Life cycle assessment on boron production: is boric acid extraction from salt-lake brine environmentally friendly?

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 23 - Trang 1981-1991 - 2021
Jun Wu1,2,3, Baolan Li1,2,3, Jian Lu3,4
1Key Laboratory of Comprehensive and Highly Efficient Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, China
2Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Geology and Environment of Salt Lakes, Xining, China
3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
4CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)YICCAS, Yantai, China

Tóm tắt

No information is currently available on potential environmental impact of boric acid solvent extraction from salt-lake brine although boron production is important for industry, agriculture, and human well-beings. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was firstly used by this study to evaluate the environmental impact of boron production using extraction method with the functional unit of 1-ton boric acid. CO2 was the pollutant with the highest emission amount among the target pollutants, while both extraction and reverse extraction stages contributed to 61.6% of total emission amount for the boron extraction technique. Global warming potential (GWP) and acidification potential (AP) of producing 1-ton boric acid by extraction technique reached 5.52 × 103 kg CO2 eq and 28.0 kg SO2 eq, respectively. Extraction/dry stage contributed to the highest/lowest percentage of environmental impact indices by following the order of extraction > reverse extraction > acidification > dry. Life cycle cost for 1 ton of boric acid was estimated as $1054.83 with 67.5% of internal cost. Approximately 1.59 ton of indirect water and 6010 kWh of electricity were consumed to produce 1 ton of boric acid. The emission amounts of pollutants for nanofiltration boron-production technique were 1.4–1.7 times those for extraction technique. GWP and AP of boron extraction production were comparable with those of the other production processes. The findings of this study will provide the theoretical basis and quantitative data for the sustainable development and cleaner production of boron industry.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Başaran N, Duydu Y, Üstündağ A, Taner G, Dilsiz SA, Anlar HG, Yalçin CÖ, Bacanli M, Golka K, Schwerdtle T, Bolt HM (2019) Environmental boron exposure does not induce DNA damage in lymphocytes and buccal cells of females DNA damage in lymphocytes and buccal cells of boron exposed females. J Trace Elem Med Bio 53:150–153 Cao J, Yuan W, Zhao Q, Yang R, Mei B (2018). A method for separating boron from brines using nanofiltration (in Chinese). China Patent with patent application number of CN109205635A. Cherubini F, Raugei M, Ulgiati S (2008) LCA of magnesium production Technological overview and worldwide estimation of environmental burdens. Resour Conserv Recy 52:1093–1100 Çırak M, Hoşten Ç (2015) Characterization of clay rock samples of a borax ore in relation to their problematical flocculation behavior. Powder Technol 284:452–458 Demey H, Vincent T, Ruiz M, Nogueras M, Sastre AM, Guibal E (2014) Boron recovery from seawater with a new low-cost adsorbent material. Chem Eng J 254:463–471 Foteinis S, Chatzisymeon E (2016) Life cycle assessment of organic versus conventional agriculture. A case study of lettuce cultivation in Greece. J Clean Prod 112:2462–2471 Garrett DE (1998) Chapter 8 processing. In: Garrett DE (ed) Borates: handbook of deposits, processing, properties, and use. Academic Press, Cambridge Han J, Li F, Zhuge Q, Zhu Z, Zhu C, Peng Z (2007) Research of extracting boron from saline brine by solvent-extraction method. J Salt Sci Chem Ind 36(4):6–9 (in Chinese) Keskin M, Karacasu M (2019) Effect of boron containing additives on asphalt performance and sustainability perspective. Constr Build Mater 218:434–447 Li B, Wu J, Lu J (2020) Life cycle assessment considering water-energy nexus for lithium nanofiltration extraction technique. J Clean Prod 261:121152 Lu J, Lin Y, Wu J, Zhang C (2020) Continental-scale spatial distribution, sources, and health risks of heavy metals in seafood: challenge for the water-food-energy nexus sustainability in coastal regions? Environ Sci Pollut R in press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11904-8 Mohammed F, Biswas WK, Yao H, Tadé M (2016) Identification of an environmentally friendly symbiotic process for the reuse of industrial byproduct e an LCA perspective. J Clean Prod 112:3376–3387 Moussa HI, Elkamel A, Young SB (2016) Assessing energy performance of bio-based succinic acid production using LCA. J Clean Prod 139:761–769 Nishihama S, Sumiyoshi Y, Ookubo T, Yoshizuka K (2013) Adsorption of boron using glucamine-based chelate adsorbents. Desalination 310:81–86 Ojha PK, Karmakar S (2018) Boron for liquid fuel Engines-A review on synthesis, dispersion stability in liquid fuel, and combustion aspects. Prog Aerosp Sci 100:18–45 Özdemir M, Kıpçak İ (2010) Recovery of boron from borax sludge of boron industry. Miner Eng 23:685–690 Plescia J, Moitessier N (2020) Design and discovery of boronic acid drugs. Eur J Med Chem 195:112270 Schilde U, Uhlemann E (1991) Extraction of boric acid from brines by ion exchange. Int J Miner Process 32:295–309 Tabatabaie SMH, Murthy GS (2016) Cradle to farm gate life cycle assessment of strawberry production in the United States. J Clean Prod 127:548–554 Tarpani RRZ, Miralles-Cuevas S, Gallego-Schmid A, Cabrera-Reina A, Cornejo-Ponce L (2019) Environmental assessment of sustainable energy options for multieffect distillation of brackish water in isolated communities. J Clean Prod 213:1371–1379 Uluisik I, Karakaya HC, Koc A (2018) The importance of boron in biological systems. J Trace Elem Med Bio 45:156–162 Vinci G, D’Ascenzo F, Esposito A, Musarra M, Rapa M, Rocchi A (2019) A sustainable innovation in the Italian glass production: LCA and Eco-Care matrix evaluation. J Clean Prod 223:587–595 Wen X, Lu J, Wu J, Lin Y, Luo Y (2019) Influence of coastal groundwater salinization on the distribution and risks of heavy metals. Sci Total Environ 652:267–277 Wu Q, Liu M, Wang X (2019) A novel chitosan based adsorbent for boron separation. Sep Purif Technol 211:162–169 Zhang R, Xie Y, Song J, Xing L, Kong D, Li X-M, He T (2016) Extraction of boron from salt lake brine using 2-ethylhexanol. Hydrometallurgy 160:129–136 Zhu Y, Gao S, Hosmane NS (2018) Boron-enriched advanced energy materials. Inorg Chim Acta 471:577–586