Abstract
The construction and demolition sector is one of the biggest consumers of natural resources in the world and consequently, one of the biggest waste producers worldwide. The proper management of construction and demolition waste (CDW) can provide major benefits for the construction and recycling industry. However, the recycling rate of CDW is relatively low, as there is still a lack of confidence in the quality of recycled CDW materials. Therefore, new research projects are looking for innovative solutions within recycling of CDW in order to overcome uncertainties currently associated with the use of construction products made from recycled or re-used CDW. In this paper, a “cradle-to-cradle” life cycle assessment (LCA) study has been conducted to investigate the environmental performance of the prefabricated geopolymeric façade cladding panels made from large fractions of CDW. The LCA results indicate that the majority of the environmental burden arises within the manufacturing stage; however, the environmental burden can be reduced with simple optimisation of the manufacturing process. Furthermore, the environmental impact of the prefabricated geopolymeric façade cladding panels is generally lower than the environmental burden associated with the façade cladding panels made from virgin materials.
Highlights
The construction and demolition sector is one of the biggest consumers of natural resources, which consumes 25% of virgin wood, 17% of fresh water and 40% of all raw materials extracted worldwide, and is responsible for around 40% of all of global greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]
Two types of geopolymer mixtures have been developed within the InnoWEE project: (i) high-density geopolymer (HDG), which embeds approximately 50% by weight of inorganic construction and demolition waste (CDW) aggregates, and (ii) wood geopolymer (WG), which incorporates at least 40% of CDW wood particles
The environmental performance of the prefabricated geopolymeric façade cladding panels has been compared to the environmental performance of façade cladding panels made from virgin materials, i.e., marble, aluminium, glass and ceramic
Summary
The construction and demolition sector is one of the biggest consumers of natural resources, which consumes 25% of virgin wood, 17% of fresh water and 40% of all raw materials (e.g., stone, gravel and sand) extracted worldwide, and is responsible for around 40% of all of global greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]. Han and co-authors [17] have evaluated the environmental performance of ceramic façade panels and compared it to three other façade materials (i.e., marble, glass and aluminium), with the ceramic panels generally being more environmentally friendly than the other three materials. As far as the authors are aware, there is no LCA study that evaluates the entire life cycle of façade panels made from geopolymer or alkali-activated material. The environmental performance of the geopolymeric panels has been compared to the environmental performance of façade cladding panels made from virgin materials (i.e., marble, aluminium, glass and ceramic) This comparison has been based on a ”cradle-to-gate” LCA, as there was a lack of data to develop a full life cycle scenario for considered virgin materials
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