Chapter 5: Monitoring and evaluation
Life cycle assessment (cradle to gate) of a Portuguese brick
M.I. Almeida
Centro Tecnológico Cerâmica e Vidro, Coimbra, Portugal
A.C. Dias & L.M. Arroja
University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Baio Dias
Centro Tecnológico Cerâmica e Vidro, Coimbra, Portugal
ABSTRACT: The ceramic industry is a traditional sector in Portugal, with a typology of products adapted to the diverse habitat requirements. Brick is one of the most widely used materials
in construction. The ceramic industry, like other sectors, generates impacts over its life cycle
(from the extraction of resources until the final disposal of waste ceramics, ie from "cradle to
grave"), such as consumption of resources, water and energy, air emissions, emissions to water,
waste, noise, etc.. This Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) examines the stages of the brick from
cradle to the customer's gate, including the process of mining and mining facilities, transport,
production in factory and its later distribution to end users (base on scenarios). The methodology takes into account the ISO14040, ISO 21930 and the EPD (environmental product declaration) rules. In general, the impacts are mostly focused on air quality, particularly at the production level in the firing operation.
1 INTRODUCTION
Building materials represent an important research field in the context the sustainability of construction works. Nowadays is important to know the environmental behaviour of building materials that plays an important role on the environmental responsible architecture and design of a
building.
The Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy (2001) proposes the use of methodologies for
assessing the environmental behaviour of products that take into account their life cycle (from
the mining of the raw materials, production, distribution utilisation and the management of
waste).
Also the CEN TC 350 is working in the development of the methodology for calculation of
the sustainability of the buildings, based, in the environmental performance of the buildings,
and in the EPD.
The ceramic industry is a traditional sector with a significant contribution to the national
economy, and a typology of products adapted to more diverse habitat requirements.
Given its geological characteristics of Portugal, a soil rich in quantity and quality of raw materials, as clays and fluxes, the industrial ceramic activity was developed with many valences
and diverse products, covering and flooring tiles, giving acoustic and thermal comfort inside the
house. Recent developments transformed old products in multifunctional products that can incorporate other resources as organic wastes or incorporate nanomaterials so called "advanced
materials".
Brick is the basic ceramic product most used in the Portuguese masonry construction of
buildings.
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The life cycle of ceramic construction products is long, due to the high durability of the
products, and suitable for recycling.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) consists in the systematic analysis of the environmental
impacts of products (any change in the environment, both adverse and benefic, overall or in part
resulting from the product) at all stages of their life cycle, from extraction or synthesis of natural resources, through production, transportation, use and disposal of products (ie "cradle to
grave").
In this paper the LCA methodology is applied to examine the environmental impacts associated to the brick production chain from cradle to the customer's gate, including the process of
mining and the mining facilities, transport, brick production in factory and its later distribution
to end users (base on scenarios) ie “cradle to gate”. The methodology takes into account the
ISO14040, ISO 21930 and the EPD (environmental product declaration) rules and some databases like “Ecoinvent” [6], and the “SimaPro” software (Preconsultants, 2009).
The brick selected is produced in Central region of Portugal.
The ceramic industry, like many other sectors, generates over its life cycle, a series of environmental impacts (Almeida et al, 2004, 2009, Bovea et al, 2007; Timellini et al, 1998, BREF,
2008).
The impacts in the production phase are related to:
• Emissions to air resultant from the thermal processes (drying and firing) and colt emission;
• Consumption of natural resources and others, energy and water;
• Emissions of industrial and domestic effluents;
• Production of waste;
• Noise.
At the same time, the goal is to use this LCA study (cradle to gate), as the basis to obtain the
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) (ISO 14025) for this brick.
The EPDs are intended to provide information for planning and assessing the sustainability ofbuildings. The declarations can also be used by the user/purchaser to compare the environmental impacts of products under certain conditions.
2 CERAMIC BRICK PRODUCTION
The manufacture of bricks process goes through several stages: The first one is the mining/quarrying of raw materials, followed by the storage of raw materials, raw materials preparation, shaping, drying, firing, packing and subsequent treatment.
