Life cycle assessment of global warming potential in precast building component

Abstract

Concern regarding sustainability in the construction industry has grown and many researches were conducted to improve understanding on the matter. New technologies and methodologies, including Industrialised Building System (IBS) emerge as an alternative to conventional in-situ methods of construction. Nonetheless IBS technology is not comprehensively adopted in Malaysia, which is most likely caused by lack of awareness and understanding on its beneficial impact to the environment. This study investigates the Global Warming Potential of IBS, focusing on precast concrete production of a residential building through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Investigation was focused on the production of wall panel or façade for a multi-storey building in a precast factory located in Pekan Nenas, Johor. Moreover, the production process and quality assurance and control for precast concrete were also identified. The boundary of this research is measuring the direct and indirect energy demand and carbon emission of precast concrete from cradle-togate where data obtained was analysed using OpenLCA software. Direct data was collected from the precast factory that comprises on the information regarding on precast concrete production process. While indirect data which includes embodied energy and carbon for raw materials production process and conversion factors for energy and carbon emission were collected from previous researches. This study found that production of mould consumed the highest energy by 55% while cement production emit highest amount CO2 by 92%. Embodied energy and carbon for this project are 11,790,968 MJ and 19,262,915 kg respectively while posing GWP of 4.4281 kg CO2,eq (x1010).