A Study on Life Cycle CO2 Emissions of Low-Carbon Building in South Korea

Abstract

There have been much interest and many efforts to control global warming and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions throughout the world. Recently, the Republic of Korea has also increased its GHG reduction goal and searched for an implementation plan. In buildings, for example, there have been technology developments and deployment policies to reduce GHG emissions from a life cycle perspective, covering construction materials, building construction, use of buildings and waste disposal. In particular, Korea's Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design is a certification of environmentally-friendly buildings for their energy saving and reduction of environmental pollution throughout their lives. In fact, the demand and adoption of the certification are rising every year. In construction materials and buildings, as a result, an environmentally-friendly aspect has become crucial. The importance of construction material and building development technologies that can reduce environmental load by diminishing GHG emissions in buildings has emerged. Moreover, there has been a rising necessity to verify the GHG reduction effects of buildings. To assess the reduction of carbon emissions in the buildings built with low-carbon construction technologies and materials, therefore, this study estimated life cycle carbon emissions in reference buildings in which general construction materials are used and in low-carbon buildings. For this, the carbon emissions and their reduction from construction materials (especially concrete) between conventional products and low-carbon materials were estimated, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). After estimating carbon emissions from a building life cycle perspective, their reduction in low-carbon buildings compared to the reference buildings was reviewed. The results found that compared to conventional buildings, low-carbon buildings revealed a 25% decrease in carbon emissions in terms of the reduction of Life Cycle CO 2 (LCCO 2 ) per unit area. If diverse production technologies and sales routes are further developed for low-carbon construction materials, carbon emission reduction effects would considerably increase.

Sustainable Concrete Performance—CO2-Emission

“…It has been shown that if higher weights are taken for factors related to technical characteristics, the usefulness increases with decreasing water to binder ratio and to a much lower extent on the proportion of fly ash or GGBS in the binder. The same relation has been reported [25,27,28,32,33] that high-performance concrete is more desired than ordinary concrete. If the dominating factor is the emission factor, increasing the ash or GGBS proportion in the binder as well as lowering the water:binder ratio increases utility.…”

“…Additionally, replacing cement with slug can also reduce emissions although not as much as concrete type. Cho et al [28] performed Life Cycle Assessment of a residential building in South Korea with a similar conclusion as Baek. It should be noted that replacing ordinary concrete with a high-strength one usually results in cost increase-for example, due to higher usage of expensive plasticizers.…”

Recent advances on Zeolite modification for direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs)

“…Moreover, green technology can decrease global warming effect, acid rain, and air pollution from filth of fossil fuels (CO2, NOx, and CO). 6,7 Therefore, many research have been focused to find alternative substitute of conventional fossil fuel towards renewable and green energy 8 . The potential alternatives of energy sources are solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydro due to their limitless and clean energy supply, which can be used for electricity generation, heating/cooling systems, or directly utilized in the form of bio products.…”

The Reduction of CO2 Emissions by Application of High-Strength Reinforcing Bars to Three Different Structural Systems in South Korea

“…Additionally, they analysed the emissions of CO 2 by phases during the entire life cycle of a building. Cho and Chae [17] indicated that the operation phase is the most energy consuming stage of the whole life cycle of a building, and the construction period is followed by the operation phase. Tae et al [18] examine the influence of high-strength concrete as a means of low environmental impacts materials in high-rise buildings.…”

“…They maintained that the proper selection of low CO 2 emitting materials lowers the emissions by approximately 28%. According to Cho and Chae [17], lowering the impact of buildings on the environment requires the utilisation of low-carbon emitting materials. They show that buildings with low-carbon materials emit approximately 25% less carbon dioxide emissions when compared with those of the conventional buildings.…”