Final Report Summary - NANOFLOC (Electro-agglomeration and separation of Engineered NanoParticles from process and waste water in the coating industry to minimise health and environmental risks)
Executive Summary:
Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have unique properties and characteristics in addition to size, such as a high surface area-to-volume ratio and surface properties, which may increase their toxicity relative to bulk materials. As a result, nano-based products have created a concern both for the potential health and environmental impact. One of the industries which use ENPs in their products is the coating industry.
By 2015, Frost & Sullivan expects at least 86% of the automotive paint products to incorporate some form of nanotechnology in their product portfolio. The reason for this penetration can be attributed to the fact that by 2016 vehicle manufacturers will be required by legislation to provide anti-scratch paints and coats in their vehicles to avoid the scratches, commonly caused by keys and flying debris on roads.
Some examples of nano-coating applications in the automotive sector include: Corrosion protection coatings, Scratch-proof, transparent coatings, Dirt-repellent coatings, Water-repellent coatings and paintings, Wear- and thermal-resistant coatings.
During wet application of coatings, some of the ENPs from the coating application will end up in the wastewater. There is however, no mandatory regulation emitted in regard to limit values of ENP’s in industry effluents. Nonetheless, the NANOFLOC project will offer the consortium the possibility to be ahead in the market to remove nanoparticles from wastewater streams. The project has developed a novel electro agglomeration technology, based on destabilization of nano-suspensions and agglomeration of charged ENPs in suspension, using electric fields and flocculation in one step. Additionally, a separation unit was designed and constructed to ensure that the ENP loaded flocs are removed from the water. The separation unit is designed to be low energy demanding. To control and monitor the process a control system was developed and integrated to the NANOFLOC system. The control system is able to control all automatic valves, sensors, electric input and pumping as well as log all the data needed for validation.
The project is undertaken by a collaboration of industrial and research & development partners. The partners who took part in the project are: Westmatic in Arvika AB, Sweden (Coordinator), Asio spol. s.r.o. Czech Republic (SMEP), BAMO Measures SAS, France (SMEP), Melotec Kunstroffverarbetungs GMBH, Germany (SMEP), Teknologisk Institutt, Norway (RTD), Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Germany (RTD)
NANOFLOC had a start date of January 1st, 2013 and a duration of 27 months. The project is funded by EU Seventh Framework Program administered by Research Executive Directorate (REA).
The project work is separated into five RTD work packages: WP1 Life cycle analysis, WP2 Scientific characterization, WP3 Development of reactor design and configuration, WP4 Develo-pment of process control system, WP5 Integrated prototype.
Further, the project has an additional three work packages: WP6 Demonstration activities,
WP7 Exploit -ation and dissemination, WP8 Project management.
The scientific and technological objectives of the project are:
The necessary knowledge regarding flocculation and how the electric fields affect suspended nanoparticles through literature review and small experiments in batch regime was achieved.
With the attained knowledge an electrocoagulation laboratory unit was designed and constructed in order to experiment on the lack separation in continuous mode.
The electrocoagulation unit was escalated and constructed to treat 1 m3/h continuously. A separation unit was developed and constructed in parallel to remove the produced flocs from the water. Finally a control system was designed to control the process and to log the most important variables. All the units, electrocoagulation, separation and control, were successfully integrated and validated.
