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Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced Building Components towards NZEBs
IRES, Belgium.
IRES, Belgium.
IRES, Belgium.
Leipzig University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
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2022 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 14, no 23, article id 16218Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The building sector accounts for 40% of the total energy consumed in Europe at annual basis, together with the relevant Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In order to mitigate these impacts, the concept and establishment of the Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) is under continuous and intensive research. In fact, as the energy used for buildings’ operation becomes more efficient, impacts resulting from the buildings’ embodied energy become of more importance. Therefore, the selection of building materials and components is of high significance, as these affect the energy performance and potential environmental impacts of the building envelopes. The objective of this study is to perform a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on advanced multifunctional building components, aiming to achieve lower embodied emissions in NZEBs. The advanced components analyzed are composite panels for facade elements of building envelopes, providing thermal efficiency. The design of sustainable building envelope systems is expected to upgrade the overall environmental performance of buildings, including the NZEBs. The findings of this study constitute unambiguous evidence on the need for further research on this topic, as substantial lack of data concerning embodied impacts is presented in literature, adding to the growing discussion on NZEBs at a whole life cycle perspective across Europe. This research has shown that the electricity required from the manufacturing phase of the examined building components is the main contributor to climate change impact and the other environmental categories assessed. Sensitivity analysis that has been performed indicated that the climate change impact is highly depended on the electricity grid energy mix across Europe. Taking into account the current green energy transition by the increase of the renewable energy sources in electricity production, as well as the future upgrade of the manufacturing processes, it is expected that this climate change impact will be mitigated. Finally, the comparison between the CLC thermal insulator and other foam concretes in literature showed that the materials of the building components examined do not present any diversions in terms of environmental impact. © 2022 by the authors.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI , 2022. Vol. 14, no 23, article id 16218
Keywords [en]
building components, Life Cycle Assessment, NZEB, sustainability, thermal insulation, building construction, climate change, insulation, life cycle analysis, Europe
National Category
Building Technologies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-61637DOI: 10.3390/su142316218Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85143598646OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-61637DiVA, id: diva2:1722574
Note

Funding details: Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, H2020, 952886; Funding text 1: The activities presented in this paper were carried out as part of the H2020 project “iclimabuilt-Functional and advanced insulating and energy harvesting/storage materials across climate adaptive building envelopes” 560 (Grant Agreement no. 952886).; Funding text 2: This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme iclimabuilt, under Grant Agreement No. 952886.

Available from: 2022-12-29 Created: 2022-12-29 Last updated: 2023-05-22Bibliographically approved

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Suchorzewski, Jan

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