Safe-by-Design Report for NanoPAT

Safe-by-Design Report for NanoPAT

Project Deliverable by BNN
Project: NanoPAT (H2020 – GA number: 862583)
Date of publication: May 2024
Area: GO Sustainable
BNN team involvement: Matiss Reinfelds, Susanne Resch, Salja Tahiraj & Andreas Falk

 

In the NanoPAT project, BNN was responsible for devising and implementing the Safe-by-Design concept. This report outlines the concept and explains the developed safety guidelines with a particular focus on nanosafety. The report starts with an explanation of the legal framework for nanomaterials, emphasizing the importance of measuring and understanding particle size to identify and characterize nanomaterials accurately, and the role of standardized methods in this context. We then provided a brief overview of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) methods, followed by an examination of Safe-by-Design (SbD) approaches and principles.

In this report, we explore Safe-by-Design from various angles, keeping also up-to-date with latest developments in the field: Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) and inherently safer design (ISD). Each approach offers unique perspectives, with SSbD, for example, taking a holistic lifecycle approach and ISD offering a specificity that is more attractive to mechanical, chemical and plant engineers. Partner TEMASOL’s Blanca Suarez-Merino provided the reader with a brief overview of risk assessment tools that are specifically tailored to the assessment of potential risks posed by nanomaterials. She also gave an exemplary detailed report on nanohydroxyapatite, demonstrating how TEMASOL applied two screening risk assessment tools (the Swiss Precautionary Matrix for nanomaterials and LICARA nanoScan).

Having set the stage, the report delves into a comprehensive analysis of the five NanoPAT case studies, namely, the production processes of (i) acrylate and urethane polymers, (ii) nanosilica,
(iii) nanohydroxyapatite, (iv) zeolites, and (v) electroplating with nanoceramics. Each case study undergoes careful examination, assessing the chemicals employed in the processes and estimating their associated hazards. Subsequent discussions focus on product analysis, examining potential safety risks to workers and the environment and provides measures for reducing potential risks.

The original deliverable is confidential and can only be viewed by project beneficiaries.

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