Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost of an Innovative Carbon Paper Sensor for 17α-Ethinylestradiol and Comparison with the Classical Chromatographic Method

Florinda Martins, Álvaro Torrinha, Cristina Delerue-Matos and Simone Morais
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Florinda Martins: Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
Álvaro Torrinha: REQUIMTE-LAQV, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
Cristina Delerue-Matos: REQUIMTE-LAQV, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
Simone Morais: REQUIMTE-LAQV, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-13

Abstract: Nowadays there is a growing concern with the environment and sustainability, which means that better methods, including pollutants analysis, with less consumption of materials, organic solvents, and energy, need to be developed. Considering the almost inexistent information about the topic, the main goal of this work was to compare the environmental impacts of two analytical methods, a traditional one based on liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection and a newly developed carbon paper sensor. The selected analyte was 17α-ethinylestradiol, which is a contaminant of emergent concern in aquatic ecosystems due to its endocrine disruptor behavior. The life cycle assessment data showed that the sensor detection presents an almost negligible environmental impact when compared with the extraction step (the same for both methods) and the liquid chromatographic determination (roughly 80 times higher than with the sensor). The sensor values for all categories of damage are below 3% of the total method impacts, i.e., 1.6, 1.9, 2.4, and 2.9% for resources, climate change, human health, and ecosystem quality. The extraction represents 98.1% of the sensor environmental impacts (and 99.6% of its life cycle costing) and 38.8% of the chromatographic method. This study evidences the need of developing and applying greener analytical (detection and extraction) strategies.

Keywords: carbon paper; chromatography; contaminants of emerging concern; electroanalysis; ethinylestradiol; green analytical chemistry; life cycle assessment; life cycle cost; sensor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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