Project Context and Objectives:
NanoFloc is a project initiated by the Swedish company, Westmatic AB within EU’s FP7. The project has been financed by the research and development theme: Research for the Benefit of SMEs administered by the Research Executive Directorate (REA). The project is a collaboration of industrial and research & development partners. The partners in the project are:
• Westmatic in Arvika AB, Sweden (Coordinator)
• Asio spol. s.r.o. Czech Republic (SMEP)
• BAMO Measures SAS, France (SMEP)
• Melotec Kunstroffverarbetungs GMBH, Germany (SMEP)
• Teknologisk Institutt, Norway (RTD)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Germany (RTD)
Today, there is an accelerating growth in application of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in almost all industrial products. The NanoFloc project has been initiated to address the concern in the paint and coating industry about the health & safety risks associated with substances containing ENPs. This concern is supported by a number of publications that indicate the risk of exposure to Nano-particles in their business. There is also a need to meet environmental requirements as the EUs Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires removal of substances that potentially have damaging environmental impact before discharging the effluent to a recipient. The SME partners have been convinced that the possible health & safety risks together with current and possible new directives will be a strong driver and motivator for the painting and coating industry to adopt the NanoFloc technology. Even though there are few rigorous studies that present the extent of the environmental impact related to discharge of Nanomaterials to the eco system, some studies for rapid screening of environmental impacts have shown that there is significant eco-toxicological impact on selected aquatic organisms. In state of the art applications for water treatment in the painting and coating industry, ENPs are not removed from the effluent. To remove particles from the wastewater, the best available method is application of membranes , example reverse osmosis or nanofiltration. These membranes are, however, expensive to implement and are highly energy intensive as they are driven at very high level of pressure. Nano-particles have the characteristic to block the membrane pores and make the process very ineffective and expensive.
The main aim of the project is thus to develop a cost effective technology based on electro-agglomeration of ENPs in effluents from the paint and coating industry and subsequent separation before discharging to recipients. The scientific and technological objectives of the project include:
➢ Agglomeration of ENPs with different properties in an electric field and ensure their t stability.
➢ Demonstrate agglomeration of Engineered Nano-particles (ENPs) in solutions containing 5 categories with electric fields in a batch reactor whereby over 99,9% of material is agglomerated into stable particles greater than 1mm in diameter.
➢ Demonstrate the formation and growth of voluminous hydroxide flocs in a batch reactor to stabilise the ENP agglomerates to be stable for at least 1 hour with a size of 3 mm in diameter at flow velocities of 0.4 m/s.
➢ Design a laboratory scale test rig to establish operating parameters for electric field processing and hydroxide floc formation and growth in one step with a throughout of 60 l/hr.
➢ Set up a test rig to establish operating parameters for electric field processing and hydroxide floc formation and growth in one step.
➢ Develop intelligent process control system to manage optimum operation of the process and attain high level of agglomeration and separation of the ENPs.
➢ Develop integrated prototype capable of removing ENP >95% of ENP at lower cost than SOA technologies.
Achievement of the identified objectives is based on overcoming three main challenges:
• Agglomeration of ENPs with different properties in an electric field and ensure the stability of these agglomerates using hydroxide flocs.
• Reactor design and conduction of the flow without shear stresses to prevent the flocs from breaking.
• Effective removal of agglomerated flocs.
Considering the nature and complexity of ENPs, and as a valuable approach to address the environmental issue related to the development of the new technological solutions in the project, running Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been one of the objectives of the project. This is done both to understand environmental aspects of the existing state of the art and then to verify once the solution has been developed and implemented that there is a measurable and quantifiable improvement through the full life cycle of the new product/ process from “cradle to grave”. The LCA considers energy and other resource inputs and outputs involved in the process. The objective of this complete life cycle consideration model is therefore to create a positive net sustainable value for all aspects of the supply chain. The use of LCA can support and validate sustainable consumption and production and can be used to provide cost effective and environmentally sound development of products and processes. LCA is embedded in EC policy with regards to waste laws. According to ISO14040 and 14044 LCA involves four key stages:
➢ Goal and scope,
➢ Life cycle inventory,
➢ Life cycle impact assessment and,
➢ Interpretation.
Further to this, it has been the objective of the project to undertake demonstration actions through workshop events both during the development phase and after the technology has been developed. Besides, the project has set a number of innovation related activities including:
➢ Protection of the project foreground as required.
➢ Extensive dissemination of the project across Europe and globally.
➢ Develop an exploitation strategy for commercial benefit of the SME beneficiaries in the project.
