Life-Cycle Assessment of Alkali-Activated Materials Incorporating Industrial Byproducts
Date
2021-05-05
Authors
Faridmehr, Iman
Nehdi, Moncef
Nikoo, Mehdi
Huseien, Ghasan Fahim
Ozbakkaloglu, Togay
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Abstract
Eco-friendly and sustainable materials that are cost-effective, while having a reduced carbon footprint and energy consumption, are in great demand by the construction industry worldwide. Accordingly, alkali-activated materials (AAM) composed primarily of industrial byproducts have emerged as more desirable alternatives to ordinary Portland cement (OPC)-based concrete. Hence, this study investigates the cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment (LCA) of ternary blended alkali-activated mortars made with industrial byproducts. Moreover, the embodied energy (EE), which represents an important parameter in cradle-to-gate life-cycle analysis, was investigated for 42 AAM mixtures. The boundary of the cradle-to-gate system was extended to include the mechanical and durability properties of AAMs on the basis of performance criteria. Using the experimental test database thus developed, an optimized artificial neural network (ANN) combined with the cuckoo optimization algorithm (COA) was developed to estimate the CO2 emissions and EE of AAMs. Considering the lack of systematic research on the cradle-to-gate LCA of AAMs in the literature, the results of this research provide new insights into the assessment of the environmental impact of AAM made with industrial byproducts. The final weight and bias values of the AAN model can be used to design AAM mixtures with targeted mechanical properties and CO2 emission considering desired amounts of industrial byproduct utilization in the mixture.
Description
Keywords
sustainability, life cycle inventory, CO2, emissions, embodied energy, artificial neural network, industrial byproduct, Ingram School of Engineering
Citation
Faridmehr, I., Nehdi, M. L., Nikoo, M., Huseien, G. F., & Ozbakkaloglu, T. (2021). Life-cycle assessment of alkali-activated materials incorporating industrial byproducts. Materials, 14(9), 2401.
Rights
Rights Holder
© 2021 The Authors.
Rights License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.