Dry preparation and semi-wet preparation are used in the manufacture of bricks. The combined processes of mixing and kneading bring about a homogenisation of the mass to obtain a
good plasticity. The prepared mixed clay are stored in large volume facilities, ageing and souring for further homogenisation. Water may be added in this stage.
Then the mixed clay is submitted to a shaping process such as, extrusion, and soft-mud
moulding, depending on the kind of clay, the water content and the desired product.
After this stage, the green brick goes to the drying process. This operation occurs in tunnel and
fast dryers, during 8 up to 72 hours at a temperature of 75 up to 90 ºC.
One of the most important operations of the brick making process is the firing. This operation is done in tunnel kilns mainly in an oxidising atmosphere. The ware to be fired passes
through the kiln on a series of kiln cars. Dried bricks are placed directly on the tunnel kiln car.
The ware to be fired is heated up to a maturing temperature of between 800 and 900 ºC. Following the necessary body formation time of between two and five hours at maturing temperature, the ware is cooled down according to a plan to 50 ºC. The firing time of brick is 17 to 25
hours.
In the final stage the bricks are sorted during the unloading of the kiln or the tunnel kiln car
automatically or manually, packed and palletised for transportation to a shipping unit.
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3 LCA METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS
3.1 Goal and scope definition
The aim of this work was to identify and assess the environmental impacts associated with extraction, production, and distribution (based in scenarios) of ceramic brick produced in Portugal
(from cradle to gate).
All inputs to the system related with energy consumption (fuel and electrical power) and
natural resources (clay and water) were included. The system outputs comprise emissions into
the atmosphere and into water and the generation of waste (hazardous and non hazardous
waste) from the processes (extraction, transport and production).
The end of life and the impacts of the waste management transport and treatment were not in
the scope of this study.
3.2 Functional Unit and system boundaries
Raw
Materials
Extraction
Phase
The functional unit used was 1 kg of brick ready to be sold (for a brick 11 (dimensions
30*20*09 cm), 1000 kg is equivalent to 14,6 m2).
The phases included in the system are the extraction of raw materials, brick production and
distribution of the final product to customers (scenario 100 km).
A cut-off rule was established in order to decide which materials associated to these phases
should be included within the boundaries. Thus, the materials that represented less than 0.5% of
the functional unit were left outside the boundaries.
The phases corresponding to consumer use and final disposal of the product were also excluded, as well as transport and final disposal of industrial waste. The construction phases of
the plant and remaining infrastructure, production of manufacturing equipment, personal activities were also excluded.
The figure 1 represents the life cycle phases and system boundaries of the Portuguese brick
material under study (the dashed boxes were not included in the study).
Natural Resources
Energy
Brick Production
Production Phase
INPUT
Clay Extraction
Additives and Auxiliaries
Manufacturing
Earths Grinding and Mixing
Extrusion
Drying
Firing in Tunnel Kiln
Handing and Sorting
OUTPUT
Waste
Emissions to Air
Waste Water
Soil Contamination
Packaging and Storage
End of Life
Phase
Use Phase
Maintenance and Services
Transportation to the Customers
Leaching
Landfill, Recycling, etc.
Figure 1. The life cycle phases and system boundaries of the brick material
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3.3 Quality of the data
Data for the brick production process refer to the year 2008 and were collected by the Technological Center of Ceramic and Glass (CTCV) from industrial companies located in central Portugal. Data from literature sources and from the database "ecoinvent” were used for the remaining processes included in the boundaries.
The "cut-off rules" were also used for the processes and activities that don’t contribute more
than 0.5% for the environmental impact.
3.4 Inventory analysis
The parameters used to describe the environmental burdens of the processes were divided into
inputs and outputs.
Inputs include materials/products, chemical substances and preparations, fuels, resources
(used as raw material or energy) and electricity.
The outputs include materials/products, energy, air emissions, waste water emissions and
waste.
The processes, inputs and outputs had been modelled with the SimaPro software application
following the guidelines set out in the ISO 14040 and ISO 21930 standards.
The environmental burdens during the stages (extraction, manufacturing and transport) vary
depending on the type of material production, and are generally distributed as shown in Table 2
and 3, which present respectively the inputs and the outputs for the production of 1 kg of brick.
