Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Journal of Young Scientist", Vol. 9
Written by Cătălina FILOTE, Isabela Maria SIMION, Maria APOSTOL
The persistance of heavy metals in wastewaters and the environment has determined the scientific community to find innovative and sustainable methods and materials for their removal. In this pursuit, microorganisms have gained increasing popularity due to their diversity, resilience to extreme environmental conditions, complex structure and chemical mechanisms. Most of all, the excellent performance of microbial biomass in the uptake of metal ions is of high interest for the development of more sustainable remediation alternatives to conventional treatment methods. The most applied methodology for sustainability analysis is the Life cycle assessment (LCA) for the environmental component and Life cycle costing (LCC) for the economic one. Applied together these two frameworks can offer a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly way to use microorganisms for wastewater remediation. Thus, this paper aims to look into the LCA and LCC methodologies and the way these can be used in an integrated way to evaluate the metal removal process facilitated by microorganisms.
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