Life cycle assessment of supercritical impregnation: Starch aerogel plus α-tocopherol tablets

The environmental impacts of starch aerogel (SA) loaded with vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol, TOC) using supercritical carbon dioxide impregnation were evaluated, following a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. All the emissions to air, water and soil were reported to a 120 mg SA tablet containing the daily therapeutic dose of TOC (15 mg). The life cycle inventory was built using primary data and the LCA analysis was conducted using SimaPro 8.5.2 software. The performed analysis showed that the stages most affecting the environmental categories under study are the agricultural stages, the supercritical drying for the attainment of the aerogel and the supercritical impregnation. Solutions aimed at minimizing the impacts of these steps were proposed.