Table 2. Primary LCI data in terms of inputs (data for the functional unit: 1 kg of brick)
Units
Inputs
Clays
Water (well)
Domestic water
Electricity
Natural gas
Diesel
Lubricating oils
Packing film
EUR pallet
Steel castings
Product transport
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1.22
9.55E-05
2.25E-06
3.38E-02
1.10
2.14E-02
2.92E-06
1.14E-04
1.61E-05
9.55E-06
100
kg
m3
m3
kWh
MJ
MJ
kg
kg
p
kg
km
Chapter 5: Monitoring and evaluation
Table 3. Primary LCI data in terms of outputs (data for the functional unit: 1 kg of brick)..
Units
Outputs
CO
5.71E-04
kg
CO2
6.50E-02
kg
NO
4.35E-05
kg
SO2
3.56E-05
kg
F
7.67E-07
kg
As
1.55E-08
kg
Cd
7.51E-09
kg
Cr
2.55E-08
kg
Cu
4.21E-10
kg
Hg
3.75E-09
kg
Ni
3.60E-08
kg
Pb
7.50E-08
kg
Zn
1.44E-08
kg
HCl
7.49E-07
kg
kg
PM10
1.93E-05
kg
NMVOC
1.97E-05
kg
CQO
5.31E-09
kg
SST
1.81E-08
kg
Oils
1.38E-09
The full inventory also includes the transport of the final product – brick to consumer consider a scenario of 100 km.
3.5 Life cycle impact assessment
Environmental indicators were obtained for the impact categories shown in Table 4, together
with the indicator that quantifies them. The impact categories correspond to the proposals of
the EPD (www.environdec.com) and the characterization factors were those suggested by CML
method [www.cml.leiden.edu].
Table 4. Impact categories and units considered in the study (data for the functional unit: 1 kg, including
100 km distribution to the customer)
Impact category
Global warming (GWP100)
Ozone layer depletion (ODP)
Photochemical oxidation
Acidification
Eutrophication
Unit
kg CO2 eq
kg CFC-11 eq
kg C2H4
kg SO2 eq
kg PO4--- eq
Total
1.41E-01
1.67E-08
7.50E-05
5.44E-04
7.24E-05
3.6 Interpretation
In the category global warming, the main contribution comes from the production phase namely
the burning of natural gas in the stage of drying and firing. Transport and the clay mine process
are less relevant.
In the category of the ozone layer depletion, the profile of contributions seem to be mainly
due to the emissions from the combustion of diesel in the transports associated to clay consumption, brick storage and brick distribution.
The category photochemical oxidation is predominated by drying and firing processes in
brick production that emit nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), carbon oxides (COx)
and hydrocarbons during the combustion of natural gas and also by combustion of diesel in the
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transport. The emissions of SOx given off during the production of the electrical power used by
the machinery in brick production play also an important role for this impact category.
Acidification is mainly due to NOx and SO2 emitted during the drying and firing of the ceramic brick and in the combustion of fuels in transports.
Eutrophication is mainly due to NOx emitted during the combustion of the natural gas used
in drying and firing of the ceramic brick and in the combustion of fuels in transports.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This LCA study reports inventory data and impact assessment associated with the manufacture
of ceramic bricks from cradle to gate, including ceramic brick distribution. (with a scenario of
100 km).
Many of the impacts of the brick manufacture are associated to the air emissions in the production stage.
The reduction of mass and the temperature of firing of ceramic bricks, using specific clays
and organic mass additives, is one possibility to reduce the environmental impacts and improve
the sustainability of the ceramic bricks.
The building construction industry will be, in the next future, focused on the Environmental
Product Declaration (ISO 14025) for the different materials used in building. This is the case
of the Portuguese Ceramic Industry Association, promoting decisions based in the life cycle of
products, in order to build more environmental friendly constructions.
5 ACKNOWELEGEMENTS
The authors which to tank to APICER and QREN (National Strategic Reference Framework)
for the financial support.
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Coimbra,
Almeida, M.; Machado, S., 2009, “Novos Critérios Propostos para atribuição do Rótulo Ecológico a
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