A Study for the Measurement of Environmental Impact Resulting From Railway Construction

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasutomo Morita ◽  
Kenji Shimizu ◽  
Hirokazu Kato ◽  
Naoki Shibahara ◽  
Toshihiro Yamasaki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Co2 Reduction ◽  
Environmentally Friendly ◽  
Rail Transport ◽  
Transportation Mode ◽  
Co2 Gas ◽  
Low Emission ◽  
Global Concern ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

This study shows how to measure CO2 emissions caused by railways during its life span from construction to disposal. It is now a common global concern that CO2 reduction is vital for conserving the global environment. Amidst this growing awareness, rail transport has attracted significant attention as an environmentally-friendly transportation mode due to its low emission of CO2 gas. But in many studies the amount of CO2 is calculated only during operation and doesn’t include emissions during the phase of construction of related infrastructure and rolling stocks. Rail transport can not be a truly environmentally-friendly transportation mode if it isn’t proven to emit less gases compared with other modes during a modes whole life cycle. In this paper, we introduce the method to calculate CO2 emission from the construction of infrastructure with the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the result of a case study.

scholarly journals Prediction of Life Cycle Carbon Emissions of Sponge City Projects: A Case Study in Shanghai, China

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaohu Lin ◽  
Jie Ren ◽  
Jingcheng Xu ◽  
Tao Zheng ◽  
Wei Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Carbon Emission ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Carbon Sinks ◽  
Sponge City ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Accounting Model ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

In recent years, China has been vigorously carrying out the planning and implementation of Sponge City. Since the implementation of Sponge City projects involves substantial materials and energy consumption, it is significant to account corresponding carbon emissions and sinks. The existed studies about carbon emission of stormwater management measures, however, are not able to take the whole life cycle and different facilities into consideration. Therefore, this study develops a comprehensive accounting model based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines and life cycle assessment (LCA) method to predict carbon emissions and carbon sinks of Sponge City projects more comprehensively and accurately. The model is applied to an actual residential community in Shanghai as a case study. Results show that the total indirect carbon emission is estimated to be 774,277 kg CO2 eq during a 30-year lifespan, among which carbon emissions from operation and maintenance phases are 2570 kg CO2 eq/year and 7309 kg CO2 eq/year, respectively, both directly proportional to the service life of the facilities. Three kinds of achievable carbon sinks are carbon sequestration in green space (5450 kg CO2 eq/year), carbon sink from rainwater utilization (15,379 kg CO2 eq/year) and carbon sink from runoff pollutant removal (19,552 kg CO2 eq/year). Carbon neutrality is expected to be reached after approximately 19 years. The established carbon emission accounting model can contribute to better planning and construction of Sponge City in China and enhance further energy conservation and carbon emission reduction.

scholarly journals The importance of embodied energy in carbon footprint assessment

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zaid Alwan ◽  
Paul Jones
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Operational Energy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Purpose – The construction industry has focused on operational and embodied energy of buildings as a way of becoming more sustainable, however, with more emphasis on the former. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact that embodied energy of construction materials can have on the decision making when designing buildings, and ultimately on the environment. This is an important aspect that has often been overlooked when calculating a building's carbon footprint; and its inclusion this approach presents a more holistic life cycle assessment. Design/methodology/approach – A building project was chosen that is currently being designed; the design team for the project have been tasked by the client to make the facility exemplary in terms of its sustainability. This building has a limited construction palette; therefore the embodied energy component can be accurately calculated. The authors of this paper are also part of the design team for the building so they have full access to Building Information Modelling (BIM) models and production information. An inventory of materials was obtained for the building and embodied energy coefficients applied to assess the key building components. The total operational energy was identified using benchmarking to produce a carbon footprint for the facility. Findings – The results indicate that while operational energy is more significant over the long term, the embodied energy of key materials should not be ignored, and is likely to be a bigger proportion of the total carbon in a low carbon building. The components with high embodied energy have also been identified. The design team have responded to this by altering the design to significantly reduce the embodied energy within these key components – and thus make the building far more sustainable in this regard. Research limitations/implications – It may be is a challenge to create components inventories for whole buildings or for refurbishments. However, a potential future approach for is application may be to use a BIM model to simplify this process by imbedding embodied energy inventories within the software, as part of the BIM menus. Originality/value – This case study identifies the importance of considering carbon use during the whole-life cycle of buildings, as well as highlighting the use of carbon offsetting. The paper presents an original approach to the research by using a “live” building as a case study with a focus on the embodied energy of each component of the scheme. The operational energy is also being calculated, the combined data are currently informing the design approach for the building. As part of the analysis, the building was modelled in BIM software.