➢ Absorption of the created knowledge in the project.
➢ Assess and obtain post project opportunities.
Project Results:
During the project period, NanoFloc has achieved to acquire a deep scientific understanding of the behavior of nanoparticles in electric fields and the key parameters that impact on agglomeration of nanoparticles during the electrolysis process. For instance: the electric field effect is often used to change the orientation of nanoparticles as well to form chains or column structures.
Knowledge regarding electro flocculation and coagulation was also attained during the project. The ions released from the electrodes due to a specific electric current produce flocs. The growth of the flocs is described as a hydroxide polynuclear chain, which afterwards follows a fractal geometry behavior. The flocs during their growth will entrap suspended nanoparticles since they will also be influenced by the electric fields and the absorption capabilities of the flocs.
Two nanoparticles were selected to be used in the preparation of the synthetic wastewater. The nanoparticles chosen were Titanium dioxide and Aluminium flakes. Both nanoparticles fall into the European definition of nanoparticle, which is that at least one of their dimensions are in the size range of 1 nm to 100 nm and a threshold of 1% to 50% of their particle size distributions fall into that range.
Nanoparticles due to their size do not have a standard concentration detection method. For this project ICP-MS was selected and used. Additionally, pH and conductivity have also been monitored in order to anticipate the overall resistance inside the reactors and its influence on the energy consumption.
The first trials in laboratory were used to determine the extent of the nanoparticle removal. In this first phase a removal of around 98% was achieved. Electrodes from an alloy containing iron and other one containing aluminium were used. The success achieved in the batch tests was used to design a continuous process.
Due to batch results of the batch process experiments, the same electrode plates were used as the heart of the reactor. The electrodes are simple to manufacture and the material has a low cost. The electrode alloys proved to be effective during electrocoagulation and they have a reasonable lifetime. Electrode lifetime depends on the current density (ratio of the electric current over the electrode area), while higher values will dose more flocs their lifetime will also decrease rapidly. A flocculation unit was also added to investigate its effect on the process. Separation of the loaded flocs was improved with sedimentation and filtration. A removal efficiency of around 98 % was again achieved using a laboratory continuous set-up.
A pilot plat was then designed using the knowledge attained in the laboratory with the continuous set-up. The laboratory plant was scaled-up to a multiple reactor module and integrated with a flocculation unit and a separation unit. The separation system was also constructed; the idea of sedimentation was used. However the sedimentation will not need a high area or footprint, it does not need mechanical parts and decreases load in the polishing filtrationunit . The electrocoagulation process and sensors of the pilot plant are controlled by the intelligent process control system developed in the project.
The removal efficiency for the electrochemical reactor and the separation column prototype was 81%. Validation of the new pilot plant (electrocoagulation unit) proved to have a 90 % removal of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The combination of both electrocoagulation unit and separation unit obtained a removal of around 80 %. The difference in the results between laboratory system (WP3) and pilot plant system (WP5) lies in the sedimentation time in the laboratory unit, which was at least of 15 h. . Very long sedimentation times usually mean that the process cannot be continuous but batch. The goal was to achieve a removal of the nanoparticles in a continuous system in a low footprint. The separation unit has a low area demand and can be operated continuously by sacrificing residence time.
As part of the pilot plant an intelligent process control unit has been developed for monitoring and control of key parameters in the electrocoagulation process including voltage,current turbidity, flow rate and pH.
Potential Impact:
Based on the results obtained the benefits that the system can offer to the consortium members, are expected that by 2019 through commercialization of this technology, a cumulative profit of nearly € 104.90 million can be achieved. Based on this projection it is anticipated an increase in the consortium collective employee numbers by over 345. These jobs will be primarily created in manufacturing, engineering and administrative support services as the partnership has in place sufficient sales and marketing resources and an established client base.
