Life Cycle Assessment for the Fabrication Process of Superhydrophilic Oil/Water Separator

− Rapid growth in nanotechnologies promises novel benefits through the exploitation of their unique industrial applications. However, as the production volume of nanomaterials increases, their unintentional exposure to the environment has been occured. Potential impacts of nanoproducts on the environment can be evaluated in the life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is the systematic analysis of the resource usages and emissions over the life time from the primary resources to the moment of disposal. In this study, we performed LCA for fabrication processes of superhydrophilic oil/water separator using nano-TiO 2 . TOTAL freeware was used to analyze for all fabrication processes, and 6environmental impact factors (resource depletion, climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, eutropication, and photochemical oxidation) were introduced. In addition, the use of nano-TiO 2 in the fabrication of superhydrophilic oil/water separator was actively contributed to the environmental impact factors, compared to the bulk-TiO 2 .