and DMSO, are also covered to understand the potential of the latter in replacing the solvents. The alternatives achieved higher efficiency hence, a higher LC-AE. The LCA comparison of Production Route 5 (DMF production) and Production Route 7 (DMSO production) further affirmed that DMSO is more environmentally friendly than DMF. Environmental impact reductions for all the selected Environmental Impact Categories are achieved when production of 1 kg of DMSO is used as a substitute to 1 kg of DMF.
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Publisher Copyright
Funding Info:
There was no specific funding for the research done