scholarly journals Life Cycle Environmental and Cost Performance of Prefabricated Buildings

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2609 ◽  
Author(s):  
He Wang ◽  
Yinqi Zhang ◽  
Weijun Gao ◽  
Soichiro Kuroki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Assembly Rate ◽  
Prefabricated Building

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the construction industry continue to increase at an annual rate of 1.5%. It is particularly important to understand the characteristics of the building life cycle to reduce its environmental impact. This paper aims to assess the environmental impact of prefabricated buildings and traditional cast-in-situ buildings over the building life cycle using a hybrid model. A case study of a building with a 40% assembly rate in Japan was employed for evaluation. It concluded that the total energy consumption, and carbon emissions of the prefabricated building was 7.54%, and 7.17%, respectively, less than that of the traditional cast-in-situ building throughout the whole life cycle. The carbon emissions reduction in the operation phase reached a peak of 4.05 kg CO2/year∙m2. The prefabricated building was found to cost less than the traditional cast-in-situ building, reducing the price per square meter by 10.62%. The prefabricated building has advantages in terms of reducing global warming, acid rain, and health damage by 15% reduction. With the addition of the assembly rate, the carbon emissions and cost dropped, bottoming out when the assembly rate was 60%. After that, an upward trend was shown with the assembly rate increasing. Additionally, this study outlined that the prefabricated pile foundations is not applicable due to its high construction cost and environmental impact.

scholarly journals Estimation of Carbon Footprint of Residential Building in Warm Humid Climate of India through BIM

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4237
Author(s):  
Rosaliya Kurian ◽  
Kishor Sitaram Kulkarni ◽  
Prasanna Venkatesan Ramani ◽  
Chandan Swaroop Meena ◽  
Ashok Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Civil Infrastructure ◽  
Humid Climate ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
Building Life Cycle

In recent years Asian Nations showed concern over the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their civil infrastructure. This study presents a contextual investigation of a residential apartment complex in the territory of the southern part of India. The LCA is performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) software embedded with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of materials utilized in construction, transportation of materials and operational energy use throughout the building lifecycle. The results of the study illustrate that cement is the material that most contributes to carbon emissions among the other materials looked at in this study. The operational stage contributed the highest amount of carbon emissions. This study emphasizes variation in the LCA results based on the selection of a combination of definite software-database combinations and manual-database computations used. For this, three LCA databases were adopted (GaBi database and ecoinvent databases through One Click LCA software), and the ICE database was used for manual calculations. The ICE database showed realistic value comparing the GaBi and ecoinvent databases. The findings of this study are valuable for the policymakers and practitioners to accomplish optimization of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the building life cycle.

scholarly journals Comprehensive Evaluation of Carbon Emissions for the Development of High-Rise Residential Building

Buildings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Yim ◽  
S. Ng ◽  
M. Hossain ◽  
James Wong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Residential Housing ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Despite the fact that many novel initiatives have been put forward to reduce the carbon emissions of buildings, there is still a lack of comprehensive investigation in analyzing a buildings’ life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially in high-density cities. In addition, no studies have made attempt to evaluate GHG emissions by considering the whole life cycle of buildings in Hong Kong. Knowledge of localized emission at different stages is critical, as the emission varies greatly in different regions. Without a reliable emission level of buildings, it is difficult to determine which aspects can reduce the life cycle GHG emissions. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the life cycle GHG emissions of buildings by considering “cradle-to-grave” system boundary, with a case-specific high-rise residential housing block as a representative public housing development in Hong Kong. The results demonstrated that the life cycle GHG emission of the case residential building was 4980 kg CO2e/m2. The analysis showed that the majority (over 86%) of the emission resulted from the use phase of the building including renovation. The results and analysis presented in this study can help the relevant parties in designing low carbon and sustainable residential development in the future.

scholarly journals Energy Consumption and Environment Performance Analysis of Induction-Healed Asphalt Pavement by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1244
Author(s):  
Qi Jiang ◽  
Fusong Wang ◽  
Quantao Liu ◽  
Jun Xie ◽  
Shaopeng Wu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Asphalt Pavement ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Environmental Emissions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Environment Performance

In this paper, the sustainability of induced healing asphalt pavement is demonstrated by comparing the impact of asphalt pavement maintained by induced healing asphalt pavement technology and traditional maintenance methods (such as milling and overlaying). The functional unit selected is a 1-km lane with an analysis period of 20 years. The stages to be considered are material manufacturing, paving, maintenance, milling and demolition. Two case studies were analyzed to assess the impact of different technologies on the energy consumption and environmental performance of each maintenance alternative. By comparing the energy consumption and environmental emissions of the whole life cycle of pavement under the two technical conditions, the results show that the total energy consumption of traditional asphalt pavement is about 2.5 times that of induction-healed asphalt pavement, and the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the former are twice as much as that of the latter.

scholarly journals Life Cycle GHG Emissions of Residential Buildings in Humid Subtropical and Tropical Climates: Systematic Review and Analysis

Buildings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Daniel Satola ◽  
Martin Röck ◽  
Aoife Houlihan-Wiberg ◽  
Arild Gustavsen
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Cycle Performance ◽  
Tropical Climates ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Total Life

