Technology and Society Laboratory, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technologies, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Department of Water-Atmosphere-Environment, Institute of Waste Management and Circularity, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 107, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Oct 4;56(19):13798-13809. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c04002. Epub 2022 Sep 23.
As industrial demand for graphene-based materials (GBMs) grows, more attention falls on potential environmental risks. The present article describes a first assessment of the environmental releases of GBMs using dynamic probabilistic material flow analysis. The model considered all current or expected uses of GBMs from 2004 to 2030, during which time there have already been significant changes in how the graphene mass produced is distributed to different product categories. Although the volume of GBM production is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, outflow from the consumption of products containing GBMs shows only a slightly positive trend due to their long lifetimes and the large in-use stock of some applications (e.g., GBM composites used in wind turbine blades). From consumption and end-of-life phase GBM mass flows in 2030, estimates suggest that more than 50% will be incinerated and oxidized in waste plants, 16% will be landfilled, 12% will be exported out of Europe, and 1.4% of the annual production will flow to the environment. Predicted release concentrations for 2030 are 1.4 ng/L in surface water and 20 μg/kg in sludge-treated soil. This study's results could be used for prospective environmental risk assessments and as input for environmental fate models.
随着工业界对基于石墨烯的材料（GBMs）的需求增长，人们越来越关注其潜在的环境风险。本文采用动态概率物质流分析方法，首次评估了 GBMs 的环境释放情况。该模型考虑了 2004 年至 2030 年期间 GBMs 的所有当前或预期用途，在此期间，大量生产的石墨烯在不同产品类别中的分配方式发生了重大变化。尽管未来几年 GBMs 的产量预计将呈指数级增长，但由于其使用寿命长且某些应用（例如用于风力涡轮机叶片的 GBM 复合材料）的大量在制品库存，含 GBMs 的产品的流出量仅呈现出略微的正增长趋势。根据 2030 年消费和使用寿命结束阶段的 GBM 质量流预测，估计超过 50%的 GBM 将在废物处理厂中被焚烧和氧化，16%将被填埋，12%将出口到欧洲以外地区，每年有 1.4%的产量会流入环境。预计 2030 年的释放浓度为地表水 1.4ng/L 和经污泥处理的土壤 20μg/kg。本研究的结果可用于预期的环境风险评估，并作为环境归宿模型的输入。
