scholarly journals Asphalt Concrete Mixtures: Requirements with regard to Life Cycle Assessment

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Mikolaj ◽  
Frantisek Schlosser ◽  
Lubos Remek ◽  
Aurelia Chytcakova

Design of asphalt concrete, required properties of constituent materials and their mixing ratios, is of tremendous significance and should be implemented with consideration given to the whole life cycle of those materials and the final construction. Conformity with requirements for long term performance of embedded materials is the general objective of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Therefore, within the assessment, material properties need to be evaluated with consideration given to the whole service life—from the point of embedding in the construction until their disposal or recycling. The evaluation focuses on verification of conformity with criteria set for these materials and should guarantee serviceability and performance during their whole service life. Recycling and reuse of asphalt concrete should be preferred over disposal of the material. This paper presents methodology for LCA of asphalt concrete. It was created to ensure not only applicability of the materials in the initial stage, at the point of their embedding, but their suitability in terms of normatively prescribed service performance of the final construction. Methods described and results are presented in a case study for asphalt mixture AC 11; I design.

2021 ◽  
Vol 99 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 24-25
Author(s):  
Agbee L Kpogo ◽  
Jismol Jose ◽  
Josiane Panisson ◽  
Bernardo Predicala ◽  
Alvin Alvarado ◽  
...  

Abstract The impact of feeding growing pigs with high wheat millrun diets on the global warming potential (GWP) of pork production was investigated. In study 1, a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of wheat millrun (0 or 30%) and multi-carbohydrase enzyme (0 or 1 mg kg-1) as main effects was utilized. For each of 16 reps, 6 pigs (60.2±2.2 kg BW) were housed in environmental chambers for 14d. Air samples were collected and analyzed for carbon dioxide (CO2); nitrous oxide (N2O); and methane (CH4). In study 2, data from study 1 and performance data obtained from a previous feeding trial were utilized in a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework that included feed production. The Holos farm model (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge. AB) was used to estimate emissions from feed production. In study 1, total manure output from pigs fed 30% wheat millrun diets was 30% greater than pigs on the 0% wheat millrun diets (P < 0.05), however, Feeding diets with 30% millrun did not affect greenhouse gas (GHG) output (CH4, 4.7, 4.9; N2O, 0.45, 0.42; CO2, 1610, 1711; mg s-1 without or with millrun inclusion, respectively; P > 0.78). Enzyme supplementation had no effect on GHG production (CH4, 4.5, 5.1; N2O, 0.46, 0.42; CO2, 1808, 1513; mg s-1 without or with enzymes, respectively; P > 0.51). In study 2, the LCA indicated that the inclusion of 30% wheat millrun in diets for growing pigs resulted in approximately a 25% reduction in GWP when compared to the no wheat millrun diets. Our results demonstrate that 30% wheat millrun did not increase GHG output from the pigs, and thus the inclusion of wheat millrun in diets of growing pigs can reduce the GWP of pork production.


2018 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 01006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Břetislav Teplý ◽  
Tomáš Vymazal ◽  
Pavla Rovnaníková

Efficient sustainability management requires the use of tools which allow material, technological and construction variants to be quantified, measured or compared. These tools can be used as a powerful marketing aid and as support for the transition to “circular economy”. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) procedures are also used, aside from other approaches. LCA is a method that evaluates the life cycle of a structure from the point of view of its impact on the environment. Consideration is given also to energy and raw material costs, as well as to environmental impact throughout the life cycle - e.g. due to emissions. The paper focuses on the quantification of sustainability connected with the use of various types of concrete with regard to their resistance to degradation. Sustainability coefficients are determined using information regarding service life and "eco-costs". The aim is to propose a suitable methodology which can simplify decision-making in the design and choice of concrete mixes from a wider perspective, i.e. not only with regard to load-bearing capacity or durability.


2014 ◽  
Vol 535 ◽  
pp. 346-349
Author(s):  
Mei Wang ◽  
Ming Yang ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Jian Fen Li

Effect and benefits of a product or service could be analyzed and evaluated by life cycle assessment during the whole life cycle. Urban sewage treatment plants could improve and control urban water pollution escalating, but it also had certain harm to environment. Effect and benefits of urban wastewater treatment plant A and B were analyzed and evaluated, 13 factors were selected, and comprehensive benefits were researched quantificationally using the method of analytic hierarchy process. It found that urban wastewater treatment plant A who applied A/O process had better benefits than urban wastewater treatment plant B who applied BIOLAK process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria de Lurdes Antunes ◽  
Vânia Marecos ◽  
José Neves ◽  
João Morgado

The construction and maintenance of a road network involve the expenditure of large budgets. In order to optimize the investments in road infrastructures, designers and decision makers should have the instruments to make the most suitable decision of paving solutions for each particular situation. The life-cycle assessment is an important tool of different road pavement solutions with this purpose. This paper presents a study concerning the life-cycle cost analysis of different flexible and semi-rigid paving alternatives, with the objective to contribute for a better support in the decision process when designing new pavement structures. The analysis was carried out using data on construction costs of certain typical pavement structures and taking into consideration appropriate performance models for each type of structure being selected. The models were calibrated using results from long term performance studies across Europe and the maintenance strategies considered have taken into account the current practice also found in the European context. Besides the life-cycle administration costs, the proposed methodology also deals with user and environmental costs through its inclusion in the decision process using multi-criteria analysis. It was demonstrated that this methodology could be a simple and useful tool in order to achieve the most adequate paving solutions of a road network, in terms of construction and maintenance activities, based simultaneously on technical, economic and environmental criteria.


