Life Cycle Assessment of Hemodialysis Treatments.
Magrogan, Danielle.
2012
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Abstract: Close to
400,000 people in the US suffer from end stage renal disease and require regular HD
treatments as a life sustaining therapy. HD consumes high amounts of energy, water, and
disposables, but the environmental impacts of the treatment has only begun to be
characterized in the literature. A life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is used to
determine the impacts of HD treatments ... read morein the scenarios where: * dialyzers are used once
and then thrown away. * dialyzers are reused, reprocessed between uses, and then thrown
away after about 20 uses. * dialyzers are recycled by recovering materials from the
dialyzer cartridge housing. Environmental impacts are calculated across the nine impact
categories in the TRACI2 LCIA method. This study demonstrates that reusing and recycling
dialyzers creates substantial reductions in the life cycle impacts of individual
dialyzers, but offers only modest benefits when put in context of the entire HD
treatment.
Thesis (M.S.)--Tufts University, 2012.
Submitted to the Dept. of Civil Engineering.
Advisor: Stephen Levine.
Committee: Daniel Weiner, and Thomas Gloria.
Keywords: Environmental engineering, Sustainability, and Health sciences.read less - ID:
- t435gq80s
- Component ID:
- tufts:21112
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