The project partners recognize, that the developed technology will not achieve 100% market penetration. The market penetration is estimated to be 3550 units (4.4% market share) by 2019. Of the approximately 175,000 companies in the coating industry, 80,000 use scrubber systems in the EU market. NANOFLOC can achieve up to 10% market penetration, within 5 years after the end of the project. However, the potential market is actually larger due to enormous growth of the nano sector and the increase in legal guidelines and directives as a result of the scientific work. If it is proven that ENPs in water cause relevant harm to humans and nature a directive may immediately be established authorizing the use of systems such as the NANOFLOC technology.
Regulatory Compliance, European Norms and Standards and Community Societal Objectives:
This project aims to offer a new technology that ensures safe working possibilities in a lacquering facility and also the removal of ENP’s in effluents. Although until now, there are not enforced regulations or limit values for nanoparticles in water bodies or effluents, it can be expected that they will appear in the next 5 years. The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) has emitted several opinions (2012 – 2013) regarding the existing risks and how the existent assessment measures can undertake them. A public consultation regarding technical provision in REACH annexes regarding nanoparticles was open for input from 21 June 2013 until 13 September 2013.
Issiung regulations regarding limit values or effluents cotaining nanopaticles will depend on investigations regarding their toxicicty and a standard methode to emasure their concentration. According to SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) it is necessary to have a standard measure method to detect the nanoparticles in water bodies. Moreover, quantitative knowledge on the rates of release of nanoparticles to the environment is now know or not declared. Finally, there is neither theory nor knowledge that could be used to predict concentrations of nanomaterials on the ambient environment from release rates.
Nanofloc technology could then become a standard system in the removal of nanoparticles of effluents. Therefore, this project will lead to an improvement and generation in new standards relating to removal of ENPs. The LCA approach to this project will be integral to the creation of these standards.
List of Websites:
http://nanofloc.org
Contact details: Mr. Carl Olov Persson (Coordinator), Westmatic AB, Fallebergsvägen 28, 671 34 Arvika, Sweden;
Email: Carl-Olov.persson@westmatic.se; Phone: +46 705757958; +46 570727603.
Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have unique properties and characteristics in addition to size, such as a high surface area-to-volume ratio and surface properties, which may increase their toxicity relative to bulk materials. As a result, nano-based products have created a concern both for the potential health and environmental impact. One of the industries which use ENPs in their products is the coating industry.
By 2015, Frost & Sullivan expects at least 86% of the automotive paint products to incorporate some form of nanotechnology in their product portfolio. The reason for this penetration can be attributed to the fact that by 2016 vehicle manufacturers will be required by legislation to provide anti-scratch paints and coats in their vehicles to avoid the scratches, commonly caused by keys and flying debris on roads.
Some examples of nano-coating applications in the automotive sector include: Corrosion protection coatings, Scratch-proof, transparent coatings, Dirt-repellent coatings, Water-repellent coatings and paintings, Wear- and thermal-resistant coatings.
During wet application of coatings, some of the ENPs from the coating application will end up in the wastewater. There is however, no mandatory regulation emitted in regard to limit values of ENP’s in industry effluents. Nonetheless, the NANOFLOC project will offer the consortium the possibility to be ahead in the market to remove nanoparticles from wastewater streams. The project has developed a novel electro agglomeration technology, based on destabilization of nano-suspensions and agglomeration of charged ENPs in suspension, using electric fields and flocculation in one step. Additionally, a separation unit was designed and constructed to ensure that the ENP loaded flocs are removed from the water. The separation unit is designed to be low energy demanding. To control and monitor the process a control system was developed and integrated to the NANOFLOC system. The control system is able to control all automatic valves, sensors, electric input and pumping as well as log all the data needed for validation.
