Environmental assessment of green concretes for structural use

Marinković, Snežana; Dragaš, Jelena; Ignjatović, Ivan; Tošić, Nikola

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.015

Cited by 186 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…An interesting study was proposed by [44] in which green concrete mixes were compared with a conventional concrete mix. The final results highlighted that RCA with fly ash (FA) was the most suitable mixture.…”

Section: State Of Art Of Lca and Recycled Aggregates Concretementioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Different Kinds of Concrete Containing Waste for Sustainable Construction

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Concrete production causes significant environmental damage during its entire life cycle due to the large consumption of natural aggregate. The aim of this research was to use the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to conduct a comparative analysis of four different concrete mixtures, i.e., construction and demolition waste (CDW), incinerator ashes, marble sludge, and blast furnace slag. The LCA study was implemented in the Campania Region of Italy. The main contribution of the study was that it proposed the use of "green" recycled aggregates in concrete production in order to assess the reduction of potential adverse impacts, from both environmental and energy perspectives. SimaPro © software was used to conduct the analysis. The main results of the research showed that the recycled aggregates that were analyzed were preferable to traditional concrete. In particular, the recycled aggregate that had the least adverse impact on the environment was blast furnace waste.

show abstract

Section: State Of Art Of Lca and Recycled Aggregates Concretementioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Different Kinds of Concrete Containing Waste for Sustainable Construction

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…LCA studies have reported varying CFI of 320-343 kgCO 2 -eq/m 3 for 100% RCA concrete (Marinković et al 2017) and 271 kgCO 2 -eq/m 3 for 30% RCA concrete (Kleijer et al 2017). From this study, the CFI for 100% RCA OPC concrete in the Australian context is higher (516 kgCO 2 -eq/ m 3 ) as it includes emissions from upstream processes (Fig.…”

Section: Recycled Concrete Aggregate In Opc and Gpcmentioning

confidence: 68%

Mixed-unit hybrid life cycle assessment applied to the recycling of construction materials

Teh

Wiedmann

Moore

2018

Economic Structures

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The construction industry contributes around 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, 40% of depletion of natural resources, and 25% of wastes globally. To reduce these impacts, construction industries can adopt low-carbon alternatives for construction materials and waste minimisation strategies, including the recycling of construction and demolition waste. However, a comprehensive understanding of the full life cycle carbon profile of low-carbon and recyclable construction materials is required to accurately assess the efficacy of decarbonisation strategies in the built environment. Despite recent progress in hybrid life cycle assessment (hybrid LCA) methods, some weaknesses remain with respect to the inherent uncertainty relating to price variations and aggregated sectors that are unable to provide detailed waste-specific information in hybrid LCA. Furthermore, attributional, hybrid LCA for a functional unit does not reflect the actual, economy-wide physical flows of materials in a real economy. In this study, a mixed-unit hybrid LCA approach based on a combination of process life cycle inventory, input-output, and material flow data is used to model the economy-wide potential use of recycled construction materials in Australia. A comparison between methods of life cycle emissions of geopolymer concrete revealed that the mixed-unit hybrid LCA approach produced a more accurate and Australian-specific result. The usefulness of the proposed mixed-unit IO model is demonstrated through quantifying the cradle-togate embodied emissions of recycled construction materials and by-products utilised in concrete and steel sectors in Australia. The results yield a 1% reduction when recycled concrete aggregate completely replaces natural aggregate in both ordinary Portland cement and geopolymer concrete. Greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 30% is quantified for geopolymer concrete using recycled concrete aggregate compared with ordinary Portland cement concrete utilising natural aggregate and 43% is estimated for electric arc furnace route using iron and steel scrap compared with basic oxygen furnace route. The method merges physical and monetary units of industrial systems related to low-carbon alternatives and recycled construction materials to enable the calculations of embodied carbon with improved accuracy. The results of this study can help inform decarbonisation strategies in the built environment sector.

show abstract

“…There have been many studies published that have compared the environmental impacts of RAC and NAC for structural use [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. The environmental impacts of concrete structural elements can be assessed, for instance, by the life cycle assessment method (LCA) [63].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Masonry Made from Recycled Aggregates: LCA Case Study

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For a sustainable building industry, reusable construction with a low demand for primary resources is needed. Moreover, if we want to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste, construction with recycled aggregate should be considered. To investigate the environmental impacts of such concrete construction, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare the following types of concrete construction: Reusable blocks with recycled brick aggregate, reusable blocks with recycled concrete, reusable blocks with natural aggregate, and regular concrete wall. Firstly, the properties of new concrete with recycled aggregate were measured, such as physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Then, different constructions were designed and assessed using the method of Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML2001) and the method of National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (ReCiPe 2016) as characterization methods. Unsurprisingly, the regular concrete wall had a higher impact on most of the impact categories, e.g., 113 kg CO 2 eq. (in the first scenario, using CML2001). In accordance with the circular principles, the reusability of blocks and recycling of aggregate are the main factors that affect the environmental impact of the constructions. Thus, the global warming potential (GWP) of construction with reusable recycled concrete blocks was only 53 kg CO 2 eq. (in the second scenario). Moreover, we show differences in the results of CML2001 and ReCiPe 2016, e.g., in the Photochemical Oxidant Creation category.

show abstract

Environmental assessment of green concretes for structural use

Cited by 186 publications

References 71 publications

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Different Kinds of Concrete Containing Waste for Sustainable Construction

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Different Kinds of Concrete Containing Waste for Sustainable Construction

Mixed-unit hybrid life cycle assessment applied to the recycling of construction materials

Sustainable Masonry Made from Recycled Aggregates: LCA Case Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About