scholarly journals Assessing the Energy Efficiency Potential of Recycled Materials with Construction and Demolition Waste: A Spanish Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 7809
Author(s):  
César Porras-Amores ◽  
Patricia Martin Garcia ◽  
Paola Villoria Sáez ◽  
Mercedes del Rio Merino ◽  
Veronica Vitielo

Buildings are responsible for 40% of the overall final energy consumption in the European Union. On the other hand, the construction, energy, and industry sectors generate around 50% of the waste produced in Europe, out of which a third part is construction and demolition waste (CDW). In recent years, many research works have been carried out to analyze the viability of incorporating waste, especially CDW, as a substitute for traditional raw materials with great environmental impact. However, most of the studies found cover only the mechanical characterization of the compound, and there are very few that analyze these materials in specific building applications. This research work evaluates the energy efficiency potential of recycled materials with CDW. After an exhaustive analysis of the main existing recycled materials, an energetic evaluation of several construction solutions is carried out, as well as a comparison with traditional solutions. The findings show that the incorporation of recycled materials in several building construction elements is a success, since it not only reduces the consumption of raw materials, but also reduces the energy consumption of the building. Energy savings using recycled materials can range from 8% in a warm region (such as Seville) up to 13% in cold regions (such as Soria), which are greater in heating than in cooling.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1226
Author(s):  
Beatriz Fraga-De Cal ◽  
Antonio Garrido-Marijuan ◽  
Olaia Eguiarte ◽  
Beñat Arregi ◽  
Ander Romero-Amorrortu ◽  
...  

Prefabricated solutions incorporating thermal insulation are increasingly adopted as an energy conservation measure for building renovation. The InnoWEE European project developed three technologies from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) materials through a manufacturing process that supports the circular economy strategy of the European Union. Two of them consisted of geopolymer panels incorporated into an External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) and a ventilated façade. This study evaluates their thermal performance by means of monitoring data from three pilot case studies in Greece, Italy, and Romania, and calibrated building simulation models enabling the reliable prediction of energy savings in different climates and use scenarios. Results showed a reduction in energy demand for all demo buildings, with annual energy savings up to 25% after placing the novel insulation solutions. However, savings are highly dependent on weather conditions since the panels affect cooling and heating loads differently. Finally, a parametric assessment is performed to assess the impact of insulation thickness through an energy performance prediction and a cash flow analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7572
Author(s):  
Gigliola D’Angelo ◽  
Marina Fumo ◽  
Mercedes del Rio Merino ◽  
Ilaria Capasso ◽  
Assunta Campanile ◽  
...  

Demolition activity plays an important role in the total energy consumption of the construction industry in the European Union. The indiscriminate use of non-renewable raw materials, energy consumption, and unsustainable design has led to a redefinition of the criteria to ensure environmental protection. This article introduces an experimental plan that determines the viability of a new type of construction material, obtained from crushed brick waste, to be introduced into the construction market. The potential of crushed brick waste as a raw material in the production of building precast products, obtained by curing a geopolymeric blend at 60 °C for 3 days, has been exploited. Geopolymers represent an important alternative in reducing emissions and energy consumption, whilst, at the same time, achieving a considerable mechanical performance. The results obtained from this study show that the geopolymers produced from crushed brick were characterized by good properties in terms of open porosity, water absorption, mechanical strength, and surface resistance values when compared to building materials produced using traditional technologies.


Author(s):  
Denitsa Hvarchilkova ◽  
Margarita Filipova ◽  
Ivanka Zheleva

For environment protection in the European Union (EU) it is very important the construction waste to be recycled and reused. The potential for the construction waste recycling and reuse is high, as their components have high cost. There is an opportunity for re-use of such materials in road construction, for drainage systems, for outdoor sports grounds and other construction sites. In 2012 a regulation on the management of construction waste and on the use of recycled building materials was adopted in Bulgaria, aiming to introduce a new model for the management of construction waste. This would guarantee: creation of favorable legislative and economic conditions for implementation of technologies ensuring the achievement of recycling and recovery targets but which are also financially viable in line with the country's incomes; identifying the persons responsible for covering the costs of building waste management and achieving the recycling and recovery targets; creating conditions for the production and marketing of materials from recycling of construction waste at a price that is competitive with the same new raw materials used in construction. The main effect expected from this normative document is to contribute to Bulgaria's development towards European trends, environmental protection through an integrated framework for the management of construction and demolition waste that will reduce the harmful impacts on it caused by construction waste, improving the efficiency of resource use, increasing the responsibilities of pollutants and stimulating investment in waste management.