Author(s):  
Manish Sakhlecha ◽  
Samir Bajpai ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Singh

Buildings consume major amount of energy as well as natural resources leading to negative environmental impacts like resource depletion and pollution. The current task for the construction sector is to develop an evaluation tool for rating of buildings based on their environmental impacts. There are various assessment tools and models developed by different agencies in different countries to evaluate building's effect on environment. Although these tools have been successfully used and implemented in the respective regions of their origin, the problems of application occur, especially during regional adaptation in other countries due to peculiarities associated with the specific geographic location, climatic conditions, construction methods and materials. India is a rapidly growing economy with exponential increase in housing sector. Impact assessment model for a residential building has been developed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. The life cycle impact assessment score was obtained for a sample house considering fifteen combinations of materials paired with 100% thermal electricity and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination, applying normalization and weighting to the LCA results. The LCA score of portland slag cement with burnt clay red brick and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination (PSC+TS+RB) was found to have the best score and ordinary Portland cement with flyash brick and 100% thermal power (OPC+T+FAB) had the worst score, showing the scope for further improvement in LCA model to include positive scores for substitution of natural resources with industrial waste otherwise polluting the environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7302
Author(s):  
Anne Magdalene Syré ◽  
Florian Heining ◽  
Dietmar Göhlich

The transport sector in Germany causes one-quarter of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. One potential solution to reduce these emissions is the use of battery electric vehicles. Although a number of life cycle assessments have been conducted for these vehicles, the influence of a transport system-wide transition has not been addressed sufficiently. Therefore, we developed a method which combines life cycle assessment with an agent-based transport simulation and synthetic electric-, diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicle models. We use a transport simulation to obtain the number of vehicles, their lifetime mileage and road-specific consumption. Subsequently, we analyze the product systems’ vehicle production, use phase and end-of-life. The results are scaled depending on the covered distance, the vehicle weight and the consumption for the whole life cycle. The results indicate that the sole transition of drive trains is insufficient to significantly lower the greenhouse gas emissions. However, sensitivity analyses demonstrate that there is a considerable potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with higher shares of renewable energies, a different vehicle distribution and a higher lifetime mileage. The method facilitates the assessment of the ecological impacts of complete car-based transportation in urban agglomerations and is able to analyze different transport sectors.


Author(s):  
Ralph E Horne ◽  
Tim Grant ◽  
Karli Verghese

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has developed in Australia over the last 20 years into a technique for systematically identifying the resource flows and environmental impacts associated with the provision of products and services. Interest in LCA has accelerated alongside growing demand to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across different manufacturing and service sectors. Life Cycle Assessment focuses on the reflective practice of LCA, and provides critical insight into the technique and how it can be used as a problem-solving tool. It describes the distinctive strengths and limitations of LCA, with an emphasis on practice in Australia, as well as the application of LCA in waste management, the built environment, water and agriculture. Supported by examples and case studies, each chapter investigates contemporary challenges for environmental assessment and performance improvement in these key sectors. LCA methodologies are compared to the emerging climate change mitigation policy and practice techniques, and the uptake of ‘quick’ LCA and management tools are considered in the light of current and changing environmental agendas. The authors also debate the future prospects for LCA technique and applications.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Maurizio Cellura ◽  
Francesco Guarino ◽  
Sonia Longo

The building sector is one of the most relevant in terms of generation of wealth and occupation, but it is also responsible for significant consumption of natural resources and the generation of environmental impacts, mainly greenhouse gas emissions. In order to improve the eco profile of buildings during their life-cycle, the reduction of the use of resources and the minimization of environmental impacts have become, in the last years, some of the main objectives to achieve in the design of sustainable buildings. The application of the life-cycle thinking approach, looking at the whole life cycle of buildings, is of paramount importance for a real decarbonization and reduction of the environmental impacts of the building sector. This paper presents an application of the life-cycle assessment methodology for assessing the energy and environmental life-cycle impacts of a single-family house located in the Mediterranean area in order to identify the building components and life-cycle steps that are responsible of the higher burdens. The assessment showed that the largest impacts are located in the use stage; energy for heating is significant but not dominant, while the contribution of electricity utilized for households and other equipment resulted very relevant. High environmental impacts are also due to manufacture and transport of building materials and components.


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