The project is undertaken by a collaboration of industrial and research & development partners. The partners who took part in the project are: Westmatic in Arvika AB, Sweden (Coordinator), Asio spol. s.r.o. Czech Republic (SMEP), BAMO Measures SAS, France (SMEP), Melotec Kunstroffverarbetungs GMBH, Germany (SMEP), Teknologisk Institutt, Norway (RTD), Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Germany (RTD)
NANOFLOC had a start date of January 1st, 2013 and a duration of 27 months. The project is funded by EU Seventh Framework Program administered by Research Executive Directorate (REA).
The project work is separated into five RTD work packages: WP1 Life cycle analysis, WP2 Scientific characterization, WP3 Development of reactor design and configuration, WP4 Develo-pment of process control system, WP5 Integrated prototype.
Further, the project has an additional three work packages: WP6 Demonstration activities,
WP7 Exploit -ation and dissemination, WP8 Project management.
The scientific and technological objectives of the project are:
The necessary knowledge regarding flocculation and how the electric fields affect suspended nanoparticles through literature review and small experiments in batch regime was achieved.
With the attained knowledge an electrocoagulation laboratory unit was designed and constructed in order to experiment on the lack separation in continuous mode.
The electrocoagulation unit was escalated and constructed to treat 1 m3/h continuously. A separation unit was developed and constructed in parallel to remove the produced flocs from the water. Finally a control system was designed to control the process and to log the most important variables. All the units, electrocoagulation, separation and control, were successfully integrated and validated.
Project Context and Objectives:
NanoFloc is a project initiated by the Swedish company, Westmatic AB within EU’s FP7. The project has been financed by the research and development theme: Research for the Benefit of SMEs administered by the Research Executive Directorate (REA). The project is a collaboration of industrial and research & development partners. The partners in the project are:
• Westmatic in Arvika AB, Sweden (Coordinator)
• Asio spol. s.r.o. Czech Republic (SMEP)
• BAMO Measures SAS, France (SMEP)
• Melotec Kunstroffverarbetungs GMBH, Germany (SMEP)
• Teknologisk Institutt, Norway (RTD)
• Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology, Germany (RTD)
Today, there is an accelerating growth in application of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in almost all industrial products. The NanoFloc project has been initiated to address the concern in the paint and coating industry about the health & safety risks associated with substances containing ENPs. This concern is supported by a number of publications that indicate the risk of exposure to Nano-particles in their business. There is also a need to meet environmental requirements as the EUs Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires removal of substances that potentially have damaging environmental impact before discharging the effluent to a recipient. The SME partners have been convinced that the possible health & safety risks together with current and possible new directives will be a strong driver and motivator for the painting and coating industry to adopt the NanoFloc technology. Even though there are few rigorous studies that present the extent of the environmental impact related to discharge of Nanomaterials to the eco system, some studies for rapid screening of environmental impacts have shown that there is significant eco-toxicological impact on selected aquatic organisms. In state of the art applications for water treatment in the painting and coating industry, ENPs are not removed from the effluent. To remove particles from the wastewater, the best available method is application of membranes , example reverse osmosis or nanofiltration. These membranes are, however, expensive to implement and are highly energy intensive as they are driven at very high level of pressure. Nano-particles have the characteristic to block the membrane pores and make the process very ineffective and expensive.
The main aim of the project is thus to develop a cost effective technology based on electro-agglomeration of ENPs in effluents from the paint and coating industry and subsequent separation before discharging to recipients. The scientific and technological objectives of the project include:
➢ Agglomeration of ENPs with different properties in an electric field and ensure their t stability.
➢ Demonstrate agglomeration of Engineered Nano-particles (ENPs) in solutions containing 5 categories with electric fields in a batch reactor whereby over 99,9% of material is agglomerated into stable particles greater than 1mm in diameter.
➢ Demonstrate the formation and growth of voluminous hydroxide flocs in a batch reactor to stabilise the ENP agglomerates to be stable for at least 1 hour with a size of 3 mm in diameter at flow velocities of 0.4 m/s.
➢ Design a laboratory scale test rig to establish operating parameters for electric field processing and hydroxide floc formation and growth in one step with a throughout of 60 l/hr.