2014 ◽  
Vol 655 ◽  
pp. 69-74
Author(s):  
Johannes Boehner ◽  
Moritz Hamacher ◽  
Arnim Reger

The utilisation phase of machinery in discrete manufacturing operations is characterized by changing economical and technical requirements like capacity, performance and as emerging requirement reduced energy consumption. Established industry practices as well as upcoming standards mainly focus on improving the energy efficiency by developing new machinery. Especially existing factories and the machinery in use offers energy saving potentials to be identified and to be capitalized by implementing energy saving retrofit measures. By doing so, the use of existing manufacturing machinery leads to a sustainable use of manufacturing equipment. The discussed research work therefore includes an approach to interpret in-process measurement data and to derive electric energy savings potentials. Based on this assessment, improvement measures like dimensioning, reduction of baseline energy-consumption by updating the PLC and minimisation of peak loads by energy management is engineered. Finally the financial impact of the obtained energy savings is quantified by evaluating the developed methodology during several use cases.


Author(s):  
Tatjana Tambovceva ◽  
◽  
Diana Bajare ◽  
Irina Shvetsova ◽  
Maria V. Tereshina ◽  
...  

Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) creates the largest waste stream in the European Union. They consist of a heterogeneous mix of different components and constitute large amounts of waste which are often hazardous. Although some CDW is sent for recycling after the stripping and the demolishing of the building, a bigger share of the recovered CDW is restricted to low-value applications. It is widely accepted that reliable strategies and innovative technologies need to be developed to increase the share of CDW‑derived materials in new residential constructions while simultaneously minimizing future CDW. Moreover, awareness and understanding the high value of CDW derived materials should be reached to improve building energy efficiency. The aim of the research is to evaluate the level of awareness and attitude towards CDW among Latvian construction companies. It was found out that Latvian construction business community has a positive attitude to waste management activities, and understands its importance in sustainable development


Author(s):  
V. Deshko ◽  
M. Shovkaliuk ◽  
Yu. Kuzmyna

Ukraine is an energy dependent country. The largest energy consumer in Ukraine is the household sector and industry. The technical characteristics of most existing serial buildings in Ukraine do not meet modern requirements for energy consumption. One of the tools to influence the reduction of consumption of construction resources is the introduction into the regulatory framework of requirements for improving energy efficiency. With the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine "On Energy Certification of Buildings", the development of an energy certificate has become mandatory for new buildings, state-owned buildings, local government buildings and in case of attracting public funds for thermal modernization of buildings. The energy certificate is developed by a certified energy auditor and entered into an open database in the Unified State System in the field of construction. The energy certificate contains an energy efficiency class determined by calculation according to the methodology of the national standard, which is developed taking into account European approaches to the calculation of energy consumption for different needs of buildings. The generalized analysis of the data from the available certificates is of considerable interest for estimating the characteristics of enclosing structures, engineering systems and equipment and the actual and estimated specific energy consumption of different types of buildings. In this study, the authors focused on the energy efficiency of new buildings (starting in 2019). The following indicators of residential and public buildings were analyzed: heat transfer resistance of external walls and translucent structures, specific energy consumption, primary energy, specific CO2 emissions, energy efficiency class. It was determined that the potential for energy savings compared to similar buildings in the European Union is significant, so improving the energy efficiency of the construction sector is an extremely important issue in Ukraine.


Author(s):  
C Costa ◽  
M Monteiro ◽  
B Rangel ◽  
FJL Alves

Currently, we live in a world where the materials are the protagonists. Raw materials are fundamental to make industrial products; however, the increasing demand for these finite natural resources put the more industrialized countries under pressure to find ways to recycle and reuse the products at the end of their lives. Every year, tons of industrial and natural waste are accumulated and destroyed without a new use for them. Today, the energy consumption at the world level to extract raw materials contributes significantly to pollution and environmental degradation. In the European Union, the construction sector is responsible for 40% of global energy consumption, contributing considerably to CO2 emissions. The planet’s future is compromised, unless the human beings learn how to preserve and conserve resources that Earth offers, changing the basic patterns of consumption, manufacturing and recycling. Sofa industries and wood industries generate significant amounts of waste that undergo a thoughtless destruction or recycling with a final order to reuse. This paper presents the research work that has been conducted in the scope of the Master Program in Product and Industrial Design of Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design Studio FEUP, seeking the reuse of leftovers (textile and wood powder), to create innovative products. The main objective is to prepare the waste that is mixed with different amounts and types of binders, and cast in molds. In some cases, the introduction of a shape memory alloy can promote an extra value and functionality to the designed products. This way the aim is to sensitize the community to the possibility of introducing new products in the market addressing concepts such as green design, sustainability and innovation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Cagno ◽  
Andrea Trianni

