Assessing the Impact of Embodied Water in Manufacturing Systems

Mousavi, Smaeil; Kara, Sami; Kornfeld, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.procir.2015.01.001

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To generate each kWh of electrical power, wet-cooled nuclear, coal, and combined cycle natural gas power plants consume 1.4-2.9 liters of freshwater as compared to CSP plants that use 4.7liters/kWh [16]. Renewable energy systems such as CSP plants deplete nearly 6,900 liters/MWh of electricity produced [9]. This water use of energy sources must be counted toward a building's EW footprint [6].…”

Section: Embodied Water-energy Interdependencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a comprehensive assessment and optimization of EW have not been studied in detail. The consumption of EW is composed of mainly two components: direct consumption in construction works and related processes and indirect water consumed during the extraction of raw materials and the manufacturing of finished materials or products to be installed in buildings [8][9][10][11]. Some construction materials, such as ready-mix concrete, may consume 180 liters of freshwater for each cubic meter of its quantity [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Analyzing embodied energy and embodied water for university buildings using input-output-based hybrid method

Dixit

Kumar

Shanbhag

2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Buildings present a unique opportunity to not just effectively decrease global energy use but also drastically reduce nearly 40% of global carbon emissions to help mitigate the ongoing climate change. Although most of the building energy use is attributed to building operations as operational energy (OE), a portion of it is termed embodied energy (EE) that is consumed in building construction, transportation, and material production activities. EE of a building, therefore, includes energy consumed directly in onsite and offsite construction and transportation and indirectly through material consumption since each construction material consumes energy in its production and transportation. Like EE, buildings also consume significant amounts of fresh water directly and indirectly as embodied water (EW) in their construction, which is becoming a major concern globally. As fresh water is also depleted in producing and refining energy sources used as EE, a portion of this EW is attributed to energy-related water use (EREW). Most research so far has been focusing on the energy and carbon emission dimensions of buildings overlooking the equally important aspect of water use, which is also crucial for delivering a truly environmentally sustainable building. In this study, an input-output-based hybrid (IOH) model is created to compute and compare EE and EW of 10 higher education buildings and examine the correlation of the calculated EE and EW values. The results demonstrate that the total EE and electricity EE of the study buildings share a very strong positive correlation (r2 = 0.93-0.99) with the buildings’ total EW at the building level. This correlation, however, weakens at the material level. The share of EREW in the total EW ranges from 9-13%, which indicates that reducing just EE may not help decrease EW, and additional efforts may be needed to address EW and reduce fresh water use in building construction.

show abstract

Section: Embodied Water-energy Interdependencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing embodied energy and embodied water for university buildings using input-output-based hybrid method

Dixit

Kumar

Shanbhag

2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The used water is polluted through the manufacturing process (e.g. it is shown by Skouteris et al, 2018;Hussain and Wahab, 2018;Mousavi et al, 2015). Sometimes an enterprise is called an environmental pollution subject.…”

Section: An Environmental Protection Model In the Form Of A Dyadic 3-person Gamementioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological-Economic Balance in Fining Environmental Pollution Subjects by a Dyadic 3-Person Game Model

Romanuke¹

2019

Appl. Ecol. Env. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A problem of rationalizing industrial wastewater treatment is considered. It issues from that industrial enterprises may violate conventions about water treatment, so then they are fined. Those fines are directed to control water pollution by measuring it and treating wastewater additionally, if necessary. Under threat of heavy fines, however, an enterprise may reduce or stop its manufacturing resulting in a budget cut for water resources conservation and recirculation. Therefore, fining for under-treating industrial wastewater is balanced using an environmental protection model in the form of a dyadic 3-person game. According to this game, in which three subjects of water pollution (industrial enterprises) are obliged to treat industrial wastewater, the ecologically healthy water balance of the reservoir does not worsen if just one subject does not apply the treatment. Such model implies that about one third of the polluted water recovers without treatment. If none of the subjects applies a water treatment system, they are fined (with a 3-fine for each). If only two subjects do not treat wastewater, all the three subjects are fined (with a 2-fine for each) due to impossibility of finding those two violators. Application of a water treatment system costs a conventional unit for each subject per a period of time (a day, a week, or a month). The game solution is searched on the regular finite lattice of situations, which is obtained by sampling the continuous set of those situations. Dealing with either non-symmetric or non-profitable situations, an approximate solution is found using concessions in the equilibrium. By this solution, the water treatment system is turned off for 3 periods of 10, and the 2-fine is optimally set at 0.34 units, whereas the 3-fine is set at 1.394 units. Under threat of the heavy 3-fine, the subjects will definitely come to a convention of scheduling the water treatment systems. Switching from "clean" to "polluting" manufacturing and backwards is to be controlled exactly once per those 10 periods. Eventually, the cost of 8.018 units for a subject is just the expected spending, whereas the least cost in 7 units is still possible under the corresponding water treatment schedule.

show abstract

“…However, this water consumption has not been fully studied, which is important to monitor for reducing pressure on the natural capital. Embodied water (EW) is consumed in direct construction activities and indirectly during the extraction of raw materials of the finished products installed in the buildings [5][6][7][8]. Also, it is important to account for the water consumed by different energy sources [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Embodied Energy and Embodied Water of Construction Materials for an Environmentally Sustainable Built Environment

Dixit

Kumar

2022

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Buildings consume over 40% of global energy in their construction and operations contributing to over 39% of global carbon emission each year. This huge environmental footprint presents an excellent opportunity to reduce energy use and help deliver an environmentally sustainable built environment. Most of the energy is consumed by buildings as embodied energy (EE) and operational energy (OE). EE is used directly and indirectly during buildings’ initial construction, maintenance and replacement, and demolition phases through construction products and services. OE is used in the processes of heating, cooling, water heating, lighting, and operating building equipment. Most environmental optimization research has been centered on energy and carbon emission overlooking another critical sustainability aspect, water use. Each building also consumes a significant amount of freshwater as embodied water (EW) or virtual water in its initial construction, maintenance and replacement, and demolition phases. Since each primary and secondary energy source depletes water in its extraction, refinement or production, there is also a water expense associated with EE and OE use that must also be included in total EW use. The total EW, therefore, includes both non-energy and energy related water use. Research suggests that there are tradeoffs between EE and EW that may complicate design decisions such as material selection for environmental sustainability. In other words, a material selected for its lower EE may have higher EW and selecting such a material may not help reach environmental sustainability goals since water scarcity is becoming a grave problem. In this paper, we created an input-output-based hybrid (IOH) model for calculating and comparing EE and EW of building materials frequently used in building construction. The main goal is to examine and highlight any tradeoffs that may exist when selecting one material over another. The results reveal that there is a weak correlation between EE and total EW that is the sum of energy and non-energy water use, which means that a design decision made solely based on EE may conflict with EW. The share of energy related water use in total EW of construction materials also varies significantly (2.5%-31.2%), indicating that reducing energy use alone may not be sufficient to reduce freshwater use; additional efforts may be needed to decrease the use of materials and processes that are water intensive. The results of this study are significant to achieving the goal of creating a truly sustainable built environment.

show abstract

Assessing the Impact of Embodied Water in Manufacturing Systems

Cited by 13 publications

References 9 publications

Analyzing embodied energy and embodied water for university buildings using input-output-based hybrid method

Analyzing embodied energy and embodied water for university buildings using input-output-based hybrid method

Ecological-Economic Balance in Fining Environmental Pollution Subjects by a Dyadic 3-Person Game Model

Analyzing Embodied Energy and Embodied Water of Construction Materials for an Environmentally Sustainable Built Environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About