Improving the environmental life cycle performance of buildings by focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions along the building life cycle is considered a crucial step in achieving global climate targets. This paper provides a systematic review and analysis of 75 residential case studies in humid subtropical and tropical climates. The study investigates GHG emissions across the building life cycle, i.e., it analyses both embodied and operational GHG emissions. Furthermore, the influence of various parameters, such as building location, typology, construction materials and energy performance, as well as methodological aspects are investigated. Through comparative analysis, the study identifies promising design strategies for reducing life cycle-related GHG emissions of buildings operating in subtropical and tropical climate zones. The results show that life cycle GHG emissions in the analysed studies are mostly dominated by operational emissions and are the highest for energy-intensive multi-family buildings. Buildings following low or net-zero energy performance targets show potential reductions of 50–80% for total life cycle GHG emissions, compared to buildings with conventional energy performance. Implementation of on-site photovoltaic (PV) systems provides the highest reduction potential for both operational and total life cycle GHG emissions, with potential reductions of 92% to 100% and 48% to 66%, respectively. Strategies related to increased use of timber and other bio-based materials present the highest potential for reduction of embodied GHG emissions, with reductions of 9% to 73%.

scholarly journals Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Merging Recycling Methods for Spent Lithium Ion Batteries

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6263
Author(s):  
Zhiwen Zhou ◽  
Yiming Lai ◽  
Qin Peng ◽  
Jun Li
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Lithium Ion Batteries ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Acid Leaching ◽  
Lithium Ion ◽  
H2o2 Production ◽  
Life Cycle Impact ◽  
Regeneration Phase ◽  
Hydrometallurgical Method

An urgent demand for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is expected in the forthcoming years due to the rapid growth of electrical vehicles (EV). To address these issues, various technologies such as the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical method, as well as the newly developed in-situ roasting reduction (in-situ RR) method were proposed in recent studies. This article firstly provides a brief review on these emerging approaches. Based on the overview, a life cycle impact of these methods for recovering major component from one functional unit (FU) of 1 t spent EV LIBs was estimated. Our results showed that in-situ RR exhibited the lowest energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 4833 MJ FU−1 and 1525 kg CO2-eq FU−1, respectively, which only accounts for ~23% and ~64% of those for the hydrometallurgical method with citric acid leaching. The H2O2 production in the regeneration phase mainly contributed the overall impact for in-situ RR. The transportation distance for spent EV LIBs created a great hurdle to the reduction of the life cycle impact if the feedstock was transported by a 3.5–7.5 t lorry. We therefore suggest further optimization of the spatial distribution of the recycling facilities and reduction in the utilization of chemicals.

scholarly journals A Building Life-Cycle Embodied Performance Index—The Relationship between Embodied Energy, Embodied Carbon and Environmental Impact

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Hu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Embodied Carbon ◽  
Unexplored Area ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories ◽  
Building Life Cycle

Knowledge and research tying the environmental impact and embodied energy together is a largely unexplored area in the building industry. The aim of this study is to investigate the practicality of using the ratio between embodied energy and embodied carbon to measure the building’s impact. This study is based on life-cycle assessment and proposes a new measure: life-cycle embodied performance (LCEP), in order to evaluate building performance. In this project, eight buildings located in the same climate zone with similar construction types are studied to test the proposed method. For each case, the embodied energy intensities and embodied carbon coefficients are calculated, and four environmental impact categories are quantified. The following observations can be drawn from the findings: (a) the ozone depletion potential could be used as an indicator to predict the value of LCEP; (b) the use of embodied energy and embodied carbon independently from each other could lead to incomplete assessments; and (c) the exterior wall system is a common significant factor influencing embodied energy and embodied carbon. The results lead to several conclusions: firstly, the proposed LCEP ratio, between embodied energy and embodied carbon, can serve as a genuine indicator of embodied performance. Secondly, environmental impact categories are not dependent on embodied energy, nor embodied carbon. Rather, they are proportional to LCEP. Lastly, among the different building materials studied, metal and concrete express the highest contribution towards embodied energy and embodied carbon.

CO2 Emission Analysis of Light Aggregate Concrete Block in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 898 ◽  
pp. 1963-1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Qiong Sun ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Su Ping Cui
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Concrete Block ◽  
Emission Analysis ◽  
Cement Production ◽  
Aggregate Concrete ◽  
Concrete Blocks ◽  
Cradle To Gate ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

The development and application of light aggregate concrete blocks are considered as one of the key issue that promote the energy saving and emission reduction in construction and building materials industries. In this paper, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of light aggregate concrete blocks during the whole life cycle were analyzed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results demonstrated that the amount of GHG emissions of the light aggregate concrete block was 174 kg/m3 in the system boundary of ‘from cradle to gate’. The direct GHG emissions was 51.31 kg/m3 accounting for 28.46% of the aggregate emission, while the indirect GHG emissions was 124 kg/m3. The cement production and the concrete block production were the main contributors to the total emissions. According to the sensitivity analysis, the GHG emissions amount was quite sensitive to the amount of cement and ceramsite consumption.

scholarly journals Comparing Three Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools for the Canadian Construction Industry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Cormick
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Bill Of Materials ◽  
Building Life Cycle

This research aims to contribute to quantifying whole building life cycle assessment using various software tools to determine how they can aid the construction industry in reducing carbon emissions, and in particular embodied emissions, through analysis and reporting. The conducted research seeks to examine and compare three whole building life cycle assessment tools; Athena Impact Estimator, Tally and One-Click LCA to relate the input variability to the outputs of the three programs. The three whole building life-cycle assessments were conducted using a case study building with an identical bill of materials and compared to determine the applicability and strengths of one program over another. The research confirmed that the three programs output significantly different results given the variability in scope, allowable program inputs and generated “black-box” back-end calculations, where the outputted whole building life cycle carbon equivalents of One-Click LCA is less than half than of Tally meaning the programs outputs cannot be simply compared side-by-side.

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