Gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate) has excellent building material properties and has been widely used in constructions in the last decades in many countries. Accordingly, an increase of waste gypsum in C&D waste is expected in the upcoming years. On one hand, sulfates are unwanted in other secondary building materials (particularly in recycled concrete aggregates) and should be minimized for quality reasons. On the other hand, used gypsum from CDW can also be used in gypsum production if the high quality requirements for the recycled gypsum – especially regarding the sorting accuracy - are met.
A large percentage of the gypsum from buildings was installed as gypsum plasterboards in interior fittings so far. Gypsum plasterboards are comparatively simple to remove and to separate during selective dismantling. Therefore, a high sorting purity can be achieved. In addition, techniques for the recycling of gypsum plasterboards already exist and high quality standards can be achieved. Also, the reuse in gypsum production has been improved in the last decade. Furthermore, an environmental evaluation of the whole process of gypsum plasterboard recycling and reuse showed that this approach can be environmentally advantageous. Therefore, a closed-loop recycling of gypsum plasterboards is feasible.
This poster will show the development of gypsum consumption in different countries as well as a prognosis for the upcoming of gypsum in CDW in the future decades in Germany. Furthermore, a simplified scheme of the recycling process and selected results from an environmental evaluation will be presented.
The life span of a building product is a key Parameter when it comes to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performance. Nevertheless, many uncertainties affect this parameter due to a lack of long-term performance data. The sensitivity of the LCA outcomes to this parameter has been studied within the framework of the FP7 project H-House (Healthier Life with Eco-innovative Components for Housing Constructions) funded by the European Commission.
The paper Features two comparative studies conducted within the scope of this project: one for new construction and another for renovation. An innovative precast sandwich panel made of Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) and Foamed Concrete (FC), used for external walls in new construction, is compared with a steel reinforced concrete (SRC) wall of the same thermal resistance. For renovation, a novel halfsandwich panel made of Ultra-High-Performance-Concrete (UHPC) and Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) is compared with cladding having the same thermal performance. The Evaluation was conducted using a multi-criteria basis according to the LCA methodology (ISO 14040- 44). In each case, an identical life span for both scenarios leads to the fact that H-House components have a better environmental performance. The ISO 15686 and ist relevant parts have been considered for the estimation of the service life span. The sensitivity analysis shows the link between the impact savings of the innovative walls and the life span of the walls and their components. In particular, it was found that since both scenarios need to fulfil the same service during an identical reference period, and since some maintenance and replacement of materials are necessary over time for standard Solutions compared to the innovative ones, the chosen life span of the components plays a role of utmost importance. The sensitivity analysis discloses the effect of the assumptions on these aspects.
Selecting a welding process for a given application is crucial with respect to the sustainability of part manufacturing. Unfortunately, since welding processes are evaluated by a number of criteria, preferences for one or the other process can be contradictory. However, the prevalent procedure of weight assignment for each criterion is subjective and does not provide information about the entire solution space. From the perspective of a decision maker it is important to be able to assess the entire set of possible weightings and answer the question which welding process is optimal for which set of weights. This issue is investigated by means of a weight space partitioning approach. Two welding processes are considered with respect to three criteria that reflect their economic and environmental performance. In order to find the most sustainable welding process the underlying weight space partition is evaluated.
Various microlevel circular economy indicators for assessing sustainability and, partly, additional sustainability characteristics have been developed, but an integrated solution considering the environmental, social, and economic pillars remains a research gap. Method: Based on a multimethod approach, including surveys and the analysis of existing sustainability assessment methodologies and standards, this paper proposes a concept for a multidimensional circular economy indicator tailored to public procurers. It relies on attractive existing building blocks including: the ecological scarcity method, European and international sustainability standards and indicators,and the STAR-ProBio-IAT concept. Results: This article presents the concept of the composite indicator Triple-C, consisting of 20 elements and aimed at facilitating sustainable circular public procurement. It is intended to be incorporated into software that facilitates sustainable product decisions among public procurers in Germany. Conclusions: We propose a generic indicator concept covering all three (environmental, social, and economic) sustainability pillars. More research and additional standards are needed to develop the Triple-C concept further into product-specific applications.