Geopolymer-based hybrid foams: Lightweight materials from a sustainable production process

Ricciotti, Laura; Occhicone, Alessio; Petrillo, Antonella; Ferone, Claudio; Cioffi, Raffaele; Roviello, Giuseppina

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119588

Cited by 56 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Most research on the sustainability of AAMs used Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies. For instance, [ 7 , 8 ] proposed a “cradle to gate” model, accounting for extraction of base minerals, transportation to production plants, and emissions released at the production stage of OPC and AAM concrete. Yet, the LCA methodology examines a fragmented sector of a complex system of systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating Portland Cement CO2 Emissions Using Alkali-Activated Materials: System Dynamics Model

Nehdi

Yassine

2020

Materials

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While alkali-activated materials (AAMs) have been hailed as a very promising solution to mitigate colossal CO2 emissions from world portland cement production, there is lack of robust models that can demonstrate this claim. This paper pioneers a novel system dynamics model that captures the system complexity of this problem and addresses it in a holistic manner. This paper reports on this object-oriented modeling paradigm to develop a cogent prognostic model for predicting CO2 emissions from cement production. The model accounts for the type of AAM precursor and activator, the service life of concrete structures, carbonation of concrete, AAM market share, and policy implementation period. Using the new model developed in this study, strategies for reducing CO2 emissions from cement production have been identified, and future challenges facing wider AAM implementation have been outlined. The novelty of the model consists in its ability to consider the CO2 emission problem as a system of systems, treating it in a holistic manner, and allowing the user to test diverse policy scenarios, with inherent flexibility and modular architecture. The practical relevance of the model is that it facilitates the decision-making process and policy making regarding the use of AAMs to mitigate CO2 emissions from cement production at low computational cost.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating Portland Cement CO2 Emissions Using Alkali-Activated Materials: System Dynamics Model

Nehdi

Yassine

2020

Materials

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“…Good and similar impact values were obtained by the concretes based on Portland cement (C) and concrete with the addition of limestone sludge (PA0). Geopolymer shows better performances from the point of view of global warming potential and acidification, and slightly worse values for fossil and ozone depletion, as detected in other geopolymers/Portland concrete comparisons [ 33 , 43 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

“… The impacts of the raw materials were estimated including extraction and all the necessary processes preliminary to their use. For fly ash, just the transportation contributed to the impacts, because it can be used directly in the production process and can be considered as a no-impact material, as demonstrated in previous works [ 43 , 44 ]. In the case of recycled plastic, just the milling and the transport were estimated, with a negative global contribution for different environmental impact items such as global warming potential (all the contributions are shown in Appendix A , Table A1 , Table A2 , Table A3 , Table A4 , Table A5 , Table A6 and Table A7 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The difference in the process is the curing necessary for geopolymer products, which need 24 h in a climatic chamber at 60 °C to complete reticulation reaction and hardening. In this case, the electricity consumption linked to this step was estimated using the Italian energetic mix as in [ 43 ]. The impacts of the raw materials were estimated including extraction and all the necessary processes preliminary to their use.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fibre-Reinforced Geopolymer Concretes for Sensible Heat Thermal Energy Storage: Simulations and Environmental Impact

et al. 2021

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Power plants based on solar energy are spreading to accomplish the incoming green energy transition. Besides, affordable high-temperature sensible heat thermal energy storage (SHTES) is required. In this work, the temperature distribution and thermal performance of novel solid media for SHTES are investigated by finite element method (FEM) modelling. A geopolymer, with/without fibre reinforcement, is simulated during a transient charging/discharging cycle. A life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis is also carried out to investigate the environmental impact and sustainability of the proposed materials, analysing the embodied energy, the transport, and the production process. A Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach, taking into account thermal/environmental performance, is used to select the most suitable material. The results show that the localized reinforcement with fibres increases thermal storage performance, depending on the type of fibre, creating curvatures in the temperature profile and accelerating the charge/discharge. High-strength, high-conductivity carbon fibres performed well, and the simulation approach can be applied to any fibre arrangement/material. On the contrary, the benefit of the fibres is not straightforward according to the three different scenarios developed for the LCA and MCDM analyses, due to the high impact of the fibre production processes. More investigations are needed to balance and optimize the coupling of the fibre material and the solid medium to obtain high thermal performance and low impacts.

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“…Aiming at demonstrating the feasibility of the production of aerated systems based on geopolymer hybrid foams (GHF), derived from fly ash (GHF-FA), Roviello et al applied LCA to evaluate the impacts of this process in comparison with GHF based on metakaolin (GHF-MK) and commercial aerated autoclaved concrete (AAC) systems [ 88 ]. In the authors’ intentions the data deriving from LCA must allowed to overcome the issues that, at that time, limited the geopolymers commercialization.…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Polymeric Sector: A Comprehensive Review of Application Experiences on the Italian Scale

2020

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In recent years, a growing media campaign has demonized the use of plastic tout court, as solely responsible for environmental problems. Behind what is now vulgarly called plastic there are actually many applications and uses without which our daily life would be greatly penalized in the most common and routine actions. Our belief, in the role of researchers who have made polymers and their derivatives their main research object, is that sustainable use of polymeric materials is not only possible but is above all necessary. For this reason, in this review which is part of the Special Issue “State-of-the-Art Polymer Science and Technology in Italy”, we offer a rundown of life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies on polymers used in the most important production and commercial sectors carried out in the last few years by Italians researchers.

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Geopolymer-based hybrid foams: Lightweight materials from a sustainable production process

Cited by 56 publications

References 39 publications

Mitigating Portland Cement CO2 Emissions Using Alkali-Activated Materials: System Dynamics Model

Mitigating Portland Cement CO2 Emissions Using Alkali-Activated Materials: System Dynamics Model

Fibre-Reinforced Geopolymer Concretes for Sensible Heat Thermal Energy Storage: Simulations and Environmental Impact

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Polymeric Sector: A Comprehensive Review of Application Experiences on the Italian Scale

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