Life cycle assessment of concrete hollow blocks: a comparison between natural and recycled aggregates

This study is about the Life Cycle Assessment of the impacts related to the production of concrete hollow blocks using different types of aggregates, in order to demonstrate whether the employing of recycled aggregates instead of the traditional ones is convenient from an environmental point of view. The investigation on new technologies and on new materials produced from innovative methodologies has become essential in the fight against climate change, life cycle assessment is a proven methodology massively used for the estimation of the impacts related to products or processes, then in this work this methodology has been applied for carrying out its purpose. Construction sector is one of the most influent economical branches in the world emissions scenario, the research on new materials aiming to mitigate and reduce the impacts of this sector is necessary and highly demanded. During the analysis, five different scenarios for concrete hollow blocks making were analyzed, depending on the type of aggregate considered in the process, natural aggregate, concrete recycled aggregate, mixed recycled aggregate and combinations of natural and recycled aggregates. A cradle-to-gate approach has been used, considering that the uncertainty that might arise if the use and end-of-life aspects had been considered may be inadequate to the purposes of the current study. The impact assessment has been done through ReCiPe 2016 both in mid-point and end-point terms. The obtained results shows that the introduction of recycled aggregates in the fabrication of concrete hollow blocks can reduce remarkably the impacts of the process.