Development of a life cycle assessment tool for construction and maintenance of asphalt pavements

Huang, Yue; Bird, Roger; Heidrich, Oliver

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2008.06.005

Cited by 300 publications

(116 citation statements)

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“…While various methodologies are available for quantifying carbon emission of pavement construction worldwide, adopting and promoting the existing tools to China's market is found to be fairly challenging due to the institutional constraints. Research widely recognized that carbon emission calculation varies across different countries due to difference associated with parameters, data source, construction methods and regional conditions [3,4]. This renders the comparison between different countries complex and difficult [4].…”

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confidence: 99%

Measuring Carbon Emissions of Pavement Construction in China

et al. 2016

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While various methodologies for quantifying carbon emissions of pavement construction are developed worldwide, adopting and promoting the existing tools to China's market is found fairly challenging due to institutional constraints. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to propose a methodology for measuring carbon emissions of pavement construction compatible with the fixed pricing systems prevalent in China; and develop an automatic tool for carbon estimations. The total carbon emissions are measured by aggregating emissions of energy consumption and materials used along with four stages, namely material manufacture, transportation, construction, and disposal. A set of composite carbon emission factors for energy and materials was calculated based on existing emission factors with the consideration of the boundaries concerned. The quantity of energy and materials used in pavement construction are obtained through bills of quantity and the fixed price system. The database of the emission factors for energy and materials was embedded into a C# based tool, and validated in a real case.Keywords: carbon emission calculation; pavement construction; China BackgroundIt is predicted that, by 2020, carbon emission of infrastructure projects in China will reach 0.197 billion tons [1]. Pavement construction is one of the significant contributors. According to the China Statistical Yearbook (2012), the numbers of municipal projects including pavement projects under construction and planned were 47097 and 30079, respectively in 2011 [2]; and these numbers are still increasing along with the rapid urbanization. To reduce carbon emissions, quantifying them is of significant importance. While various methodologies are available for quantifying carbon emission of pavement construction worldwide, adopting and promoting the existing tools to China's market is found to be fairly challenging due to the institutional constraints. Research widely recognized that carbon emission calculation varies across different countries due to difference associated with parameters, data source, construction methods and regional conditions [3,4]. This renders the comparison between different countries complex and difficult [4]. Another hindrance to carbon emission estimation for pavement construction is the scarcity of reliable data [5]. It is worth noting that, recently, Wang et al.'s (2015) and Ma et al.'s (2016) studies presented a list of carbon emission factors for pavement construction in China [6,7]. However, uptake of these factors would face challenges as practitioners have to collect a separate panel of data for the calculation methodology.The objectives of this study are to develop a carbon emission calculation methodology with a customized database; and develop an automatic tool for carbon emission estimation. The customized database is compatible with the fixed pricing systems (Dinge) prevalent in China. Therefore, practitioners

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Measuring Carbon Emissions of Pavement Construction in China

et al. 2016

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“…Airport and highway-roadway pavements have a great deal in common (e.g., general materials, equipment, and life cycle), so reference to examples of roadway LCA is useful when LCA is being applied to airport pavement. In particular, various LCA tools for highway pavements have emerged in recent years [e.g., Al-Qadi et al (9), Huang et al (10), Mukherjee and Cass (11), and the Athena Impact Estimator for Highways (12)]. …”

Section: Environmental Analyses Of Airport Pavementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Life-Cycle Assessment Tool to Quantify the Environmental Impacts of Airport Pavement Construction

Yang

Al‐Qadi

2017

Transportation Research Record

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The environmental impacts of airport pavement construction were evaluated in this study through a life-cycle analysis approach. Total primary energy (TPE) consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from material production and construction of pavement were determined by using life-cycle assessment (LCA), a quantitative methodology described in the ISO 14040 series. A tool was developed to implement a probabilistic LCA through the Monte Carlo method. This tool allowed for consideration of uncertainty from life-cycle inventory data. A case study on the construction of Runway 10R-28L at Chicago O'Hare International Airport focused on mainline and shoulder pavement designs. Environmental impacts from producing materials for the pavements increased from lower to upper layers, while asphalt layers had relatively higher TPE consumption than the upper portland cement concrete layer-and vice versa for GHGs. Impacts from material production overshadowed those from construction, which contributed less than 2% of TPE consumption and GHGs. Further analysis showed that two production processes-for asphalt binder and portland cement-were the leading contributors (45.3% and 29.2%, respectively) of TPE consumption, while the latter was the leading contributor (73.4%) of GHGs. A probabilistic analysis compared the original 10R-28L runway design and a modified design that did not use recycled materials or warm-mix asphalt technology. The results from 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations showed that the environmental impacts from the two cases were statistically significant, with the original design having lower TPE consumption (482 versus 693 MJ/yd 2 for TPE) and GHGs (37.5 versus 53.9 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per square yard).

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“…However, for shorter transport distances, asphalt production comes at the top of the energy chain. It has been shown in several studies that the asphalt mixing phase is the most energy intensive process (Huang et al 2009;Zapata, Gambatese 2005;Butt et al 2014). To date, the pavement industry is investigating how to lower the energy use and emissions, for example by converting from hot mix asphalt (HMA) to cold mix asphalt technology.…”

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confidence: 99%

Considering the Benefits of Asphalt Modification Using a New Technical Life Cycle Assessment Framework

Butt

Birgisson

Kringos

2015

Journal of Civil Engineering and Management

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Abstract. Asphalt mixtures properties can be enhanced by modifying it with additives. Even though the immediate benefits of using polymers and waxes to modify the binder properties are rather well documented, the effects of such modification over the lifetime of a road are seldom considered. To investigate this, a newly developed open technical life cycle assessment (LCA) framework was used to determine production energy and emission limits for the asphalt additives. The LCA framework is coupled to a calibrated mechanics based computational framework that predicts the in-time pavement performance. Limits for production energy of wax and polymers were determined for the hypothetical case studies to show how LCA tools can assist the additives manufacturers to modify their production procedures and help road authorities in setting 'green' limits to get a real benefit from the additives over the lifetime of a road. From the detailed case-studies, it was concluded that better understanding of materials will lead to enhanced pavement design and could help in the overall reduction of energy usage and emissions.

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Development of a life cycle assessment tool for construction and maintenance of asphalt pavements

Cited by 300 publications

References 5 publications

Measuring Carbon Emissions of Pavement Construction in China

Measuring Carbon Emissions of Pavement Construction in China

Development of a Life-Cycle Assessment Tool to Quantify the Environmental Impacts of Airport Pavement Construction

Considering the Benefits of Asphalt Modification Using a New Technical Life Cycle Assessment Framework

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