Variations in embodied energy and carbon emission intensities of construction materials

Abstract

Identification of parameter variation allows us to conduct more detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) of energy and carbon emission material over their lifecycle. Previous research studies have demonstrated that hybrid LCA (HLCA) can generally overcome the problems of incompleteness and accuracy of embodied energy (EE) and carbon (EC) emission assessment. Unfortunately, the current interpretation and quantification procedure has not been extensively and empirically studied in a qualitative manner, especially in hybridising between the process LCA and I-O LCA. To determine this weakness, this study empirically demonstrates the changes in EE and EC intensities caused by variations to key parameters in material production. Using Australia and Malaysia as a case study, the results are compared with previous hybrid models to identify key parameters and issues. The parameters considered in this study are technological changes, energy tariffs, primary energy factors, disaggregation constant, emission factors, and material price fluctuation. It was found that changes in technological efficiency, energy tariffs and material prices caused significant variations in the model. Finally, the comparison of hybrid models revealed that non-energy intensive materials greatly influence the variations due to high indirect energy and carbon emission in upstream boundary of material production, and as such, any decision related to these materials should be considered carefully.

Development of a Carbon Emissions Analysis Framework Using Building Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment for the Construction of Hospital Projects

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CO2 Efficiency Break Points for Processes Associated to Wood and Coal Transport and Heating

“…Among the most common LCA issues in practice are, first, the high demands on time and input data; second, the uncertainty regarding the content of some particles of the analysed LCA chain; and third, that in practice, it is not necessary to analyse the complete LCA chain, which may be debatable with respect to the abovementioned point. That last statement is supported by several works [48][49][50][51]. That logic brings us, for practical purposes, unambiguously to a deeper analysis of the selected part of the LCA chain.…”

Limitations, challenges, and solution approaches in grid‐connected renewable energy systems

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