Life Cycle Assessment Of Carbon Concrete Composites: A Circular Economy Path Beyond Climate Mitigation?

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Sustainable construction and materials play an ever-important role to stay within our planetary boundaries. In support, innovative carbon concrete composites (CCC) promise significant raw material savings by integral design. We aim to illustrate current environmental hotspots and a feasible recycling scenario of CCC that meets circularity requirements. We modelled a cradle-tograve life cycle assessment for two potential building structural applications (sandwich wall, ceiling reinforcement) made of CCC. We based our recycling scenario on previously conducted large-scale experiments. Results show a relative larger energy intensity and abiotic depletion of fossil fuels for variants of CCC but lower global warming. Yet, recycling is, second to embodied emissions of basic materials, the driving force of total environmental impacts. The presented recycling path (demolition, pyrolysis for carbon fabric, reuse in fiber fleece) offers less "green credentials"than steel.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)518-524
Number of pages7
JournalActa Polytechnica CTU Proceedings
Volume33
Publication statusPublished - 3 Mar 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85130297021
ORCID /0000-0003-3139-6178/work/150884833