IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i7p3229-d1115101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Concrete Mix Composition on Greenhouse Gas Emissions over the Full Life Cycle of a Structure

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Wałach

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resource Management, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow, Poland)

  • Aleksandra Mach

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering and Resource Management, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow, Poland)

Abstract

As the need to determine and monitor carbon footprints (CFs) in the construction industry grows and given that concrete is a key construction material in this sector, the authors of the article conducted a carbon footprint analysis of 15 different concrete mixtures. The method for determining the carbon footprint of the entire life cycle of concrete was presented in detail. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the CF for an example structure made of three significantly different concrete strength classes, in addition to determining the CF for 1 m 3 of concrete mix. This analysis showed the need to consider the entire structure and the emissivity associated with the consumption of reinforcing steel when selecting the most favorable solution in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The study revealed that the composition of the concrete mix, primarily the type and amount of cement, has the greatest influence on the carbon footprint. Furthermore, the location and geometry of the structure, as well as the number of floors, should also be taken into account when selecting concrete. In the analyzed construction, the life-cycle phases related to the incorporation of the concrete mixture at the construction site (phases A4–A5) and those related to the demolition of the concrete at the end of its life cycle (phases C1–C4) constituted approximately 10% on average of the total value of CF emissions over the entire concrete life cycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Wałach & Aleksandra Mach, 2023. "Effect of Concrete Mix Composition on Greenhouse Gas Emissions over the Full Life Cycle of a Structure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:7:p:3229-:d:1115101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3229/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/7/3229/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yan Xu & Aijun Liu & Zengxian Li & Jiaxin Li & Jiamin Xiong & Peng Fan, 2023. "Review of Green Supply-Chain Management Diffusion in the Context of Energy Transformation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Xiang, Xiwang & Ma, Minda & Ma, Xin & Chen, Liming & Cai, Weiguang & Feng, Wei & Ma, Zhili, 2022. "Historical decarbonization of global commercial building operations in the 21st century," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    3. Skiba, Marta & Mrówczyńska, Maria & Sztubecka, Małgorzata & Bazan-Krzywoszańska, Anna & Kazak, Jan K. & Leśniak, Agnieszka & Janowiec, Filip, 2021. "Probability estimation of the city’s energy efficiency improvement as a result of using the phase change materials in heating networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    4. Rotem Haik & Isaac A. Meir & Alva Peled, 2023. "Lime Hemp Concrete with Unfired Binders vs. Conventional Building Materials: A Comparative Assessment of Energy Requirements and CO 2 Emissions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-11, January.
    5. Tomasz Rudnicki, 2022. "The Impact of the Aggregate Used on the Possibility of Reducing the Carbon Footprint in Pavement Concrete," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Ornella Iuorio & Antonio Gigante & Rosa Francesca De Masi, 2023. "Life Cycle Analysis of Innovative Technologies: Cold Formed Steel System and Cross Laminated Timber," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-22, January.
    7. Xiaojuan Li & Chen Wang & Mukhtar A. Kassem & Shu-Yi Wu & Tai-Bing Wei, 2022. "Case Study on Carbon Footprint Life-Cycle Assessment for Construction Delivery Stage in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, April.
    8. Zhang, Shufan & Ma, Minda & Li, Kai & Ma, Zhili & Feng, Wei & Cai, Weiguang, 2022. "Historical carbon abatement in the commercial building operation: China versus the US," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Dong Wang & Guiwen Liu & Kaijian Li & Tongjing Wang & Asheem Shrestha & Igor Martek & Xiaobo Tao, 2018. "Layout Optimization Model for the Production Planning of Precast Concrete Building Components," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aleksandra Mach & Maciej Szczygielski, 2024. "Carbon Footprint Analysis throughout the Life Cycle of the Continuous Deep Mixing Method (CDMM) Technology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Marta Skiba & Maria Mrówczyńska & Agnieszka Leśniak & Natalia Rzeszowska & Filip Janowiec & Małgorzata Sztubecka & Wioleta Błaszczak-Bąk & Jan K. Kazak, 2024. "Implication of the EU Countries’ Energy Policy