A new methodology for risk evaluation taking into account the whole life cycle (LCRA): Validation with case study

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynda Aissani ◽  
Florent Jabouille ◽  
Jacques Bourgois ◽  
Patrick Rousseaux
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Risk Evaluation ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

scholarly journals The Life Cycle Assessment for Polylactic Acid (PLA) to Make It a Low-Carbon Material

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1854
Author(s):  
Erfan Rezvani Rezvani Ghomi ◽  
Fatemeh Khosravi ◽  
Ali Saedi Saedi Ardahaei ◽  
Yunqian Dai ◽  
Rasoul Esmaeely Neisiany ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Polylactic Acid ◽  
Carbon Material ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Life Cycle Assessments ◽  
Global Concern ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

The massive plastic production worldwide leads to a global concern for the pollution made by the plastic wastes and the environmental issues associated with them. One of the best solutions is replacing the fossil-based plastics with bioplastics. Bioplastics such as polylactic acid (PLA) are biodegradable materials with less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. PLA is a biopolymer produced from natural resources with good mechanical and chemical properties, therefore, it is used widely in packaging, agriculture, and biomedical industries. PLA products mostly end up in landfills or composting. In this review paper, the existing life cycle assessments (LCA) for PLA were comprehensively reviewed and classified. According to the LCAs, the energy and materials used in the whole life cycle of PLA were reported. Finally, the GHG emissions of PLA in each stage of its life cycle, including feedstock acquisition and conversion, manufacturing of PLA products, the PLA applications, and the end of life (EoL) options, were described. The most energy-intensive stage in the life cycle of PLA is its conversion. By optimizing the conversion process of PLA, it is possible to make it a low-carbon material with less dependence on energy sources.

Usability Demonstration of the G.EN.ESI Eco-Design Platform: The Cooker Hood Case Study

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Germani ◽  
Marco Mandolini ◽  
Marco Marconi ◽  
Marta Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Traditional Design ◽  
Design And Manufacture ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Due to the increasing pressure of legislations and market, the environmental sustainability is becoming a key competitive factor for companies. In specific markets, as the Northern Europe one, customers are very careful on the quality and sustainability of products, thus companies has to design and manufacture green goods. In this context, there is a strong need of effective design tools and platform which allows to configure products applying the life cycle paradigm and with the “environment on mind”. Currently in the market there are only few examples of products designed taking into account the eco-design concepts. In particular, for mechatronic or energy using products only the use phase is usually considered and all the re-design strategies aim to reduce the energy consumption. This is essentially due to the fact that there is a lack of tools and design platforms, which are easy to use and well integrated with the traditional design tools and with the design processes of companies. This paper wants to demonstrate the usefulness of a set of interoperable eco-design tools, the G.EN.ESI platform, in supporting the re-design of a mechatronic product. The proposed case study, realized in collaboration with an Italian leading company in the sector of household appliances, focuses on the improvement of a domestic cooker hood with the final objective to obtain a more sustainable product. The in-depth experimentation, for the duration of more than 3 months, involved different stakeholders within the company (designers, environmental expert, etc.), with the aim to validate the G.EN.ESI platform tools in different phases of the re-design process. The case study showed that the use of the platform has supported the company in the identification of the environmental hot-spots and during the product re-design phase, considering the whole life cycle. The re-engineered cooker hood exhibits relevant improvements in the most important environmental and economic indicators (environmental impact, energy efficiency, disassemblability, recyclability, etc.). Also a detailed analysis of the platform usability has been performed in order to measure if the tools completely fulfil the expectations of the final users. Finally, the level of integration within the company processes has been evaluated with a dedicated questionnaire. The results of these last analyses showed that the G.EN.ESI platform is appropriate to support a company to improve the sustainability of their products without the needs to heavily alter the traditional design process.

scholarly journals NEGRAFICKÁ DATA A JEJICH STRUKTURA PRO VYUŽITÍ LCA V BIM

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (01) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
Michal Brandtner
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Data Structure ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Information Model ◽  
Model Data ◽  
Building Information Model ◽  
Graphic Information ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

The article deals with the data structure for the purpose of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of buildings using the Building Information Model (BIM). LCA is a method that can be used to demonstrate the suitability of proposed materials, structures, or buildings in terms of their whole life cycle and its environmental impact. For the LCA evaluation it is crucial to obtain life cycle inventory (LCI) input data. The aim of the article is to define a BIM data structure for LCI purposes. The new methodology is based on standardization of non-graphic information model data structure called SNIM. Advantages of the proposed methodology have been demonstrated on the case study. These results are useful for expanding the BIM model with new data necessary for further LCA calculations.

