C02-emissions during the life cycle of apartments and office buildings-effects of precast concrete elements

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School of Engineering | Master's thesis
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Date

2010

Department

Rakenne- ja rakennustuotantotekniikan laitos

Major/Subject

Kiinteistöoppi

Mcode

Maa-20

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

(7) + 66 s. + liitt.

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Abstract

The aim of this Master thesis was to develop a systematic and transparent spreadsheet based model to calculate the total amount of energy consumption and CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions during the life cycle of office and apartment buildings. The main interest was on the life cycle CO<sub>2</sub>-emissions of prefabricated concrete elements of a building, but for comparison the total CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions of the building's life cycle emissions are estimated. The life cycle of a building was divided into four phases: construction, use, maintenance and demolition. The construction phase included prefabricated concrete elements, other building components and construction site. The CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions were estimated to be largest during the use phase. In the office building the share of the use phase was 84% and in the apartment building it was 88 %. The second biggest CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions occurred in the construction phase. In the office building the construction phase accounted for 12,1 % of the life cycle emissions in total and the prefabricated concrete elements for 2,9 %. In the apartment building the share of the construction phase was 9,4% in total and prefabricated elements share was 4,1 %. The calculations of the CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions of office building were also tested against the sensitivity to changes in different assumptions. Two kinds of sensitivity evaluations were made, one for the whole building and one for the manufacturing of the prefabricated concrete elements. The calculations of the environmental burden for the whole building were most sensitive to changes in the electricity consumption and consumption of heating energy. In the manufacturing phase the most sensitive factors were the consumption of cement and steel. The transportation of the concrete elements to the construction site also had effect on the environmental burden. A scenario for the year 2020 is also presented. In the scenario it was assumed that the heating energy consumption of the building will decrease significantly and the CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions of both heating energy and electricity will become significantly smaller. Some improvement will also take place in the manufacturing of the precast concrete elements. The result of Scenario2020 indicates that in the future the relative share of the CO<sub>2</sub> -emissions of both the construction phase and maintenance will increase and the share of use phase will decrease.

Description

Supervisor

Junnila, Seppo

Thesis advisor

Punkki, Jouni

Keywords

CO<sub>2</sub>, energy consumption, life cycle, prefabricated concrete elements

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2020122356757

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