➢ Set up a test rig to establish operating parameters for electric field processing and hydroxide floc formation and growth in one step.
➢ Develop intelligent process control system to manage optimum operation of the process and attain high level of agglomeration and separation of the ENPs.
➢ Develop integrated prototype capable of removing ENP >95% of ENP at lower cost than SOA technologies.
Achievement of the identified objectives is based on overcoming three main challenges:
• Agglomeration of ENPs with different properties in an electric field and ensure the stability of these agglomerates using hydroxide flocs.
• Reactor design and conduction of the flow without shear stresses to prevent the flocs from breaking.
• Effective removal of agglomerated flocs.
Considering the nature and complexity of ENPs, and as a valuable approach to address the environmental issue related to the development of the new technological solutions in the project, running Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been one of the objectives of the project. This is done both to understand environmental aspects of the existing state of the art and then to verify once the solution has been developed and implemented that there is a measurable and quantifiable improvement through the full life cycle of the new product/ process from “cradle to grave”. The LCA considers energy and other resource inputs and outputs involved in the process. The objective of this complete life cycle consideration model is therefore to create a positive net sustainable value for all aspects of the supply chain. The use of LCA can support and validate sustainable consumption and production and can be used to provide cost effective and environmentally sound development of products and processes. LCA is embedded in EC policy with regards to waste laws. According to ISO14040 and 14044 LCA involves four key stages:
➢ Goal and scope,
➢ Life cycle inventory,
➢ Life cycle impact assessment and,
➢ Interpretation.
Further to this, it has been the objective of the project to undertake demonstration actions through workshop events both during the development phase and after the technology has been developed. Besides, the project has set a number of innovation related activities including:
➢ Protection of the project foreground as required.
➢ Extensive dissemination of the project across Europe and globally.
➢ Develop an exploitation strategy for commercial benefit of the SME beneficiaries in the project.
➢ Absorption of the created knowledge in the project.
➢ Assess and obtain post project opportunities.
Project Results:
During the project period, NanoFloc has achieved to acquire a deep scientific understanding of the behavior of nanoparticles in electric fields and the key parameters that impact on agglomeration of nanoparticles during the electrolysis process. For instance: the electric field effect is often used to change the orientation of nanoparticles as well to form chains or column structures.
Knowledge regarding electro flocculation and coagulation was also attained during the project. The ions released from the electrodes due to a specific electric current produce flocs. The growth of the flocs is described as a hydroxide polynuclear chain, which afterwards follows a fractal geometry behavior. The flocs during their growth will entrap suspended nanoparticles since they will also be influenced by the electric fields and the absorption capabilities of the flocs.
Two nanoparticles were selected to be used in the preparation of the synthetic wastewater. The nanoparticles chosen were Titanium dioxide and Aluminium flakes. Both nanoparticles fall into the European definition of nanoparticle, which is that at least one of their dimensions are in the size range of 1 nm to 100 nm and a threshold of 1% to 50% of their particle size distributions fall into that range.
Nanoparticles due to their size do not have a standard concentration detection method. For this project ICP-MS was selected and used. Additionally, pH and conductivity have also been monitored in order to anticipate the overall resistance inside the reactors and its influence on the energy consumption.
The first trials in laboratory were used to determine the extent of the nanoparticle removal. In this first phase a removal of around 98% was achieved. Electrodes from an alloy containing iron and other one containing aluminium were used. The success achieved in the batch tests was used to design a continuous process.
Due to batch results of the batch process experiments, the same electrode plates were used as the heart of the reactor. The electrodes are simple to manufacture and the material has a low cost. The electrode alloys proved to be effective during electrocoagulation and they have a reasonable lifetime. Electrode lifetime depends on the current density (ratio of the electric current over the electrode area), while higher values will dose more flocs their lifetime will also decrease rapidly. A flocculation unit was also added to investigate its effect on the process. Separation of the loaded flocs was improved with sedimentation and filtration. A removal efficiency of around 98 % was again achieved using a laboratory continuous set-up.
