Taking as its subject matter one aspect of the hugely important subject of nanotechnology, this book demonstrates that the application of nanotechnology in industry can result in increased eco-efficiency and other environmental gains. It also shows what needs to be done from the point of view of scientists, engineers and science policy makers to guide future development in nanotechnology towards sustainability.

Novel breakthroughs in the cutting-edge field of nanotechnology, as a cross-sectional technology, show potential for being applied across the whole value chain of the energy sector (energy sources, energy conversion, energy distribution, energy storage, and energy use). This book gives an overview of nanotechnological applications within the value chain of the energy sector and evaluates selected applications and their direct and indirect impacts on the energy sector. It presents selected nanotechnological applications that influence the energy economy significantly. Furthermore, the authors give a comprehensive description of the impacts and outcomes of selected nanotechnological applications on energy consumption, energy sources, energy supply, and the energy industry in Germany and show the potential of these applications for energy savings, improvement in energy efficiency, and the reduction of emissions until 2030.

Nanotechnology has the potential to play an important role in increasing the sustainability of a wide range of industrial sectors. Nanomaterials could contribute to more sustainable manufacturing through cleaner, less wasteful production processes and can substitute conventional materials, leading to savings in raw materials and energy. Nanotechnol

The environment is prone to suffer pollution and toxic insult from generations of nanomaterials as well from accidental releases during production, transportation, and disposal operations. The NMs could interact with and cause adverse biological effects at cellular, subcellular, and molecular levels. Assessing potential environmental/ecological risks requires quality information on transport and fate of nanoparticles in the environment, exposures and vulnerabilities of organisms to the nanomaterials and standard methods for assessing toxicity for aquatic or terrestrial organisms and human health. The systematic risk characterization and evaluation of the safety of nanomaterials require a multidisciplinary approach and convergence of knowledge and efforts from researchers and experts from toxicology, biotechnology, materials science, chemistry, physics, engineering, and other branches of life sciences. Although studies are beginning to appear in the literature addressing the toxicity of various nanomaterials and their potential for exposure, at this stage definitive statements regarding the impacts of nanomaterials on human health and the environment remain sketchy requiring an increased level of precautions with regard to nanomaterials, as has happened with other emerging contaminants and technologies (e.g., biotechnology). The need for an increased level of understanding the perception of risk and of benefits will vary and is likely to influence public, regulatory, and non-governmental activities regarding risk and benefit evaluations. Systematic identification and assessment of the risks posed by any new technology are essential. A prudent, integrated, and holistic approach is required to develop best practices based on the scientific understanding about what we know and what we don’t know but need to know. Nanomaterials addresses key issues of ecotoxicological actions and effects of nanomaterials on life and environment, their threats, vulnerability, risks, and public perception. The readers learn to read bad news objectively and think about and search for ecological ‘green’ solutions to current environmental and ecological problems with blue, grey, brown, and red shades for building a sustainable ecosystem. It shows how this molecular terrain is a common ground for interdisciplinary research and education that will be an essential component of science, engineering and technology in the future. The book is divided into three sections. Section I includes general topics related to ecotoxicity of nanomaterials to microbes, plants, human and environment. Section 2 incorporates risks generated by the use of nanomaterials. Section 3 discusss safety issues and the public.

Life-cycle assessment is a methodology used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product, process, or service during its life cycle, and risk assessment is a tool to evaluate potential hazards to human health and the environment introduced by pollutant emissions. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for, among other objectives, responsible consumption and production by decoupling environmental resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth and human well-being. Life-cycle assessment and risk assessment are both analytical system approaches that allow scientists and other decision makers to address these issues and objectives according to the current understanding of environmental mechanisms. This book is the first attempt to illustrate the existing interfaces between life-cycle assessment and risk assessment and to indicate options for further integration of both tools. The second edition: Focuses on sustainability Considers new developments in life-cycle assessment and environmental risk assessment over the last ten years at the international level Introduces broader concepts and discussions on integrative versus the complementary use of life-cycle and risk assessments Extends the scope of integrated life-cycle and risk assessments to critical raw materials Includes more case studies and discusses engineered nanomaterials Featuring contributions from leading experts, Integrated Life-Cycle and Risk Assessment for Industrial Processes and Products is a great reference for graduate students and professionals in environmental management and intends to catalyze communication between life-cycle assessment and risk assessment experts and scientists in academia, industry, and governmental agencies. The practical format of the book—illustrated with flowcharts, examples, exercises, and concrete applications—makes it a useful manual for analyzing situations and making decisions.

