Towards Sustainable Development of Nanomanufacturing

"Sustainability" is a buzz word these days not just among regulatory agencies but even with corporations, as evident by the release of annual sustainability report by a large number of firms. Companies are starting to portray profit making along with corporate environmental responsibility.

Nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing which holds a lot of promise for development in a multitude of fields in science and engineering is the new kid on the block and carries a lot of apprehension due to public concern about their potential unwanted side effects that may result in the case of an untoward incident or lack of oversight.

This thesis covers the following aspects of nanomanufacturing in light of sustainable development

• Identifying regulatory needs,
• Life cycle thinking in evaluating products and use of "green" methods for nanomanufacturing,
• Methods for selection of manufacturing processes that cause least harm to the environment,
• Use of industrial engineering tools for evaluating manufacturing processes at a process step level to identify areas of environmental performance improvement, and
• Provide guidance to nanomanufacturing facilities in the form of expert opinion to help implement workplace controls.