A pilot plat was then designed using the knowledge attained in the laboratory with the continuous set-up. The laboratory plant was scaled-up to a multiple reactor module and integrated with a flocculation unit and a separation unit. The separation system was also constructed; the idea of sedimentation was used. However the sedimentation will not need a high area or footprint, it does not need mechanical parts and decreases load in the polishing filtrationunit . The electrocoagulation process and sensors of the pilot plant are controlled by the intelligent process control system developed in the project.
The removal efficiency for the electrochemical reactor and the separation column prototype was 81%. Validation of the new pilot plant (electrocoagulation unit) proved to have a 90 % removal of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The combination of both electrocoagulation unit and separation unit obtained a removal of around 80 %. The difference in the results between laboratory system (WP3) and pilot plant system (WP5) lies in the sedimentation time in the laboratory unit, which was at least of 15 h. . Very long sedimentation times usually mean that the process cannot be continuous but batch. The goal was to achieve a removal of the nanoparticles in a continuous system in a low footprint. The separation unit has a low area demand and can be operated continuously by sacrificing residence time.
As part of the pilot plant an intelligent process control unit has been developed for monitoring and control of key parameters in the electrocoagulation process including voltage,current turbidity, flow rate and pH.
Potential Impact:
Based on the results obtained the benefits that the system can offer to the consortium members, are expected that by 2019 through commercialization of this technology, a cumulative profit of nearly € 104.90 million can be achieved. Based on this projection it is anticipated an increase in the consortium collective employee numbers by over 345. These jobs will be primarily created in manufacturing, engineering and administrative support services as the partnership has in place sufficient sales and marketing resources and an established client base.
The project partners recognize, that the developed technology will not achieve 100% market penetration. The market penetration is estimated to be 3550 units (4.4% market share) by 2019. Of the approximately 175,000 companies in the coating industry, 80,000 use scrubber systems in the EU market. NANOFLOC can achieve up to 10% market penetration, within 5 years after the end of the project. However, the potential market is actually larger due to enormous growth of the nano sector and the increase in legal guidelines and directives as a result of the scientific work. If it is proven that ENPs in water cause relevant harm to humans and nature a directive may immediately be established authorizing the use of systems such as the NANOFLOC technology.
Regulatory Compliance, European Norms and Standards and Community Societal Objectives:
This project aims to offer a new technology that ensures safe working possibilities in a lacquering facility and also the removal of ENP’s in effluents. Although until now, there are not enforced regulations or limit values for nanoparticles in water bodies or effluents, it can be expected that they will appear in the next 5 years. The Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) has emitted several opinions (2012 – 2013) regarding the existing risks and how the existent assessment measures can undertake them. A public consultation regarding technical provision in REACH annexes regarding nanoparticles was open for input from 21 June 2013 until 13 September 2013.
Issiung regulations regarding limit values or effluents cotaining nanopaticles will depend on investigations regarding their toxicicty and a standard methode to emasure their concentration. According to SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks) it is necessary to have a standard measure method to detect the nanoparticles in water bodies. Moreover, quantitative knowledge on the rates of release of nanoparticles to the environment is now know or not declared. Finally, there is neither theory nor knowledge that could be used to predict concentrations of nanomaterials on the ambient environment from release rates.
Nanofloc technology could then become a standard system in the removal of nanoparticles of effluents. Therefore, this project will lead to an improvement and generation in new standards relating to removal of ENPs. The LCA approach to this project will be integral to the creation of these standards.
List of Websites:
http://nanofloc.org
Contact details: Mr. Carl Olov Persson (Coordinator), Westmatic AB, Fallebergsvägen 28, 671 34 Arvika, Sweden;
Email: Carl-Olov.persson@westmatic.se; Phone: +46 705757958; +46 570727603.