A comparative life cycle assessment of building insulation products made of stone wool, paper wool and flax

Schmidt, Anders; Jensen, Allan Astrup; Clausen, Anders U.; Kamstrup, Ole; Postlethwaite, Dennis

doi:10.1007/bf02978571

Cited by 54 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Commenting on their sensitivity analysis of economic allocation, they highlighted the re-latively high uncertainty level of both methods, especially at the European level. Contrary to the results obtained in our study, Schmidt et al (2004) only found a minor role of the agricultural production step in the estimated impacts, and thus concluded that additional data collection about agricultural practices or market prices would be irrelevant. Their results may contradict those of ours due to the different scope of their study (an insulation product at the European scale vs. the supply of a local biomass boiler).…”

Section: Allocation Procedurescontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…A widespread, more practical alternative consists of considering biomass C as climate‐neutral, as Schmidt et al . () did in their study of flax production. The last two approaches actually disregard the effects of crop cultivation on soil C dynamics, let alone the effects of soil type, crop rotation or climate, which play a major role in the GHG balance of agricultural crops (Ceschia et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of already published studies on flax fiber or flax shives also preferred economic allocation (González‐García et al ., , ; van der Werf & Turunen, ). Nevertheless, Schmidt et al ., (), chose the system‐expansion method to simultaneously account for the impacts of main products and by‐products in flax production at the European level. Commenting on their sensitivity analysis of economic allocation, they highlighted the relatively high uncertainty level of both methods, especially at the European level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This implies that all the emissions of biogenic C should be tracked and accounted for in the life cycle of the product derived from this biomass, which is better in terms of temporal effects but challenging (Rabl et al, 2007). A widespread, more practical alternative consists of considering biomass C as climate-neutral, as Schmidt et al (2004) did in their study of flax production. The last two approaches actually disregard the effects of crop cultivation on soil C dynamics, let alone the effects of soil type, crop rotation or climate, which play a major role in the GHG balance of agricultural crops (Ceschia et al, 2010).…”

Section: Modeling Approach For Direct-emission Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life‐cycle assessment of local feedstock supply scenarios to compare candidate biomass sources

2012

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The use of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a comprehensive tool to assess environmental impacts of bioenergies is recommended. Nevertheless, several methodological points remain under debate, particularly regarding the feedstock production step, which is a key stage of bioenergy chains. The present work focuses on field emissions during feedstock production, improving assessment methods by the use of process-based models. To do so, a real bioenergy chain, the local feedstock supply for a boiler located in northern France, was studied. The LCA compares flax shives, (the reference) with four other biomass sources: Miscanthus, cereal straw, linseed straw, and triticale as a whole plant. Six feedstock supply scenarios were also compared. The study aimed to test a new LCA methodology for agricultural chains by integrating local characteristics (such as climate, soil, and crop management data) and using models to estimate field dynamics of pesticide emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC). Results showed that flax shives and linseed straw had the lowest impacts, except for global warming: as a consequence, supply scenarios with the largest share of flax shives had the lowest impacts. For all selected impact categories, transportation and fertilization were the main contributors. SOC dynamics led to high C sequestration level (e.g. with Miscanthus) or to high CO 2 emissions level (e.g. with flax shives), thus significantly influencing the global warming impact. Sensitivity analysis showed a large influence of allocation method (economic or mass-based). This study demonstrated the relevance of integrating simulation models using local data in agricultural LCAs, especially for dynamics of SOC and pesticide from fields. Moreover, this work brought scientific elements to support the choice of flax shives as the main biomass feedstock, and the ranking of the other sources as alternative biomass supplies for the boiler.

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Section: Allocation Procedurescontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Modeling Approach For Direct-emission Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life‐cycle assessment of local feedstock supply scenarios to compare candidate biomass sources

2012

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“…There are works in the literature in which system expansions were done within ALCA. For example, in their comparative LCA of stone wool, paper wool, and flax as insulation in buildings, Schmidt and colleagues () expanded the system boundary of flax to account for co‐products (including, flax oil seeds, and shives). However, detailed modeling of the consequential flows and impacts resulting from changes in marginal products was not conducted, which are required in a CLCA.…”

Section: A Brief Comparison Of Attributional and Consequential Life Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steel‐versus‐Concrete Debate Revisited: Global Warming Potential and Embodied Energy Analyses based on Attributional and Consequential Life Cycle Perspectives

Kua

Maghimai²

2016

J of Industrial Ecology

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SummaryIn the study of sustainable building materials, the comparison of the life cycle environmental performance of steel and reinforced concrete has been a popular and important topic. Based in Singapore, this is one of the first studies in the literature that applies both attributional and consequential life cycle approaches to compare the global warming potential and embodied energies of these two materials, which are widely used for the structural parts of buildings. It was found that 1 kilogram (kg) of steel can be replaced by 1 or 4.25 kg of reinforced concrete. Two consequential scenarios for each of three combinations of primary and secondary steel were assessed. It was found that reinforced concrete produces less carbon dioxide emissions and incurs less embodied energy in most of these cases, but when different sustainable primary steel-making technologies were incorporated, these results may be reversed. We applied consequential life cycle assessment and scenario analysis to describe how changes in the demand for structural steel and reinforced concrete in Singapore's building industry give rise to different environmental impacts. Specifically, the consequential life cycle approach revealed that, over the short term, the impact of substituting steel with reinforced concrete depends on the difference in impacts resulting from the transportation of these two materials within Singapore. Based on these lessons, integrated technology policies to improve the overall sustainability of using steel for construction were proposed.

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Renewable and non‐renewable materials

Woolley¹

2013

Low Impact Building

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A comparative life cycle assessment of building insulation products made of stone wool, paper wool and flax

Cited by 54 publications

References 4 publications

Life‐cycle assessment of local feedstock supply scenarios to compare candidate biomass sources

Life‐cycle assessment of local feedstock supply scenarios to compare candidate biomass sources

Steel‐versus‐Concrete Debate Revisited: Global Warming Potential and Embodied Energy Analyses based on Attributional and Consequential Life Cycle Perspectives

Renewable and non‐renewable materials

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