Ionic Liquids: Review of their Current and Future Industrial Applications and their Potential Environmental Impact

Background: Over the last two decades, thousands of scientific papers and many patents have been written relating to applications of ionic liquids, a family of compounds which garnered such huge interest due to their reputation as "green chemicals". This work reviews the recent literature to investigate the progress ionic liquids have made in their transition from academia to full-scale application in a variety of industries. Methods: For this review, key words related to ionic liquids and their possible applications were used to search patent databases such as Google patents. The recent patents thus discovered were tabulated and sorted by application, and the most significant patents identified. For each application of ionic liquids identified in the patent search, an additional review of the recent scientific literature was carried out, focussing on the relevant ionic liquids and their potential environmental impact. Results: Patents involving ionic liquids were found for a variety of industrial applications, including in chemical industry production technologies, nanotechnology, gas storage and environmental remediation. Despite the widespread interest of the chemical industry, which hopes to improve the environmental sustainability of their technologies by utilising ionic liquids, to date only a handful of full-scale processes which utilise ionic liquids have been successfully commercialised. That said, a large number of pilot studies have been carried out in recent years, and 62 patents and 270 scientific texts are summarised herein. and other industrial applications are also approaching the market. Conclusion: The properties of ionic liquids inhibit their entry into the atmosphere. However, their annual production is expected to increase drastically, raising urgent questions about their environmental impact, especially in water bodies. More research is thus required to identify and mitigate any risks ionic liquids might pose to the environment.

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Potential Environmental Impact of Imidazolium Ionic Liquids

ACS Symposium Series - Ionic Liquids IV ◽

10.1021/bk-2007-0975.ch002 ◽

2007 ◽

pp. 10-20

Author(s):

Piotr Stepnowski

Keyword(s):

Ionic Liquids ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Imidazolium Ionic Liquids ◽

Potential Environmental Impact

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Microbial Surfactants: The Next Generation Multifunctional Biomolecules for Diverse Applications

10.20944/preprints201909.0044.v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Emmanuel O. Fenibo ◽

Grace N. Ijoma ◽

Selvarajan Ramganesh ◽

Chioma B. Chikere

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus ◽

Industrial Applications ◽

Industrial Growth ◽

Agriculture Sector ◽

Industrial Sectors ◽

Wide Range ◽

Wide Variability ◽

Synthetic Surfactants

ABSTRACT Surfactants are a broad category of tensio-active biomolecules with multifunctional properties applications in diverse industrial sectors and processes. Surfactants are produced synthetically and biologically. The biologically derived surfactants (biosurfactants) are produced from microorganisms with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis Candida albicans and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus as dominant species. Rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosylerithritol lipids, surfactin, and emulsan are well known in terms of their biotechnological applications. Biosurfactants can compete with the synthetic surfactants in terms of performance with established advantages over the synthetic ones including eco-friendliness, biodegradability, low toxicity, and stability over a wide variability of environmental factors. However, at present, the synthetic surfactants are a preferred option in different industrial applications, because of their availability in commercial quantities, unlike the biosurfactants. Usage of synthetic surfactants introduce new species of recalcitrant pollutants to the environment and lead to undesired results where a wrong selection of surfactants is made. Substituting synthetic surfactants with biosurfactants resolves these drawbacks, thus, interest has been intensified in biosurfactant applications in a wide range of industries hitherto considered as experimental fields. This review, therefore, intends to offer an overview of diverse applications where biosurfactants have found useful, with emphases in petroleum biotechnology, environmental remediation and in the agriculture sector. Application of biosurfactant in these settings would lead to industrial growth and environmental sustainability.

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Microbial Surfactants: The Next Generation Multifunctional Biomolecules for Applications in the Petroleum Industry and Its Associated Environmental Remediation

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms7110581 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (11) ◽

pp. 581 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Emmanuel O. Fenibo ◽

Grace N. Ijoma ◽

Ramganesh Selvarajan ◽

Chioma B. Chikere

Keyword(s):

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Petroleum Industry ◽

Acinetobacter Calcoaceticus ◽

Industrial Applications ◽

Industrial Growth ◽

Agriculture Sector ◽

Industrial Sectors ◽

Wide Range ◽

Synthetic Surfactants

Surfactants are a broad category of tensio-active biomolecules with multifunctional properties applications in diverse industrial sectors and processes. Surfactants are produced synthetically and biologically. The biologically derived surfactants (biosurfactants) are produced from microorganisms, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis Candida albicans, and Acinetobacter calcoaceticus as dominant species. Rhamnolipids, sophorolipids, mannosylerithritol lipids, surfactin, and emulsan are well known in terms of their biotechnological applications. Biosurfactants can compete with synthetic surfactants in terms of performance, with established advantages over synthetic ones, including eco-friendliness, biodegradability, low toxicity, and stability over a wide variability of environmental factors. However, at present, synthetic surfactants are a preferred option in different industrial applications because of their availability in commercial quantities, unlike biosurfactants. The usage of synthetic surfactants introduces new species of recalcitrant pollutants into the environment and leads to undesired results when a wrong selection of surfactants is made. Substituting synthetic surfactants with biosurfactants resolves these drawbacks, thus interest has been intensified in biosurfactant applications in a wide range of industries hitherto considered as experimental fields. This review, therefore, intends to offer an overview of diverse applications in which biosurfactants have been found to be useful, with emphases on petroleum biotechnology, environmental remediation, and the agriculture sector. The application of biosurfactants in these settings would lead to industrial growth and environmental sustainability.

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Improving the Sustainability of Dairy Slurry by A Commercial Additive Treatment

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11184998 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (18) ◽

pp. 4998 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Federica Borgonovo ◽

Cecilia Conti ◽

Daniela Lovarelli ◽

Valentina Ferrante ◽

Marcella Guarino

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Mineral Fertilizer ◽

Cattle Slurry ◽

N Loss ◽

Beneficial Effects ◽

Environmental Impact Categories ◽

Carbon Dioxide Co2

Ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from livestock farms contribute to negative environmental impacts such as acidification and climate change. A significant part of these emissions is produced from the decomposition of slurry in livestock facilities, during storage and treatment phases. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the additive “SOP LAGOON” (made of agricultural gypsum processed with proprietary technology) on (i) NH3 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, (ii) slurry properties and N loss. Moreover, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was applied to assess the potential environmental impact associated with stored slurry treated with the additive. Six barrels were filled with 65 L of cattle slurry, of which three were used as a control while the additive was used in the other three. The results indicated that the use of the additive led to a reduction of total nitrogen, nitrates, and GHG emissions. LCA confirmed the higher environmental sustainability of the scenario with the additive for some environmental impact categories among which climate change. In conclusion, the additive has beneficial effects on both emissions and the environment, and the nitrogen present in the treated slurry could partially displace a mineral fertilizer, which can be considered an environmental credit.

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Thermal Characterization of Recycled Materials for Building Insulation

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123564 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3564

Author(s):

Arnas Majumder ◽

Laura Canale ◽

Costantino Carlo Mastino ◽

Antonio Pacitto ◽

Andrea Frattolillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Building Materials ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Natural Fibers ◽

Thermal Characterization ◽

Recycled Materials ◽

Building Insulation ◽

Operational Phase

The building sector is known to have a significant environmental impact, considering that it is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions of around 36% and is also responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption. Of this, about 50% takes place during the building operational phase, while around 10–20% is consumed in materials manufacturing, transport and building construction, maintenance, and demolition. Increasing the necessity of reducing the environmental impact of buildings has led to enhancing not only the thermal performances of building materials, but also the environmental sustainability of their production chains and waste prevention. As a consequence, novel thermo-insulating building materials or products have been developed by using both locally produced natural and waste/recycled materials that are able to provide good thermal performances while also having a lower environmental impact. In this context, the aim of this work is to provide a detailed analysis for the thermal characterization of recycled materials for building insulation. To this end, the thermal behavior of different materials representing industrial residual or wastes collected or recycled using Sardinian zero-km locally available raw materials was investigated, namely: (1) plasters with recycled materials; (2) plasters with natural fibers; and (3) building insulation materials with natural fibers. Results indicate that the investigated materials were able to improve not only the energy performances but also the environmental comfort in both new and in existing buildings. In particular, plasters and mortars with recycled materials and with natural fibers showed, respectively, values of thermal conductivity (at 20 °C) lower than 0.475 and 0.272 W/(m⋅K), while that of building materials with natural fibers was always lower than 0.162 W/(m⋅K) with lower values for compounds with recycled materials (0.107 W/(m⋅K)). Further developments are underway to analyze the mechanical properties of these materials.

