Geneviève plouffe
PhD candidate
(Chemical Engineering Department - École Polytechnique de Montréal)
genevieve.plouffe@polymtl.ca
Expertise :
- Fate modeling
- Metal speciation
- Life cycle impact assessment
- Ecotoxicity
Start: January 2008
Director: Louise Deschênes
Co-director: Réjean Samson
Research project:
Influence of metal speciation and soil physicochemical characteristics on toxic and ecotoxic response in life cycle impact assessment
Project summary:
At the present time, the LCA results are often dominated by the toxicological impact of metals. This can be due to the fact that present models have been developed for organic compounds, whose properties differ largely from those of the metals. Unlike organic compounds, metals partition themselves among multiple species (speciation) according to the soil physicochemical characteristics. This speciation drives metal bioavailability and toxicity (Strandesen et al., 2007).
Some environmental assessment tools, such as risk analysis, have developed fate multimedia models which determines the behavior of metals in soils according to their speciation (Bhavsar et al., 2008). These models however require detailed information on the soil mineral composition which is not available in LCA (Hellweg et al., 2005).
It is thus necessary to include metal particularities in LCIA models in order to assess properly toxicological impacts and to enhance LCA credibility.
The main objective of this thesis is therefore to model metal fate in soil while considering speciation and main soil physicochemical characteristics in order to better assess the toxicological impacts in LCA. The project will study aluminum and zinc in terrestrial systems.
References:
BHAVSAR, S.P., GANDHI, N.et DIAMOND, M.L. (2008). Extension of coupled multispecies metal transport and speciation (TRANSPEC) model to soil. Chemosphere 70 p.914-924.
HELLWEG, S., FISCHER, U., HOFSTETTER, T.B.et HUNGERBÜHLER, K. (2005). Site-dependent fate assessment in LCA: transport of heavy metals in soil. Journal of Cleaner Production (13) p.341-361.
STRANDESEN, M., BIRKVED, M., HOLM, P.E.et HAUSCHILD, M.Z. (2007). Fate and distribution modelling of metals in life cycle impact assessment. Ecological Modelling (203) p.327-338.
Career path:
2006-2007: Master degree in Environmental Earth Science. Specialization: “Soils, Waters and Wastes”. C.E.R.E.G.E.- Université Paul Cézanne (Aix-en-Provence, France)
2002-2003: Academic exchange. Luleå University of Technology (Luleå, Suède)
2001-2006: B. Ing in chemical engineering, specialization in environmental engineering. École Polytechnique de Montréal