LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF CONCRETES: SAND REPLACEMENT WITH BYPRODUCTS FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES

Back to Page Authors: Svetlana Pushkar

---

Keywords: byproduct, sand replacement, LCA, ANOVA

---

Abstract: Life cycle assessments (LCAs) were conducted to evaluate three “byproducts”, namely, granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), quarry dust powder (QDP), and fly ash (FA) to replace sand in concrete production. The LCA of the production stage only was considered. The sand replacements were as follows: 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100% for each of the byproducts. The hierarchical ReCiPe method was applied to evaluate the environmental damage of the sand replacements. The ReCiPe results were statistically analyzed using a two-stage, nested, mixed ANOVA test. As a result, sand replacements with GBFS were found to be environmentally harmful, with QDP characterized as environmentally beneficial, and with FA determined to be partly environmentally beneficial to concrete production. It was concluded that in addition to evaluating the benefit of incorporating byproducts instead of sand for improving fresh and hard concrete properties, the environmental damage should also be considered.

---