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- Title
Environmental Impacts of Various Disinfection Procedures during Laundering.
- Authors
Neral, Branko; Šostar-Turk, Sonja; Fijan, Sabina
- Abstract
The laundering procedures for health institutions and the food-processing industry must ensure the elimination of impurities and appropriate levels of hygiene. In addition to the classical combination of chemo-thermal disinfection procedures, the laundering procedure based on the liquid carbon dioxide (LCO) technology is becoming more and more assertive. In the previous studies on laundry care processes, the evaluations of disinfection effects have become prominent, while sadly the environmental impacts have remained in the background. The research focused on comparing the environment impacts caused by chemical-thermal and CO2 laundering procedures regarding medical textiles. Bioindicators, classical and prototype LCO2 equipment for the textile laundry, detergents, disinfectants and auxiliary agents, as well as the sampling equipment and sampling methods were used for the evaluation of disinfection effects. This paper introduces performed wastewater ecological analyses using a chemo-thermal procedure in accordance with the Slovenian regulation on the substance emission during the removal of wastewater from laundries and dry-cleaner's (Slovenian Official Gazette 41/2007). Energy and environmental balances for both laundering procedures were prepared. Life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle inventories (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodologies were taken into account. The results of our investigation point to the fact that the energy used for 1 kg of textiles during one-bath LCO2 procedure is in comparison with the chemo-thermal procedure lower by 2,800 kJ. It was also discovered that a classical chemo-thermal procedure has four times higher global warming potential (GWPTCP,) and acidification potential (AP) than the one-bath LCO2 laundering procedure, regarding disinfection.
- Subjects
LIQUID carbon dioxide; DISINFECTANTS &; the environment; LAUNDRY equipment; HEALTH facility management; FOOD industry equipment; BIOINDICATORS
- Publication
Tekstilec, 2011, Vol 54, Issue 7-9, p149
- ISSN
0351-3386
- Publication type
Article