Abstract
In this paper an overview of the construction materials industry, from an embedded energy point of view will be presented. A case study for four brick factories in Romania will also analyzed. The Energy Performance Indicators (EnPI) of each factory will be evaluated and compared with the global reference values and the most technically and economically feasible Energy Performance Improvement Actions (EPIAs) will be presented. The replicability of these EPIA’s in different materials manufacturing industries will be also analyzed.
Highlights
As the European Construction Sector Observatory (ECSO) has shown in its latest report, even though the building construction market in Romania has grown by more than 173.4% from 2010 to 2018 [1], Romania still has some of the largest overcrowding (46.3%) and severe house depravation (16.1%) rates in the European Union [2]
This paper demonstrated that the brick manufacturing industry, to achieve environmental sustainability, must be subjected to an in-depth analysis in order to properly identify specific Energy Performance Improvement Actions (EPIAs) at process level
As the carbon neutrality target implies the mitigation of all forms of CO2 equivalent emissions, even though the electricity used by the Brick Factories (BF) already include the EUA costs, an increase in the overall energy performance of the analyzed BFs will lead to a global decrease in the Environmental Impact generated by the company
Summary
As the European Construction Sector Observatory (ECSO) has shown in its latest report, even though the building construction market in Romania has grown by more than 173.4% from 2010 to 2018 [1], Romania still has some of the largest overcrowding (46.3%) and severe house depravation (16.1%) rates in the European Union [2]. Considering that the European Union’s latest Directives regarding energy efficiency [4] and environmental impact reduction [5] increased the target for energy efficiency and set a target for carbon neutrality for 2050, the construction material industry has a new set of challenges which must be addressed. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the technic and economic viability of implementing large scale Energy Performance Improvement Actions (EPIAs) in brick factories and to evaluate the potential of environmental impact reduction. Four Brick Factories (BF), owned and operated by the same company, will be analyzed from an energy performance and environmental impact point of view. Various EPIAs will be identified, presented, and analyzed from a technical and economic point of view to determine the Environmental Impact Reduction (EIR) potential of this building material manufacturing sub-sector
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