Life Cycle Analysis of Mortars and its Environmental Impact
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0895-G06-02.1
Life Cycle Analysis of Mortars and its Environmental Impact Moropoulou Antonia, Koroneos Christopher, Karoglou Maria, Aggelakopoulou Eleni, Bakolas, Asterios, Dompros Aris School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Zografou Campus 15780, Athens, Greece.
ABSTRACT Over the years considerable research has been conducted on masonry mortars regarding their compatibility with under restoration structures. The environmental dimension of these materials may sometimes be a prohibitive factor in the selection of these materials. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that can be used to assess the environmental impact of the materials. LCA can be a very useful tool in the decision making for the selection of appropriate restoration structural material. In this work, a comparison between traditional type of mortars and modern ones (cement-based) is attempted. Two mortars of traditional type are investigated: with aerial lime binder, with aerial lime and artificial pozzolanic additive and one with cement binder. The LCA results indicate that the traditional types of mortars are more sustainable compared to cementbased mortars. For the impact assessment, the method used is Eco-indicator 95 INTRODUCTION The historic mortars have proved to be compatible with the historic structural units and long lasting under severe mechanical and environmental loads, fact that is attributed to the quality of raw materials, their physicochemical and mechanical properties and the production technology [1]. Restoration mortars must be able to respond to intensive environmental loads, to continuous mechanical stresses and be compatible to the original structural units of the masonry, assuring the longevity of the historic structures. On the contrary, the mortars used for restoration works in historic masonries are often based on cement and polymer materials; mortars too hard, brittle and impervious for historic masonries. Because of their incompatible mechanical, microstructural and physico-chemical characteristics compared to historic structural materials, negative results have been observed in historic masonries restored with these types of mortars. Secondary, but crucial factor for the selection of the proper restoration mortars is the environmental impact of raw materials (binders, aggregates and mineral additives). The assessment of this impact could be calculated by the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a tool that analyzes systems and models of different complexities [2, 3]. It can be applied to all sectors at all phases of economy and production. The multipurpose of the LCA is described in the ISO 14040 standards, where the listed applications are: Identification of improved possibilities, decision making, choice of environmental performance indicators and market claim [4]. LCA plays a major role in the selection of material based on their properties and their environment impact. In the building sector the environmental assessment of materials is a very crucial step in the process
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