scholarly journals Digital twins for managing railway maintenance and resilience

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Sakdirat Kaewunruen ◽  
Jessada Sresakoolchai ◽  
Yi-hsuan Lin
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Optimal Time ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
Railway Maintenance ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Background: To improve railway construction and maintenance, a novel digital twin that helps stakeholders visualize, share data, and monitor the progress and the condition during services is required. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a digitalization tool, which adopts an interoperable concept that benefits the whole life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the project. BIM’s applications create higher performance on cost efficiency and optimal time schedule, helping to reduce any unexpected consumption and waste over the life cycle of the infrastructure. Methods: The digital twin will be developed using BIM embedded by the lifecycle analysis method. A case study based on Taipei Metro (TM) has been conducted to enhance the performance in operation and maintenance. Life cycles of TM will be assessed and complied with ISO14064. Operation and maintenance activities will be determined from official records provided by TM. Material flows, stocks, and potential risks in the LCA are analyzed using BIM quantification embedded by risk data layer obtained from TM. Greenhouse emission, cost consumption and expenditure will be considered for integration into the BIM. Results: BIM demonstrated strong potential to enable a digital twin for managing railway maintenance and resilience. Based on the case study, a key challenge for BIM in Taiwan is the lack of insights, essential data, and construction standards, and thus the practical adoption of BIM for railway maintenance and resilience management is still in the design phase. Conclusions: This study exhibits a practical paradigm of the digital twin for railway maintenance and resilience improvement. It will assist all stakeholders to engage in the design, construction, and maintenance enhancing the reduction in life cycle cost, energy consumption and carbon footprint. New insight based on the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit system is highly valuable for railway industry globally by increasing the lifecycle sustainability and improving resilience of railway systems.

scholarly journals Assessing the Mitigation Potential of Environmental Impacts From Circular Economy Strategies on an Industrial Sector and Its Value Chain: A Case Study on the Steel Value Chain in Quebec

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavien Binet ◽  
François Saunier ◽  
Manuele Margni
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Steel Industry ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Mitigation Potential ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

This research project aims to evaluate the potential reduction of environmental impacts from circular economy strategies on an industrial sector at a regional scale with a case study on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in Quebec's steel industry and its value chain. To do so, an integrated model has been created based on the matrix approach, building on material flow analysis (MFA) tracking flows and stocks and on life cycle assessment (LCA) to compute direct (from the activity, e.g., combustion process) and indirect (from the supply chain, e.g., production of raw material inside or outside of region) emissions. This theoretical model is designed to be applied to any emissions or environmental impacts from a specific sector in a given region and enable to model the effects of circularity strategies to both flows and related environmental impacts. The overall mitigation potential of individual or combined circular economy strategies on a specific sector could thus be evaluated across its entire value chain. In the case study, a set of the most promising circular strategies applicable in the Quebec context were identified, and the GHG reduction potential within and outside the province is calculated and compared with actual emissions. Six circular strategies were analyzed acting at three different levers, namely, GHG/material (increase iron recycling rate, switch to hydrogen-based reduction production), material/product (reduce weight of vehicle, limit over-specification in building construction), and product/service (increase buildings and cars lifetime, increase car-sharing), and therefore impact rather direct or indirect emissions on different stages of the steel life cycle. Combining these six strategies into a consolidated scenario shows that a circular-driven economy allows to cut down GHG emissions of the cradle-to-gate steel industry value chain by −55%, i.e., 1.67 Mt CO2e. Taking into account use phase of steel, overall reductions are estimated at −6.03 Mt CO2e, i.e., −30% of the whole life cycle.

scholarly journals A BIM-LCA Approach for Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Large-Scale Public Buildings: A Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoquan Cheng ◽  
Jingwei Li ◽  
Vivian W. Y. Tam ◽  
Ming Yang ◽  
Dong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
Building Assessment ◽  
Maintenance Stage ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Exiting green building assessment standards sometimes cannot work well for large-scale public buildings due to insufficient attention to the operation and maintenance stage. This paper combines the theory of life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modeling (BIM) technology, thereby proposing a green building assessment method by calculating the greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) of buildings from cradle to grave. Life cycle GGE (LCGGE) can be divided into three parts, including the materialization stage, the operation and maintenance stage, and the demolition stage. Two pieces of BIM software (Revit and Designbuilder) are applied in this study. A museum in Guangdong, China, with a hot summer and warm winter is selected for a case study. The results show that BIM can provide a rich source of needed engineering information for LCA. In addition, the operation and maintenance stage plays the most important role in the GGE reduction of a building throughout the whole life cycle. This research contributes to the knowledge body concerning green buildings and sustainable construction. It helps to achieve the reduction of GGE over the whole life cycle of a building. This is pertinent to contractors, homebuyers, and governments who are constantly seeking ways to achieve a low-carbon economy.

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