Comparative life cycle assessment of four insulating boards made with natural and recycled materials

Titolo Rivista ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Autori/Curatori Benedetta Nucci, Fabio Iraldo
Anno di pubblicazione 2016 Fascicolo 2015/3
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 18 P. 71-88 Dimensione file 800 KB
DOI 10.3280/EFE2015-003004
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

Purpose. This paper quantifies and compares the environmental impacts calculated with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for four different insulating boards made with natural or recovered fibers: recycled PET, recycled textile, hemp and sheep wool fibers. Methods. The environmental impacts of the different boards are compared using as functional unit 1 R of thermic resistance and the system boundaries are taken from cradle to grave. Moreover, the length of the use phase necessary to balance the CO2 emissions linked to the life cycle of each insulating board has been assessed. Results and discussion. The results of the comparative LCA and a contribution analysis are reported in order to highlight the main sources of environmental impact. The insulating boards made with sheep wool and recycled textile show the lowest environmental impact for almost all the impact categories considered in the analysis and require the shortest use time in order to balance the CO2 emissions of the life cycle (5 months). If the CO2 uptake from the atmosphere is included in the calculation, the insulating board made with hemp outperform the other boards in impact category "climate change" and in the "offsetting period" (less than 1 month). Conclusions. The paper concludes that the use of insulating boards, in particular made with recycled or natural materials, can represent an important step towards the increase of the sustainability of the building sector. In addition, LCA results should increasingly be included in rating systems and schemes in the building sector in order to effectively lead this sector toward sustainability.

Keywords:Life cycle assessment, insulation, recycled PET, sheep wool, hemp, recycled textile.

Jel codes:Q51, L74, M40.

