Building Materials in the Operational Phase

Nordby, Anne Sigrid; Shea, Andrew

doi:10.1111/jiec.12046

Cited by 29 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…3 It is estimated that 1.8 kg of CO 2 can be removed from the atmosphere per kg of dry wood via photosynthesis. 4 Therefore, both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and Paris Agreement underscore the importance of promoting forest conservation and enhancing forest carbon stocks to realize net zero anthropogenic emissions. 5 Between 2001 and 2019, global forests annually absorbed ∼15.6 billion metric tons of CO 2 from the Earth's atmosphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

et al. 2022

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The building sector, including building operations and materials, was responsible for the emission of ∼11.9 gigatons of global energy-related CO2 in 2020, accounting for 37% of the total CO2 emissions, the largest share among different sectors. Lowering the carbon footprint of buildings requires the development of carbon-storage materials as well as novel designs that could enable multifunctional components to achieve widespread applications. Wood is one of the most abundant biomaterials on Earth and has been used for construction historically. Recent research breakthroughs on advanced engineered wood products epitomize this material’s tremendous yet largely untapped potential for addressing global sustainability challenges. In this review, we explore recent developments in chemically modified wood that will produce a new generation of engineered wood products for building applications. Traditionally, engineered wood products have primarily had a structural purpose, but this review broadens the classification to encompass more aspects of building performance. We begin by providing multiscale design principles of wood products from a computational point of view, followed by discussion of the chemical modifications and structural engineering methods used to modify wood in terms of its mechanical, thermal, optical, and energy-related performance. Additionally, we explore life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis tools for guiding future research toward environmentally friendly and economically feasible directions for engineered wood products. Finally, this review highlights the current challenges and perspectives on future directions in this research field. By leveraging these new wood-based technologies and analysis tools for the fabrication of carbon-storage materials, it is possible to design sustainable and carbon-negative buildings, which could have a significant impact on mitigating climate change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

et al. 2022

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“…A possible strategy to counterbalance this effect is to select building materials with low embodied energy; in this respect, natural materials are perfect candidates, because they are normally undergoing few industrial manufacturing operations, so accumulating low embodied en ergy (Melià et al, 2014). An analogous approach is valid for climate change mitigation (Nordby and Shea, 2013): a proper selection of low embodied carbon building materials, possibly characterized by a high carbon storage, is a viable route to help achieve the European target of 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels) within 2020. For these reasons, there has been a recent upsurge of interest in bio-based materials at the academic, policy and industry levels (Lawrence, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of natural building materials: the role of carbonation, mixture components and transport in the environmental impacts of hempcrete blocks

Arrigoni

Pelosato

Melià

et al. 2017

Journal of Cleaner Production

182

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Hempcrete is a natural building material that, in recent years, has known an increased popularity in a number of European countries. Hempcrete-based construction materials are used in non-bearing walls, as finishing plasters and floor/roof insulators. In the present work, the environmental performances of a non-load-bearing wall made of hempcrete blocks were assessed via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The analysis encompassed the whole life cycle but the end of life, due to the lack of reliable data for this stage. The production phase of the raw materials was identified as the main source of environmental impacts, but the transport distance of raw materials, as well as the amount and composition of the binder mixture, can considerably affect the results. An experimental assessment (via X-ray Powder Diffraction analysis) of the carbonation process taking place within the binder during the use phase of the wall showed that the carbonation rate may be smaller than assumed in previous works: after 240 d, only the outermost layers of the blocks showed significant levels of carbonation, while the innermost layers experienced only a negligible increase in the amount of carbonates. Nevertheless, the overall emission balance is very favourable: thanks to biogenic CO2 uptake during hemp growth and to CO2 uptake by carbonation, hempcrete blocks have a negative carbon footprint and act therefore as effective carbon sinks

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“…Recent progress has lead to high performance concretes allowing reducing structure thickness [1,31]. Nevertheless, it exhibits several drawbacks such as a low hydraulic transport leading to moisture problems in buildings, and low thermal inertia [16,32,36,37]. In addition, these last years studies on carbon accounting have exhibited the high-embodied energy content due to cement production and transport when not locally produced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earthen construction: an increase of the mechanical strength by optimizing the dispersion of the binder phase

Moevus¹,

Jorand

Olagnon

et al. 2015

Mater Struct

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is an open access repository that collects the work of Arts et Métiers ParisTech researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. Abstract Although of interest for its low embodied energy content for construction, earth is usually not used for modern construction due to the expensive, artisanal and complicated process and the high variability of the raw material. The transfer of techniques dedicated to cement concrete could help the industrialization of this material. The use of dispersant for an improved dispersion of the earth powder has been investigated for both dispersion of earth fine fraction and water (here named the binding phase) and mortar made with calibrated sand. An improvement of the rheology is observed with lower viscosity and yield stress. This leads to a very small improvement of the density however concomitant with a marked increase of the mechanical properties, Young modulus and compressive strength. The analysis of the microstructure of the mortar shows an increase of the largest pores, and a decrease of the clay platelets flocs. The evolutions of these properties are analyzed in terms of the Rumpf model at two different scales. The dispersant mainly acts on the platelet arrangement that defines the forces between particles, but also simultaneously decreases the permeability of this binding phase, therefore entrapping more air during the mixing of the powder and water. Clearly the use of a dispersant may be of interest for the processing of earth material on liquid state, decreasing the viscosity and/or allowing the reduction of the water content, and finally improving strength.

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Building Materials in the Operational Phase

Cited by 29 publications

References 13 publications

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

Life cycle assessment of natural building materials: the role of carbonation, mixture components and transport in the environmental impacts of hempcrete blocks

Earthen construction: an increase of the mechanical strength by optimizing the dispersion of the binder phase

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