Name: RAFAEL SAAID MEYRELLES ALMEIDA
Publication date: 24/06/2024
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| GEORGIA SERAFIM ARAÚJO | Examinador Externo |
| GIUSILENE COSTA DE SOUZA PINHO | Examinador Externo |
| JOAO LUIZ CALMON NOGUEIRA DA GAMA | Presidente |
Summary: It is common knowledge that the construction industry is responsible for a significant portion of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. If the construction industry were a country, it would rank third among the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitters. The production of concrete, which is the second most used material in the world, is responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. The aim of this research is to present an alternative with superior environmental performance to conventional concrete (CC), considering that the construction sector is very influential in the economic area, generating employment and income for various workers of different levels of qualification. To obtain a detailed and quantified diagnosis of the environmental impacts generated by the production of concrete, it is necessary to use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is a holistic methodology that studies the environmental aspects and potential impacts, direct and indirect, throughout the life of a product. This study consists of conducting a comparative LCA between CC and Geopolymer Concretes (GC), which do not use cement in their composition, with their production in 5 concrete plants, located in the cities of Serra (ES), Porto Alegre (RS), Brasília (DF), Recife (PE) and Belém (PA). These cities were chosen to have a representation of all Brazilian regions: south, southeast, northeast, midwest and north. The GC demonstrated superior environmental performance to the CC in most of the evaluated scenarios, mainly in the category that deals with the global warming potential of each concrete mix, however it was observed that the distances of the raw materials strongly influence the result and, in some cases, make the production of the GC environmentally unfeasible when compared to the CC.
