Estimating net changes in life-cycle emissions from adoption of emerging civil infrastructure technologies.
There is a net emissions change when adopting new materials for use in civil infrastructure design. To evaluate the total net emissions change, one must consider changes in manufacture and associated life-cycle emissions, as well as changes in the quantity of material required. In addition, in principle one should also consider any differences in costs of the two designs because cost savings can be applied to other economic activities with associated environmental impacts. In this paper, a method is presented that combines these considerations to permit an evaluation of the net change in emissions when considering the adoption of emerging technologies/materials for civil infrastructure. The method factors in data on differences between a standard and new material for civil infrastructure, material requirements as specified in designs using both materials, and price information. The life-cycle assessment approach known as economic input-output life-cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) is utilized. A brief background on EIO-LCA is provided because its use is central to the method. The methodology is demonstrated with analysis of a switch from carbon steel to high-performance steel in military bridge design. The results are compared with a simplistic analysis that accounts for the weight reduction afforded by use of the high-performance steel but assuming no differences in manufacture.
Amponsah
Isaac
I
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA.
Harrison
Kenneth W
KW
Rizos
Dimitris C
DC
Ziehl
Paul H
PH
D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D003252:Construction Materials / Q000032:analysis / Q000191:economics; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D018803:Models, Economic; D017150:Public Sector; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013232:Steel / Q000737:chemistry*; D013672:Technology / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D014186:Transportation
D013232:Steel; D002244:Carbon