  1. Ali H.H. and Al Nsairat S.F. (2009). Developing a green building assessment tool for developing countries: case of Jordan. Building Environment, 44: 1053-1064.
  2. Allacker K., Mathieux F., Manfredi S., Pelletier N., De Camillis C., Ardente F. and Pant R. (2014). Allocation solutions for secondary material production and end of life recovery: Proposals for product policy initiatives. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 88: 1-12.
  3. Ardente F., Beccali M., Cellura M. and Mistretta M. (2008). Building energy performance: A LCA case study of kenaf-fibres insulation board. Energy and Building, 40: 1-10.
  4. Asdrubali F., Baldinelli G., Bianchi F. and Sambuco S. (2015). A comparison between environmental sustainability rating systems LEED and ITACA for residential buildings. Building and Environment, 86: 98-108.
  5. Asdrubali F., D’Alessandro F. and Schiavoni S. (2015). A review of unconventional sustainable building insulation materials. Sustainable Materials and Technologies, 4: 1-17.
  6. Audenaert A., De Cleyn S.H. and Buyle M. (2012). LCA of low-energy flats using the Eco-indicator 99 method: Impact of insulation materials. Energy and Buildings, 47: 68-73.
  7. Boutin M.P., Flamin C., Quinton C., Gosse G. and Inra L. (2006). Etude des caracteristiques environnementales du chanvre par l’analyse de son cycle de vie. Ministere de l’agriculture et de la peche.
  8. Brandão M. and Levasseur A. (2011). Assessing temporary carbon storage in life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting: Outcomes of an expert workshop. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-79-20350-3. http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment/publications.
  9. Brandão M., Levasseur A., Kirschbaum M.U.F., Weidema B.P., Cowie A.L., Jørgensen S.V., Hauschild M.Z., Pennington D.W. and Chomkhamsri K. (2012). Key issues and options in accounting for carbon sequestration and temporary storage in life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 18: 230-240.
  10. Bribián I.Z., Capilla A.V. and Uson A.A. (2011). Life cycle assessment of building materials: Comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of the eco-efficiency improvement potential. Building and Environment, 46: 1133-1140.
  11. Bribian I.Z., Uson A.A. and Scarpellini S. (2009). Life cycle assessment in buildings: State-of-the-art and simplified LCA methodology as a complement for building certification. Building and Environment, 44: 2510-2520.
  12. Cherubini F., Peters G.P., Berntsen T., Stromman A.H. and Hertwich E. (2011). CO2emissions from biomass combustion for bioenergy: atmospheric decay and contribution to global warming. GCB Bioenergy, 3: 413-426.
  13. Densley Tingley D., Hathway A. and Davison B. (2015). An environmental impact comparison of external wall insulation types. Building and Environment, 85: 182-189.
  14. Garcia-Casals X. (2006). Analysis of building energy regulation and certification in Europe: their role, limitations and differences. Energy and Buildings, 38: 381-392.
  15. Haapio A. and Viitaniemi P. (2008). A critical review of building environmental assessment tools. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 2008; 28:469-82.
  16. Intini F. and Kühtz S. (2011). Recycling in buildings: an LCA case study of a thermal insulation panel made of polyester fiber, recycled from post-consumer PET bottles. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 16: 306-315.
  17. Khasreen M., Banfill P. and Menzies G. (2009). Life-cycle assessment and the environmental impact of buildings: a review. Sustainability, 1: 674-701.
  18. La Rosa A.D., Recca A., Gagliano A., Summerscales J., Latteri A., Cozzo G. and Cicala G. (2014). Environmental impacts and thermal insulation performance of innovative composite solutions for building applications. Construction and Building Materials, 55: 406-414.
  19. Levasseur A., Lesage P., Margni M., Deschênes L. and Samson R. (2010). Considering time in LCA: dynamic LCA and its application to global warming impact assessments. Environmental Science & Technology, 44: 3169-3174.
  20. Murphy R.J. and Norton A. (2008). Life Cycle Assessment of Natural Fibre Insulation Materials. Final Report prepared for “National Non-Food Crops Centre”.
  21. Papadopoulos A.M. (2005). State of the art in thermal insulation materials and aims for future developments. Energy and Buildings, 37: 77-86.
  22. Papadopoulos A.M. and Giama E. (2007). Environmental performance evaluation of thermal insulation materials and its impact on the building. Building and Environment, 42: 2178-2187.
  23. Pargana N., Pinheiro M.D., Silvestre J.D. and De Brito J. (2014). Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of thermal insulation materials of buildings. Energy and Buildings, 82: 466-481.
  24. Pretot S., Collet F. and Garnier C. (2014). Life cycle assessment of a hemp concrete wall: Impact of thickness and coating. Building and Environment, 72: 223-231.
  25. Sandin G., Peters G.M. and Svanström M. (2014). Life cycle assessment of construction materials: the influence of assumptions in end-of-life modelling. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 19: 723-731.
  26. Sartori I. and Hestnes A.G. (2007). Energy use in the life-cycle of conventional and low energy buildings: a review article. Energy and Buildings, 39: 249-257.
  27. Schmidt A.C., Jensen A.A., Clausen A.U., Kamstrup O. and Postlethwaite D. (2004). A comparative Life Cycle assessment of building insulation products made of stone wool, paper wool and flax. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 9: 53-66.
  28. Shen L., Worrell E. and Patel M.K. (2010). Open-loop recycling: A LCA case study of PET bottle-to-fibre recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 55: 34-52.
  29. Sierra-Pérez J., Boschmonart-Rives J. and Gabarrell X. (2016). Environmental assessment of façade-building systems and thermal insulation materials for different climatic conditions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 113: 102-113.
  30. Thermal insulation PEF pilot. Draft PEFCRs for thermal insulation, v. 4.0. European EF pilot phase. 2016.
  31. Werner F. and Richter K. (2007). Wooden Building Products in Comparative LCA A Literature Review. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 12: 470-479.
  32. Xing Su X., Luo Z., Li Y. and Huang C. (2016). Life cycle inventory comparison of different building insulation materials and uncertainty analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112: 275-281.
  33. Zampori L., Dotelli G. and Vernelli V. (2013). Life cycle assessment of hemp cultivation and use of hemp-based thermal insulator materials in buildings. Environmental Science & Technology, 47: 7413-7420.

Benedetta Nucci, Fabio Iraldo, Comparative life cycle assessment of four insulating boards made with natural and recycled materials in "ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT" 3/2015, pp 71-88, DOI: 10.3280/EFE2015-003004