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A Microcosm Treatability Study for Evaluating Wood Mulch-Based Amendments as Electron Donors for Trichloroethene (TCE) Reductive Dechlorination

Water ◽

10.3390/w13141949 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 1949

Author(s):

Edoardo Masut ◽

Alessandro Battaglia ◽

Luca Ferioli ◽

Anna Legnani ◽

Carolina Cruz Viggi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Electron Donor ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Reductive Dechlorination ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Low Cost ◽

Chlorinated Solvents ◽

Electron Donors ◽

Chlorinated Ethenes ◽

Dehalococcoides Mccartyi ◽

Wood Mulch

In this study, wood mulch-based amendments were tested in a bench-scale microcosm experiment in order to assess the treatability of saturated soils and groundwater from an industrial site contaminated by chlorinated ethenes. Wood mulch was tested alone as the only electron donor in order to assess its potential for stimulating the biological reductive dechlorination. It was also tested in combination with millimetric iron filings in order to assess the ability of the additive to accelerate/improve the bioremediation process. The efficacy of the selected amendments was compared with that of unamended control microcosms. The results demonstrated that wood mulch is an effective natural and low-cost electron donor to stimulate the complete reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents to ethene. Being a side-product of the wood industry, mulch can be used in environmental remediation, an approach which perfectly fits the principles of circular economy and addresses the compelling needs of a sustainable and low environmental impact remediation. The efficacy of mulch was further improved by the co-presence of iron filings, which accelerated the conversion of vinyl chloride into the ethene by increasing the H2 availability rather than by catalyzing the direct abiotic dechlorination of contaminants. Chemical analyses were corroborated by biomolecular assays, which confirmed the stimulatory effect of the selected amendments on the abundance of Dehalococcoides mccartyi and related reductive dehalogenase genes. Overall, this paper further highlights the application potential and environmental sustainability of wood mulch-based amendments as low-cost electron donors for the biological treatment of chlorinated ethenes.

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Attributional & Consequential Life Cycle Assessment: Definitions, Conceptual Characteristics and Modelling Restrictions

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13137386 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 7386

Author(s):

Thomas Schaubroeck ◽

Simon Schaubroeck ◽

Reinout Heijungs ◽

Alessandra Zamagni ◽

Miguel Brandão ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Product Life Cycle ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Consequential Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Modelling Framework ◽

Potential Environmental Impact ◽

Reference Environment ◽

The Impact

To assess the potential environmental impact of human/industrial systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a very common method. There are two prominent types of LCA, namely attributional (ALCA) and consequential (CLCA). A lot of literature covers these approaches, but a general consensus on what they represent and an overview of all their differences seems lacking, nor has every prominent feature been fully explored. The two main objectives of this article are: (1) to argue for and select definitions for each concept and (2) specify all conceptual characteristics (including translation into modelling restrictions), re-evaluating and going beyond findings in the state of the art. For the first objective, mainly because the validity of interpretation of a term is also a matter of consensus, we argue the selection of definitions present in the 2011 UNEP-SETAC report. ALCA attributes a share of the potential environmental impact of the world to a product life cycle, while CLCA assesses the environmental consequences of a decision (e.g., increase of product demand). Regarding the second objective, the product system in ALCA constitutes all processes that are linked by physical, energy flows or services. Because of the requirement of additivity for ALCA, a double-counting check needs to be executed, modelling is restricted (e.g., guaranteed through linearity) and partitioning of multifunctional processes is systematically needed (for evaluation per single product). The latter matters also hold in a similar manner for the impact assessment, which is commonly overlooked. CLCA, is completely consequential and there is no limitation regarding what a modelling framework should entail, with the coverage of co-products through substitution being just one approach and not the only one (e.g., additional consumption is possible). Both ALCA and CLCA can be considered over any time span (past, present & future) and either using a reference environment or different scenarios. Furthermore, both ALCA and CLCA could be specific for average or marginal (small) products or decisions, and further datasets. These findings also hold for life cycle sustainability assessment.

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China’s plastic import ban increases prospects of environmental impact mitigation of plastic waste trade flow worldwide

Nature Communications ◽

10.1038/s41467-020-20741-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Zongguo Wen ◽

Yiling Xie ◽

Muhan Chen ◽

Christian Doh Dinga

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Trade Flow ◽

Plastic Waste ◽

Sharp Decline ◽

Short Term ◽

Long Run ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Waste Trade ◽

Treatment Structure

AbstractSince the late 1990s, the trend of plastic waste shipment from developed to developing countries has been increasing. In 2017, China announced an unprecedented ban on its import of most plastic waste, resulting in a sharp decline in global plastic waste trade flow and changes in the treatment structure of countries, whose impacts on global environmental sustainability are enormous but yet unexamined. Here, through the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we quantified the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban. In the short term, the ban significantly improved four midpoint indicators of environmental impact, albeit contributed to global warming. An annual saving of about 2.35 billion euros of eco-cost was realized, which is equivalent to 56% of plastic waste global trade value in 2017. To achieve global environmental sustainability in the long run, countries should gradually realize the transition from export to domestic management, and from landfill to recycling, which would realize eco-costs savings of about 1.54–3.20 billion euros.

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