Calculating and Analyzing Carbon Emission Factors of Prefabricated Components

Abstract

The construction industry’s carbon emissions have a considerable impact on the environment, and all countries have pledged to reduce them to achieve low-carbon transformation. The use of prefabricated components is widely recognized as a crucial measure for mitigating carbon emissions. However, there is a scarcity of existing data on the carbon emission factors of prefabricated components (CEFoPC), and few studies have focused on calculating and reducing their carbon emissions. This study presents a novel approach to calculating CEFoPC, which involves analyzing the production process, defining the carbon emission range, identifying the sources of carbon emissions, and establishing measurement equations for the carbon emissions of prefabricated components. The proposed approach is demonstrated using six typical prefabricated components in Nanjing, China, namely, prefabricated exterior and interior wall panels, stairs, laminated panels, balconies, and air conditioning panels. After decomposing the carbon emission factors and exploring carbon emission reduction strategies, the findings suggest that the production and transportation of raw materials are the primary contributors to carbon emissions associated with prefabricated components. Additionally, the most effective carbon emission reduction strategy involves the use of green and recycled raw materials. Furthermore, the framework for calculating CEFoPC proposed in this study is considered a significant contribution, as it can facilitate future research and the enrichment of carbon emission factor databases.

Green Tollways: Strategizing Carbon-Emissions-Based Government-Owned Public Toll Road Operations in China

“…Most researchers have constructed analytical frameworks to guide the development of traffic operation strategies to balance social welfare with private sector profitability [1,[11][12][13][14]. Recent investigations have extended those discussions by providing analytical frameworks to guide the development of traffic operation strategies that consider the complex interplay between social welfare and private profitability [3,[15][16][17].…”

A Review of Building Carbon Emission Accounting Methods under Low-Carbon Building Background

“…Additionally, there are a vast number of application examples that can be referenced. As a result, the estimation of carbon emission factors is widely used in calculating the carbon emissions of buildings [87]. However, the method also suffers from the disadvantage of being less able to deal with changes in the emission system itself.…”

Sustainable Disposal of Different Solid Wastes as Aggregate for Fabricating Lightweight Concrete: Physio-Mechanical Performance and Durability

“…This paper intends to recycle industrial plastic waste and recycled lightweight bricks to prepare sustainable lightweight concrete, which necessitates an ecological impact assessment. To evaluate this impact, or rather the ecological behavior of the proposed lightweight concrete, the carbon emissions and embodied energy are often evaluated according to references [33,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Table 4 presents the values of each unit of equivalent carbon emissions and embodied energy for the ingredients used in the current study, as reported in previous studies [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60].…”

“…To evaluate this impact, or rather the ecological behavior of the proposed lightweight concrete, the carbon emissions and embodied energy are often evaluated according to references [33,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Table 4 presents the values of each unit of equivalent carbon emissions and embodied energy for the ingredients used in the current study, as reported in previous studies [51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. Then, to measure the energy and emissions from all origin constituents, the equation shown below is used as mentioned in reference [55]:…”

“…This is consistent with what was mentioned in the study [33], which confirmed that the ecological impact of replacing cement with eco-friendly materials is much higher than replacing aggregate with those materials, as aggregate is a bulk and regionally available resource, and its depletion is usually minimal. It is also possible that this is because the air emissions and energy use associated with crushed aggregate are very low compared to the values recorded for cementitious materials in most relevant literature [33][34][35][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58].…”