Mohsen Nowrouzi

The synthesis of a green product depends on a deep perception concerning its economic and environmental impacts. To attain this purpose, a life cycle assessment (LCA) coupled with life cycle cost (LCC) comparative study was conducted concerning two highly efficient synthesized carbon-based adsorbents i.e. activated carbon (AC) and modified AC (MAC) for 1 kg CO2 adsorption. A set of different analyses comprising CML baseline 2000, cumulative energy demand (CED), ecological footprint (EF), and greenhouse gas protocol (GGP) were explored. The most affected categories by the synthesized adsorbents were human toxicity (>2.63 %), marine (86 %), and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (7.46 %), resulting in CO2, SO2, and NO2 emission and metal release. The CED was 2.6 times more for MAC, dominantly supplied by fossil fuel (>91.45 %). The total economic costs were $1.6/kg and $2/kg for the AC and MAC, respectively. The H3PO4 and copper ion consumption exhibited the highest environmental impacts accounted for a 97 % contribution for AC and 61.48 % for MAC, while the most economic burden belonged to equipment and construction (>23 %). The marine aquatic toxicity (19.50 %) and human toxicity (16.09 %) were the most sensitive categories by a 95 % confidence limit through the uncertainty analysis. Accordingly, the LCA coupled LCC results elucidated that the MAC possessed more significant economic and environmental impacts, despite its higher CO2 adsorption.