This book presents recent research findings and critically reviews the existing literature related to assessment of geotechnical structures under complex and extreme loading conditions such as cyclic, seismic and blast loads. Special emphasize is given to experimental assessment of behaviors of soils and rocks in tunneling , while advanced numerical modelling techniques are utilized for modelling and accurate predictions in emerging construction projects such as tunneling and embankments. The book is in line with current trends in civil engineering which are moving towards sustainable design and construction addressing the energy and material challenges. Papers were selected from the 5th GeoChina International Conference 2018 – Civil Infrastructures Confronting Severe Weathers and Climate Changes: From Failure to Sustainability, held on July 23 to 25, 2018 in HangZhou, China.

This book is a selection of the most relevant contributions to the LCM 2011 conference in Berlin. The material explores scientific and practical solutions to incorporating life cycle approaches into strategic and operational decision making. There are several sections addressing methodological topics such as LCSM approaches, methods and tools, while more application-oriented sections deal with the implementation of these approaches in relevant industrial sectors including agriculture and food, packaging, energy, electronics and ICT, and mobility.

In the 1980s and 1990s, a handful of authors began speculating about the physical forms that future medical nanorobots might take. A few created artist's conceptions of their devices. During this time, only the broadest analyses of the missions and capabilities that might be desired had been attempted. Detailed technical and engineering studies, in many cases, still lay years in the future. Despite this handicap, some of these designs have many plausible elements, along with other elements which, in hindsight, may appear fanciful, impractical, or even dangerous. These speculations continue through the present. The science of nanorobotics plays a vital role in the development of robots, whose structure is built by using nanoscale components and objects. The nature of the components being in the nano scale allows the researchers for the engineering of the mimic of human beings. The construction of the various complex parts, which constitute the robots have been possible due to nanorobotics. Nanobots, nanites, nanoids or nanomites are some of the hypothetical devices created with the knowledge of nanorobotics. Nanorobotics will set new standards in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, aerospace and automotive industries, security, defense, environmental protection, electronics, computers and communications. Within the next two decades, we may have tiny machines inside us, combatting every disease known to humankind and slowing down, even reversing the aging process, making us practically immortal. This book describes how to build a mobile computer user a citizen of the Internet and how to admittance everything the in sequence superhighway has to present. The objective of this book is to make available you with an opening to the design and completion of Internet protocols that are helpful for maintaining network connections still while moving from place to position.

In this thesis a prospective approach was developed to identify and to assess current as well as potentially upcoming product applications with focus on environmental releases and exposures of engineered nanomaterials. The developed product application scenarios were illustrated in case studies on iron oxide and silver nanoparticles. It was shown that despite of prevailing knowledge gaps, reasonable estimations for environmental releases and exposures can be made. This novel approach facilitates the identification of early indicators for precautionary risk management measures and among them benign by design concepts in technology and product development.

This book comprehensively reviews the considerations of nanotechnology elaborated in philosophy, ethics, and the social sciences and systematizes and develops them further. It focuses on the issues of ethical responsibility regarding chances and risks of nanotechnology and its possible applications in the fields of synthetic nanoparticles, synthetic biology, animal enhancement, and human enhancement. The book has been, thus, put in the context of the keywords "responsible innovation" and "reflective sciences," which have been central concepts in the debates about the relationship between science and society for the last few years.