Vereala is a Switzerland based innovation and consultancy company. Established to prospectively assess emerging technologies, Vereala collaborates with industry, universities, and authorities: For example, in the European Nanosafety Cluster, among other projects.
Vereala help its customers to integrate safe by design approaches at a very early stage in the value chain. Vereala also provides holistic life cycle assessments for demonstrating the environmental and human health performance of new technologies in all their facets. We include material extraction, transport, production, use and end of life in our analyses. While for common technologies, an LCA is usually straight forward, new technologies and processes require a deep understanding of the LCA methodology, which Vereala can provide. If necessary, we extend the LCA framework for inclusion of new properties, such as phenomena at the nanoscale.
Vereala is also proficient in nanosafety evaluations, whether in occupational or consumer settings. We have profound knowledge of exposure and hazard assessment and know the regulatory requirements in all nanorelated fields.
Vereala is proud member of the Nanotechnology Industries Association, and the Swiss Standardization Association. We see our role in pushing new technologies in a safe manner towards standardization in order to provide broad acceptance and implementation on the market.
Role in the project:
VER (with extensive experience in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of nano-enabled products and technologies) will co-lead (together with IRES) the LCA/LCCA activities in WP3. In order to provide an evaluation of the environmental and human health performance of the technology, VER will analyse it from raw material extraction and energy flows to installation, use and waste management. VER will then compare the results to existing technologies in order to come up with a fair conclusion on the sustainability of the nanomaterial-based technology for wastewater treatment and recycling, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses along the life cycle.
Relevant Publications:
- Fransman, W., H. Buist, E. Kuijpers, T. Walser, D. Meyer, E. Zondervan‐van den Beuken, J. Westerhout, R. H. Klein Entink and D. H. Brouwer (2017). “Comparative human health impact assessment of engineered nanomaterials in the framework of life cycle assessment.” Risk Analysis 37(7): 1358-1374.
- Walser, T., R. M. Bourqui and C. Studer (2017). “Combination of life cycle assessment, risk assessment and human biomonitoring to improve regulatory decisions and policy making for chemicals.” Environmental Impact Assessment Review 65: 156-163.
- Walser, T., E. Demou, D. J. Lang and S. Hellweg (2011). “Prospective environmental life cycle assessment of nanosilver T-shirts.” Environmental science & technology 45(10): 4570-4578.
- Walser, T., S. Hellweg, R. Juraske, N. A. Luechinger, J. Wang and M. Fierz (2012). “Exposure to engineered nanoparticles: model and measurements for accident situations in laboratories.” Science of the Total Environment 420: 119-126. 5. T. Walser, C Studer (2017). Sameness: The regulatory crux with nanomaterial identity and grouping schemes for hazard assessment. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology 72(3)
Relevant Projects:
- 2018-2019: Update of the Swiss Precautionary Matrix of Synthetic Nanomaterials (Swiss Authorities)
- 2012 – 2019: NanoReg, NanoScreen and other EU H2020 and FP7 projects (European Commission)
- 2017 – 2019: 10+ projects with industry on safe by design of nanotechnologies (Customers not disclosed)
- 2019: Project on nanowaste with ZAR, a large-scale waste incineration plant
Infrastructure & Equipment:
- Access to LCA databases (GaBi, ecoinvent)
- Nanoparticle measurement devices (for indoor and outdoor)
- Access to scientific literature and regulatory documents
- A network of LCA- and RA-experts in academia and industry