Environmental life cycle assessment of rockwool filled aluminum sandwich facade panels in Turkey

Abstract

As composite materials combine multiple outstanding characteristics together such as light-weight, high resistance and durability, their consumption in the industry has been growing rapidly. This consumption causes environmental concerns due to raw material, energy and natural resource requirements through entire life cycle of composite materials in stages such as production, transportation, usage and disposal. Thus, assessment of environmental impact of composite materials gains more importance. This study provides a comprehensive life cycle inventory (LCI) data for the production process of 50 mm, 60 mm and 80 mm thick rockwool filled aluminum sandwich (RWFAS) facade panels. Environmental impacts of RWFAS panels from cradle to gate (optional) have been calculated by SimaPro software in accordance with ISO14040 and ISO14044 standards by life cycle assessment (LCA) method. As a result of the study, it was found that the most important environmental impacts have been caused by the production stage, and most of these impacts have been due to the use of aluminum sheet in the production process. When all panels were compared, it was determined that 80 mm thick RWFAS panel had the highest values in all environmental impact categories when compared with other sandwich panels.