Carbon reduction potential based on life cycle assessment of China’s aluminium industry-a perspective at the province level

Many stadiums will be built in China in the next few decades due to increasing public interest in physical exercise and the incentive policies issued by the government under its National Fitness Program. This paper investigates the energy saving and carbon reduction performance of timber stadiums in China in comparison with stadiums constructed using conventional building materials, based on both life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) and life cycle carbon assessment (LCCA). The authors select five representative cities in five climate zones in China as the simulation environment, simulate energy use in the operation phase of stadiums constructed from reinforced concrete (RC) and timber, and compare the RC and timber stadiums in terms of their life cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions. The LCEA results reveal that the energy saving potential afforded by timber stadiums is 11.05%, 12.14%, 8.15%, 4.61% and 4.62% lower than those of RC buildings in “severely cold,” “cold,” “hot summer, cold winter,” “hot summer, warm winter,” and “temperate” regions, respectively. The LCCA results demonstrate that the carbon emissions of timber stadiums are 15.85%, 15.86%, 18.88%, 19.22% and 22.47% lower than those of RC buildings for the regions above, respectively. This demonstrates that in China, timber stadiums have better energy conservation and carbon reduction potential than RC stadiums, based on life cycle assessment. Thus, policy makers are advised to encourage the promotion of timber stadiums in China to achieve the goal of sustainable energy development for public buildings.

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The Role of Embodied Carbon Databases in the Accuracy of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Calculations for the Embodied Carbon of Buildings

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147988 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7988

Author(s):

Golnaz Mohebbi ◽

Ali Bahadori-Jahromi ◽

Marco Ferri ◽

Anastasia Mylona

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Department Of Energy ◽

Unit Weight ◽

Climate Data ◽

Carbon Reduction ◽

Embodied Carbon ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

The Uk

Studies conducted by major national and international scientific bodies have indisputably concluded that the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) since the mid-20th century has led to irreversible changes in the climate. Data has shown that the contribution of the building sector accounts for 39% of these emissions. Reducing GHG emissions associated with the construction phase of buildings, or embodied carbon (EC), will prevent GHG emissions from entering the atmosphere earlier, reducing the negative impacts. However, to achieve any meaningful reduction, there is a need for consistency and accuracy in the calculations. The accuracy of these calculations is primarily tied to the accuracy of embodied carbon factors (ECF) used in the calculations, values determining the environmental impact of a product or procedure per unit weight. The emissions of any product can be calculated by performing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). While the requirements for carrying out an LCA have been standardised in ISO14044, the lack of a definitive national ECF database in the UK means that EC calculations can vary drastically based on the chosen database. An LCA has been carried out on a standard Lidl supermarket design within the A1–A3 boundary. For the calculation, the ECFs were sourced from two different databases, using the GHG conversion factor data published in 2020 by the UK Department of Energy & Climate Change and data published in 2019 by the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE). The latter is currently accepted as the most consistent database for carbon factors in the UK. This study showed that using a more detailed database compared to using a more general database could result in a 35.2% reduction of embodied carbon, while using more detailed data from a single database can reduce it by a further 5.5%. It is necessary to establish the most accurate baseline for embodied carbon so that any carbon reduction attempts can be as effective as possible.

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Environmental life cycle assessment and operating cost analysis of a conceptual battery hybrid-electric transport aircraft

CEAS Aeronautical Journal ◽

10.1007/s13272-021-00556-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Elena Scholz ◽

Dimitar Trifonov ◽

Mirko Hornung

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Reduction Potential ◽

Operating Costs ◽

Transport Aircraft ◽

Electric Aircraft ◽

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Hybrid Electric

AbstractNoise and greenhouse gas emission targets set by e.g., the EU commission, NASA, and ICAO oblige the aviation industry to reduce its environmental footprint. Battery-powered hybrid-electric aircraft are currently being investigated in this regard as they can potentially reduce in-flight greenhouse gas emissions and noise. However, most studies to date have focused on the CO2 emission reduction potential instead of considering the total life cycle environmental impact. Hence, within this study an environmental life cycle assessment method for a hybrid-electric aircraft is developed and applied, supplemented by a direct operating costs analysis. This allows the simultaneous evaluation of the environmental impact reduction potential and the economic consequences for aircraft operators. This demonstrates the faced trade-off and contributes to a meaningful review process. A single-aisle transport aircraft (A320 class) serves as a use case for the established methodology. It consists of the conceptual aircraft design, the environmental life cycle assessment, and the direct operating costs analysis for a conventional reference aircraft and a hybrid-electric aircraft with a discrete parallel powertrain architecture. It should be noticed that the focus of this study is the comparison of conceptual aircraft designs of the same fidelity on system level, in lieu of the detailed modeling of a hybrid-electric aircraft. Results show that for a degree of hybridization of 0.3, the environmental impact of the hybrid-electric configuration increased by $$15.1\%$$ 15.1 % , while the operating costs increased by $$41.0\%$$ 41.0 % compared to a conventional reference aircraft. For a future scenario, favourable for hybrid-electric aircraft with i.a. renewable electricity production, the environmental impact could be reduced by $$7.0\%$$ 7.0 % compared to the reference aircraft. At the same time, the operating costs gap between both configurations decreases to $$+ 26.8\%$$ + 26.8 % . Hybrid-electric aircraft should therefore be investigated further as a potential solution to reduce the environmental impact of aviation, if simultaneously to developing them the expansion of renewable energies is fostered. Nevertheless, this reduction in environmental impact involves a high direct operating costs penalty.

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Auditing carbon reduction potential of green concrete using life cycle assessment methodology

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/850/1/012002 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 850 (1) ◽

pp. 012002

Author(s):

G V Bhagat ◽

P P Savoikar

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Focal Point ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Industrial Wastes ◽

Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽

Green Concrete ◽

Carbon Reduction ◽

Step Procedure

Abstract The production of concrete in its traditional form have reported a notable impact on the environment in terms of resource depletion and the carbon footprint it generates in the entire life cycle. To reduce these impacts, the ‘Green Concrete’ concept is at focal point of research in the construction industry. The advantage of resource conservation of ‘Green concrete’s is evident from usage of industrial by-products like fly ash, blast furnace slag, silica fume etc. as alternative binder materials and recycled wastes like construction and demolished waste and other industrial wastes as aggregate fillers. However, the quantification of environmental impact of such concretes in terms of most crucial emissions, like CO2 emissions in an objective way would confirm the eco-friendly face of ‘Green concrete’. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is one of the most trusted tools to arrive at carbon score of such green concrete. This paper presents a step-by-step procedure of estimation of carbon footprint of a green concrete considering all possible phases of the life cycle of concrete including the post use phase. The conclusive findings from available literature for different types of ‘Green concrete’ are also presented to reflect the environmental advantage/disadvantage. The effect of system boundary, carbon uptake and allocation of impact are also discussed with reference to the results available in the literature.

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