Life cycle assessment polymerization

Report 156 Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact of Polymeric Products, T.J. O Neill, Polymeron Consultancy Network. 

Simonson M, Boldizar A, Tullin C, Stripple H, Sundquist JO (1998) The incorporation of fire considerations in the life-cycle assessment of polymeric composite materials a preparatory study. SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, SP Report 1998 25, Boras 1998... 

O Neill, T.J., 2003. Life cycle assessment and environmental impact of polymeric products. Number 12. In Rapra Review Report 156, Vol. 13. ISSN 0889-3144. 

The environmental necessity to stop this negative development by switching to alternative strategies independent of fossil resources nowadays is generally undisputed. Already in 1992, the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development explicitly specified the political intention and willingness of most countries to forcefully support the development of bio-based and biocompalible materials. Literally, Principle 4 of the Rio Declaration slates that In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection shall constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it With the tools of life cycle assessment (LCA) and cleaner production studies, much effort is contemporarily devoted to quantifying the environmental impact and feasibility of processes for production of polymeric materials (Sudesh and Iwala 2008). 

The chapter demonstrates that in spite of the incompatibility between hydrophilic natural fibres and hydrophobic polymeric matrices, the properties of natural fibre composites can be enhanced through chemical modifications. The chemical treatments have therefore played a key role in the increased applications of natural fibre composites in the automotive sector. Recent work has also shown that if some of the drawbacks of natural fibres can be adequately addressed, these materials can easily replace glass fibres in many applications. The chapter has also shown that there have been attempts to use natural fibre composites in structural applications, an area which has been hitherto the reserve of synthetic fibres like glass and aramid. The use of polymer nanocomposites in applications of natural fibre-reinforced composites, though at infancy, may provide means to address these efficiencies. Evidence-based life-cycle assessment of natural fibre-reinforced composites is required to build confidence in the green composites applications in automotive sector. 

A knee joint simulator was designed and built in the bioengineering laboratory at Leeds in the late 1970 s to enable the mechanical and tribological characteristics of current and projected knee joint replacements tp.he assessed. The simulator has been described by Dowson et al and it is shown in Figure 1. Realistic load and motion cycles are applied to the knee joints to simulate any desired activity, but usually walking, and the penetration of the metallic femoral components into the polymeric tibial components after a large number of cycles can then be used to assess the life of the joints. Furthermore, the penetrations recorded, which include both wear and creep, can be related to results of laboratory wear studies of the behaviour of UHMWPE and to the in-vivo performance of total replacement knee joints. The simulator is therefore an Important machine in both the pragmatic and fundamental aspects of total replacement knee join development. 

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