Concerning Scenarios Affecting the Air Quality Improvement," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiang, Hong-Dian & Pradhan, Basanta K. & Dong, Kangyin & Yu, Yan-Yan & Liang, Qiao-Mei, 2024. "An economy-wide impacts of multiple mitigation pathways toward carbon neutrality in China: A CGE-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    2. Zou, Chenchen & Ma, Minda & Zhou, Nan & Feng, Wei & You, Kairui & Zhang, Shufan, 2023. "Toward carbon free by 2060: A decarbonization roadmap of operational residential buildings in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    3. Zhang, Shufan & Zhou, Nan & Feng, Wei & Ma, Minda & Xiang, Xiwang & You, Kairui, 2023. "Pathway for decarbonizing residential building operations in the US and China beyond the mid-century," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    4. Junhui Huang & Sakdirat Kaewunruen, 2023. "Forecasting Energy Consumption of a Public Building Using Transformer and Support Vector Regression," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Luigi Maffei & Antonio Ciervo & Achille Perrotta & Massimiliano Masullo & Antonio Rosato, 2023. "Innovative Energy-Efficient Prefabricated Movable Buildings for Smart/Co-Working: Performance Assessment upon Varying Building Configurations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-37, June.
    6. João Mello & Cristina de Lorenzo & Fco. Alberto Campos & José Villar, 2023. "Pricing and Simulating Energy Transactions in Energy Communities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Zhao, Congyu & Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Hong-Dian & Wang, Kun & Dong, Xiucheng, 2023. "How does energy poverty eradication realize the path to carbon unlocking? The case of China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    8. Ren, Xiaohang & Xia, Xixia & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2023. "Uncertainty of uncertainty and corporate green innovation—Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 634-647.
    9. Han, Yongming & Cao, Lian & Guo, Qing & Geng, Zhiqiang & Yang, Weiyang & Fan, Jinzhen & Liu, Min, 2024. "Economy and carbon dioxide emissions effects of energy structures in China: Evidence based on a novel AHP-SBMDEA model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    10. Kennedy A. G. Araújo & Tibérius O. Bonates & Bruno A. Prata & Anselmo R. Pitombeira-Neto, 2021. "Heterogeneous prestressed precast beams multiperiod production planning problem: modeling and solution methods," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 29(3), pages 660-693, October.
    11. Liu, Yang & Dong, Kangyin & Jiang, Qingzhe, 2023. "Assessing energy vulnerability and its impact on carbon emissions: A global case," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    12. Mohammad Fazle Rabbi & József Popp & Domicián Máté & Sándor Kovács, 2022. "Energy Security and Energy Transition to Achieve Carbon Neutrality," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-18, October.
    13. Alasdair Reid, 2023. "Closing the Affordable Housing Gap: Identifying the Barriers Hindering the Sustainable Design and Construction of Affordable Homes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-27, May.
    14. Zhao, Shujie & Song, Qingbin & Zhao, Dongfeng & Wang, Yongqiang, 2023. "Identifying the spatiotemporal carbon footprint of the petroleum refining industry and its mitigation potential in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).
    15. Abdul Hayy Haziq Mohamad & Muhamad Rias K. V. Zainuddin & Rossazana Ab-Rahim, 2023. "Does Renewable Energy Transition in the USA and China Overcome Environmental Degradation?," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(6), pages 234-243, November.
    16. Liu, Yang & Dong, Xiucheng & Dong, Kangyin, 2023. "Pathway to prosperity? The impact of low-carbon energy transition on China's common prosperity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    17. Abdul Mateen Khan & Muhammad Abubakar Tariq & Sardar Kashif Ur Rehman & Talha Saeed & Fahad K. Alqahtani & Mohamed Sherif, 2024. "BIM Integration with XAI Using LIME and MOO for Automated Green Building Energy Performance Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-36, July.
    18. Du, Ruiqing & Liu, Chun-Ho & Li, Xian-Xiang & Lin, Chuan-Yao, 2023. "Effect of local climate zone (LCZ) and building category (BC) classification on the simulation of urban climate and air-conditioning load in Hong Kong," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    19. Xin Han & Feng Lu & Jun Hou & Xianming Kuang, 2022. "Impact of Haze Pollution on Industrial Agglomeration: Empirical Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    20. Panjapornpon, Chanin & Bardeeniz, Santi & Hussain, Mohamed Azlan, 2023. "Improving energy efficiency prediction under aberrant measurement using deep compensation networks: A case study of petrochemical process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PC).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:7:p:3229-:d:1115101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.