Life cycle assessment of the removal of Diuron and Linuron herbicides from water using three environmentally friendly technologies.
Nowadays, every chemical treatment must be developed taking into account its global impact on the environment. With this objective a life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used as a tool for the assessment of the environmental impact of three environmentally friendly processes for the removal of Diuron and Linuron herbicides from water: artificial light assisted photo-Fenton, photo-Fenton coupled to biological treatment and solar assisted photo-Fenton. The inventoried data has been classified considering the potential environmental impacts categories included in the CML 2 baseline 2000 method. Among the three scenarios considered, photo-Fenton coupled to biological treatment proved to have the lowest environmental impact in all the studied categories due to the lower hydrogen peroxide and electricity consumptions. The environmental impacts associated with hydrogen peroxide and electricity production imply more than 72% in all the impact categories of the three scenarios, except for aquatic eutrophication potential category, where the main impacts are related to nitrogen emissions.
Departament de Química, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Ma José
MJ
Farré
J
J
García-Montaño
N
N
Ruiz
I
I
Muñoz
X
X
Domènech
J
J
Peral
D004237:Diuron / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004777:Environment; D006540:Herbicides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D008044:Linuron / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013472:Sunlight; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*
C045076:Fenton's reagent; D006540:Herbicides; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D008044:Linuron; D004237:Diuron; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D007501:Iron