Life Cycle CO2 Assessment by Block Type Changes of Apartment Housing

Cheonghoon Baek,Sungwoo Shin,Sungho Tae,Rakhyun Kim

doi:10.3390/su8080752

Abstract

The block type and structural systems in buildings affect the amount of building materials required as well as the CO2 emissions that occur throughout the building life cycle (LCCO2). The purpose of this study was to assess the life cycle CO2 emissions when an apartment housing with ‘flat-type’ blocks (the reference case) was replaced with more sustainable ‘T-type’ blocks with fewer CO2 emissions (the alternative case) maintaining the same total floor area. The quantity of building materials used and building energy simulations were analyzed for each block type using building information modeling techniques, and improvements in LCCO2 emission were calculated by considering high-strength concrete alternatives. By changing the bearing wall system of the ‘flat-type’ block to the ‘column and beam’ system of the ‘T-type’ block, LCCO2 emissions of the alternative case were 4299 kg-CO2/m2, of which 26% was at the construction stage, 73% was as the operational stage and 1% was at the dismantling and disposal stage. These total LCCO2 emissions were 30% less than the reference case.

Highlights

Greenhouse gases are arguably the most prevalent global environmental problem
The study results indicate that different block types have significantly different CO2 emissions over the building life cycle, and ‘T-type’ blocks have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emission in the residential sector
The quantity of building materials used and building energy simulations were analyzed with each block type using Building Information Modeling (BIM) techniques, and the Life Cycle CO2 (LCCO2) was calculated with high-strength concrete alternatives

Summary

Introduction

Greenhouse gases are arguably the most prevalent global environmental problem. According to International Energy Agency (IEA), buildings account for almost 30% of greenhouse gas emissions [1,2,3]. In Korea, the construction industry accounts for 40% of all material consumption, 24% of energy consumption and 42% of CO2 emissions. Reduction of the construction industry’s CO2 emissions is required to reach greenhouse gas reduction goals [5]. Apartment housing is the major type of the residential sector in Korea, making up 52.4% of residential building stock. For the majority of apartment housing blocks, it has been shown that a significant portion of the CO2 emissions can be reduced by using a more sustainable block type instead of the ‘flat-type’ block [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion