Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment of an Innovative Bio-Based Material in Construction: A Case Study of a Phase Change Material Panel

Research Highlights: This is the first study that analyzes the environmental performance of wood-based phase change material (PCM) panels. Background and Objectives: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful environmental management tool. However, a full LCA, especially during the early design phase of a product, is far too time and data intensive for industrial companies to conduct during their production and consumption processes. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for simpler methods to demonstrate a company’s resource efficiency potential without being data or time intensive. The goal of this study is to investigate the suitability of streamlined LCA (SLCA) tools and methods used in the building material industry, and to assess their robustness in the case study of a wood-based PCM panel. Materials and Methods: The Bilan Produit tool was selected as the SLCA tool and a matrix LCA was selected as the most commonly used SLCA method. A specific case study of a wood-based PCM panel was selected with a focus on its application in building construction in the province of Québec. Results: As a semi-quantitative LCA method, the matrix LCA provided a quick screening of the product life cycle and its hotspot stages, i.e., life cycle stages with high impact. However, the results of the full LCA and SLCA tools were quantitative and based on scientific databases. The use of the PCM panel and heating energy had the highest environmental impacts as compared to other inputs. The results of the full LCA and SLCA also identified energy consumption as a hotspot. Insufficient material or processes in the SLCA databases was one of the reasons for the difference between the results of the SLCA and full LCA. Conclusions: The examined SLCA methods provided proper explanations for the bio-based material in construction, but several limitations still exist, and the methods should be improved to make them more robust when implemented in such a specific sector.

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Life Cycle Assessment of the Use of Phase Change Material in an Evacuated Solar Tube Collector

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14144146 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (14) ◽

pp. 4146

Author(s):

Agnieszka Jachura ◽

Robert Sekret

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Solar Collector ◽

Hot Water ◽

Production Operation ◽

Management Scenarios ◽

Change Material

This paper presents an environmental impact assessment of the entire cycle of existence of the tube-vacuum solar collector prototype. The innovativeness of the solution involved using a phase change material as a heat-storing material, which was placed inside the collector’s tubes-vacuum. The PCM used in this study was paraffin. The system boundaries contained three phases: production, operation (use phase), and disposal. An ecological life cycle assessment was carried out using the SimaPro software. To compare the environmental impact of heat storage, the amount of heat generated for 15 years, starting from the beginning of a solar installation for preparing domestic hot water for a single-family residential building, was considered the functional unit. Assuming comparable production methods for individual elements of the ETC and waste management scenarios, the reduction in harmful effects on the environment by introducing a PCM that stores heat inside the ETC ranges from 17 to 24%. The performed analyses have also shown that the method itself of manufacturing the materials used for the construction of the solar collector and the choice of the scenario of the disposal of waste during decommissioning the solar collector all play an important role in its environmental assessment. With an increase in the application of the advanced technologies of materials manufacturing and an increase in the amount of waste subjected to recycling, the degree of the solar collector’s environmental impact decreased by 82% compared to its standard manufacture and disposal.

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Life cycle assessment of nanoalloy enhanced layered perovskite solid-solid phase change material till 10000 thermal cycles for energy storage applications

Journal of Energy Storage ◽

10.1016/j.est.2020.102220 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 102220

Author(s):

Cyril Reuben Raj ◽

S. Suresh ◽

Vivek Kumar Singh ◽

R.R. Bhavsar ◽

M. Chandrasekar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Storage ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Solid Phase ◽

Layered Perovskite ◽

Thermal Cycles ◽

Energy Storage Applications ◽

Change Material

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Building-integrated solar thermal system with/without phase change material: Life cycle assessment based on ReCiPe, USEtox and Ecological footprint

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.032 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 193 ◽

pp. 672-683 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Chr. Lamnatou ◽

F. Motte ◽

G. Notton ◽

D. Chemisana ◽

C. Cristofari

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Ecological Footprint ◽

Solar Thermal ◽

Thermal System ◽

Material Life ◽

Solar Thermal System ◽

Change Material

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Transient Analysis of Heat Transfer Across the Residential Building Roof with Pcm and Wood Wool- A Case Study by Numerical Simulation Approach

Archives of Civil Engineering ◽

10.2478/ace-2013-0026 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 59 (4) ◽

pp. 483-497 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

D. Prakash ◽

P. Ravikumar

Keyword(s):

Heat Transfer ◽

Numerical Simulation ◽

Phase Change ◽

Phase Change Material ◽

Transient Analysis ◽

Residential Building ◽

Building Roof ◽

Type 3 ◽

Change Material

Abstract In this paper, transient analysis on heat transfer across the residential building roof having various materials like wood wool, phase change material and weathering tile is performed by numerical simulation technique. 2-dimensional roof model is created, checked for grid independency and validated with the experimental results. Three different roof structures are included in this study namely roof with (i). Concrete and weathering tile, (ii). Concrete, phase change material and weathering tile and (iii). Concrete, phase change material, wood wool and weathering tile. Roof type 3 restricts 13% of heat entering the room in comparison with roof having only concrete and weathering tile. Also the effect of various roof layers’ thickness in the roof type 3 is investigated and identified that the wood wool plays the major role in arresting the entry of heat in to the room. The average reduction of heat is about 10 % for an increase of a unit thickness of wood wool layer.

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