Governments are pursuing a variety of measures to reach common and more efficient environmental and energetic policies: Nonetheless, the effort has shown to be not sufficient, since the objectives stated in the European Union (EU) Directive 2009/28/EC on energy efficiency seem quite distant to be reached. A greater attention has obviously been paid toward the industrial sector, which utilizes a major share of primary energy consumption: Till now several actions have been taken to achieve the energy performance of buildings, but very few are in operations. Nonetheless, in order to be most effective, governments should focus their attention not only on energy intensive large enterprises (LEs) but also on nonenergy intensive small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that represent the majority of the total number of industries, cover a consistent share of the energy consumption of a whole domestic industrial sector, and are usually less efficient than LEs. This paper aims to highlight the most effective energy savings opportunities (ESOs) for reducing energy consumption in industrial operations that have been successfully implemented in a large number of SMEs case studies investigated in North America and Italy, showing a correspondence (in terms of savings and costs) between the two databases. This paper analyzes the ESOs, characterized by best available technologies and practices (BAT/Ps), with a cross-analysis within three manufacturing sectors, i.e., primary metals, plastics, and textiles, and considering different subsizes among SMEs, in order to show commonalities and differences among the sample. The ESOs have been analyzed and ranked according to different criteria of importance, highlighting the most diffused, those having the highest energy savings, and those with the shortest pay-back time. The scope of the elaboration of these criteria is twofold: on one side, it allows to be closer to the entrepreneurial sensibility, guiding entrepreneurs in evaluating a possible investment in energy efficiency; on the other side, it provides important suggestions for a public local authority that, through financial support and/or other policies, aims at diffusing the adoption of BAT/Ps and increasing the sectors’ energy efficiency and competitiveness.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2247
Author(s):  
Fernando da Silva Souza ◽  
José Maria Franco de Carvalho ◽  
Gabriela Grotti Silveira ◽  
Vitória Cordeiro Araújo ◽  
Ricardo André Fiorotti Peixoto

The lack of usable aggregates for civil construction in Rio Branco (capital of Acre, a Federal State in the Amazon region) makes the production and use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste (CDW) an alternative of great interest. In this study, a comprehensive characterization of CDW collected from 24 construction sites of six building types and three different construction phases (structures, masonry, and finishing) was carried out. The fine and coarse recycled aggregates were produced and evaluated in 10 different compositions. The aggregates’ performance was evaluated in four mixtures designed for laying and coating mortars with a total replacement of conventional aggregates and a mixture designed for a C25 concrete with 50% and 100% replacement of conventional aggregates. CDW mortars showed lower densities and greater water retention, initial adhesion, and mechanical strength than conventional mortars. CDW concretes presented lower densities and greater resistance to chloride penetration than conventional concrete, with a small mechanical strength reduction. The recycled CDW aggregates proved to be technologically feasible for safe application in mortars and concrete; for this reason, it is believed that the alternative and proposed methodology is of great interest to the Amazonian construction industry, considering the high costs of raw materials and the need for defining and consolidating a sustainable development model for the Amazon region.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4209
Author(s):  
Rita Remeikienė ◽  
Ligita Gasparėnienė ◽  
Aleksandra Fedajev ◽  
Marek Szarucki ◽  
Marija Đekić ◽  
...  

The main goal of setting energy efficiency priorities is to find ways to reduce energy consumption without harming consumers and the environment. The renovation of buildings can be considered one of the main aspects of energy efficiency in the European Union (EU). In the EU, only 5% of the renovation projects have been able to yield energy-saving at the deep renovation level. No other study has thus far ranked the EU member states according to achieved results in terms of increased usage in renewable sources, a decrease in energy usage and import, and reduction in harmful gas emissions due to energy usage. The main purpose of this article is to perform a comparative analysis of EU economies according to selected indicators related to the usage of renewable resources, energy efficiency, and emissions of harmful gasses as a result of energy usage. The methodological contribution of our study is related to developing a complex and robust research method for investment efficiency assessment allowing the study of three groups of indicators related to the usage of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and ecological aspects of energy. It was based on the PROMETHEE II method and allows testing it in other time periods, as well as modifying it for research purposes. The EU member states were categorized by such criteria as energy from renewables and biofuels, final energy consumption from renewables and biofuels, gross electricity generation from renewables and biofuels and import dependency, and usage of renewables and biofuels for heating and cooling. The results of energy per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions per million inhabitants (ECO2), energy per capita, the share of CO2 emissions from public electricity, and heat production from total CO2 emissions revealed that Latvia, Sweden, Portugal, Croatia, Austria, Lithuania, Romania, Denmark, and Finland are the nine most advanced countries in the area under consideration. In the group of the most advanced countries, energy consumption from renewables and biofuels is higher than the EU average.


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