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LCA to Evaluate the Environmental Impact for Chemical Pre-treatment in Plastics Metallization

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Abstract

The life cycle assessment methodology was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the current chemical pre-treatment with chromium(VI) for electroplating acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. The inventory comprised: the procurement of chemicals; the manufacturing process with successive baths and rinses that requires, in addition to chemicals, energy to heat baths, air agitation, filtration, and so forth, wastewater treatment and air emissions; and also the treatment of sludges from wastewater treatment and exhausted baths. Chromic acid was almost the unique responsible of eco-toxicity (97.5 %) and human toxicity-cancer (99.8 %) and it was one of the highest contributor to climate change, cumulative energy demand, fossil fuel depletion, human toxicity non-cancer, and in abiotic depletion.

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Acknowledgments

Authors gratefully appreciate the financial support from Eco-innovation Initiative of the European Union for the project ECO/11/304394 “Cost effective industrialization of an eco-friendly pre-treatment for plastic chrome plating using self-assembly nanotechnology”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Construction, GID, Universitat Jaume I, Av. Sos Baynat s/n, 12071, Castellón, Spain

    Rosario Vidal & Jaume-Adrià Alberola-Borràs

  2. Avanzare Innovación Tecnológica, Avda Lentiscares 4-6, 26370, Navarrete, Spain

    Julio Gómez-Cordón

  3. AIMPLAS, Gustave Eiffel 4 (València Parc Tecnològic), 46980, Paterna, Spain

    Enrique Moliner, Amaya Ortega & Eva Verdejo

Authors
  1. Rosario Vidal
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  2. Jaume-Adrià Alberola-Borràs
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  3. Julio Gómez-Cordón
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  4. Enrique Moliner
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  5. Amaya Ortega
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Correspondence to Rosario Vidal.

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Vidal, R., Alberola-Borràs, JA., Gómez-Cordón, J. et al. LCA to Evaluate the Environmental Impact for Chemical Pre-treatment in Plastics Metallization. J Polym Environ 25, 961–972 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-016-0872-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-016-0872-6

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