Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of End-of-Life Scenarios of Carbon-Reinforced Concrete: A Case Study
Source abstract
Abstract
This study assesses the environmental performance in the end-of-life (EoL) of double walls made of carbon-reinforced concrete (CRC) and steel-reinforced concrete (SRC). The most feasible CRC EoL scenarios are evaluated using life cycle assessment and their environmental performances are then compared to those of SRC. The results showed that mechanical recycling is the best CRC EoL scenario, with a global warming potential (GWP) of 7.0 kg CO2 eq., while the use of renewable energy can save over 50% of GWP. For SRC, the best scenario was obtained using a mobile recycling plant (GWP of 8.8 kg CO2 eq.). In general, the further life of the reinforcements is hardly comparable. Steel can be recycled nearly without losses or downcycling, while a closed cycle of carbon fibers is not yet possible. Therefore, carbon fiber properties or EoL processes need to be improved for a closed loop with an optimized environmental performance.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance · Fiber-reinforced polymer composites · Innovative concrete reinforcement materials
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Institute of Sustainability in Civil Engineering (INaB), RWTH Aachen University, Mies-van-der-Rohe-Straße 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Melbourne School of Design, Architecture, The University of Melbourne, Glyn Davis Building: Building 133, Masson Road, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Funding
the German Research Foundation (DFG), as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich/Transregio 280 · ‘Konstruktionsstrategien für materialminimierte Carbonbetonstrukturen’/’Design Strategies for Material-Minimized Carbon Reinforced Concrete Structures’ · the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) · the German Research Foundation (DFG)
References (61)
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