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Literature Review of Life Cycle Assessment Applied to Green

Concretes
Lucas Rosse Caldas, Matheus Leoni Martins Nascimento, Divino Gabriel Lima Pinheiro and
Rosa Maria Sposto, University of Braslia, Department of Civil Engineering, Braslia, DF. e-mail:
lrc.ambiental@gmail.com,
leoni.matheus@gmail.com,
divino.pinheiro@ifg.edu.br
and
rmsposto@unb.br
Abstract: This paper aims to present a literature review of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied
to green concretes. It proposes to study the different green concretes studied in the world by the
means of LCA. Different studies were researched in the Brazilian post-graduate programs and
online Portal de Peridico da Capes platform by the specific keywords: LCA, life cycle, green
concretes, waste concrete, fibre concrete, fiber concrete and CO2 emissions. The data from
the papers was tabulated in an electronic spreadsheet, organized by: authors, year of publication,
journal, kind of green concrete (industrial by-products, i. e. steel slag, rice husk ash, fly ash, etc.,
recycled aggregates and fibers), the environmental categories analyzed (kind of LCA evaluated),
the scope and system boundary of studies, different kind of binders used, material properties
analyzed, and the software used. The results indicate that most of the studies have found that the
use of alternative and recycled materials is benecial in the concrete production industry. The
majority research is focused on the evaluation of concrete with industrial by-products, covering
the system boundary just from cradle to gate. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) was the
mainly environmental impact evaluated. From this literature review, it was observed that there is
a need for more LCA studies applied to green concretes, mainly in Brazil, and the studies need to
involve different kinds of fibers. The system boundary must be extended to the cradle to grave
or cradle to cradle, contemplating the use, maintenance and the end-of-life (specially reuse and
recycling scenarios) phases of concrete structures life cycle.
Keywords: LCA, green concretes, literature review.

1. Introduction
Concrete is responsible for enormous environmental impacts. Because of the great production of
this material, vast amounts of natural resources are needed. The main component of concrete is
cement and it is known that the production of cement releases great quantity of carbon dioxide
(CO2) into the atmosphere. Another impact is the large amounts of water required for the
production of concrete. Finally, the demolition and need of disposal of concrete pavements,
structures and etc. generate one more environmental burden (Meyer, 2009).
For these reasons it is necessary to develop new kinds of concretes, called green concretes.
Among the possible alternatives for the reduction of environmental impacts of conventional
concrete is a synergistic merging of the concrete and waste sector (Turk et al., 2015). Construction
and demolition waste (C&D) can be used for the substitution of raw materials (Van den Heede &
De Belle, 2012), by-products from industrial process like rice husk ash (RHA), fly ash, steel blastfurnace slag, etc. (Meyer, 2009), synthetic fibers, natural fibers like sisal fibers (Silva et al., 2010),
limestone powder and other types of waste.

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However, it is necessary to evaluate these new materials in terms of performance, quality,

economy, social and environmental aspects. In the existing literature there is a vast amount of
studies concerned about the performance and properties of new or alternative materials. On the
other hand, there are just few studies related to environmental aspects and ways to assessment
the real environmental benefits of these new materials.
In this context, according to Yin et al. (2016), the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an important
methodology to quantify and compare the environmental performance of alternative products, like
green concretes. It is the most comprehensive among the available tools and has been widely
adopted in construction and building sector (Cabeza et al., 2014). LCA evaluates all the resources
inputs, including energy, water and materials consumption, and environmental loadings, including
CO2 emissions, liquid and solid wastes of a product or a process (International Organization for
Standardization, 2006). The LCA process in ISO standard (ISO 14040 and ISO 14044) is divided
on four steps: the definition of goal and scope, the inventory analysis, the impact analysis and the
interpretation.
In Brazil, reasearches on alternative concretes related with LCA has been developed, specially,
in Instituto Alberto Luiz Coimbra de Ps-Graduao e Pesquisa de Engenharia (COPPE) of
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Different kinds of green concretes have been studied,
with C&D wastes, sewage waste, ashes from urban waste incineration, sugar cane ashes and
concrete with fibers; including natural fibers, like sisal, and synthetic, like Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
and basalt.
Van den Heede & De Belle (2012) presented a literature review about LCA, comparing traditional
concretes with green concretes. An important conclusion of this study is when comparing
different concrete compositions, the functional unit should incorporate differences in strength,
durability and service life, principally when boundaries involve a cradle to grave or cradle to cradle
scope. However the authors focus only in concretes with by-products as cement replacing
material, like blast-furnace and fly ash. Gursel et al. (2014) studied the strengths and weaknesses
of concrete life-cycle inventories (LCI) in different researches. This paper shows an important
research roadmap to improve the quality of future LCA research about cement and concrete.
So it is necessary to know what kind of green concretes have been studied in the world. In this
context, this paper aims to present a critical literature review of LCA applied to green concretes.
It proposes to study the different green concretes studied in Brazil and in the world by the means
of LCA. The scope of literature review was divided in wastes used in concrete like C&D and
Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) and fibers as an alternative to steel used in
reinforced concrete. It was also evaluated the methodology, scope, boundaries, softwares and
properties of green concretes in LCA studies.
2. Green Concretes
According to Scrivener & Kirkpatrick (2008), the urgency need to minimize the environmental
impacts of cementitious materials is, and will continue to be, a major driver for innovation. The
most commonly used SCMs, blast furnace slag, fly ash, limestone, and silica fume, are industrial
by-products that can be obtained in large and regular amounts, with a consistent composition.
Another material is the C&D waste. The use of by-products in concrete admixtures has three
principal benefits: economy of natural resources, it gives a target to the large amount of waste
generated in industries and it extends the life cycle of landfills.

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Fly ash is a pozzolan, which has some advantages compared with ordinary Portland cement
(OPC). First, the fly ash is a by-product of coal combustion, presents a lower heat hydration, the
concrete produced with fly ash can have better strength and durability properties than concrete
with OPC. Blast furnace slag is a by-product of the steel industry and contains cimentitious
properties. The silica fume (SF) is a by-product os semiconductor industry and can be produced
specifically for concrete industry. The SF can be used both as pozzolan and a filler material. C&D
waste can be incorporated in concrete, however, there are some disadvantages, like the presence
of contaminants in C&D waste, the large amount of fines found resulting in a larger water
absorption (Meyer, 2009).
3. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) and Life cycle CO 2
emissions (LCCO2A)
It has been observed that most of researches on LCA related with the construction sector were
worried about energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Life Cycle Energy assessment (LCEA) is
a simplified version of LCA which focus only on the evaluation of energy inputs for different phases
of the life cycle of a building, system and building materials. The system boundaries include the
energy use of the phases: construction, use and end-of-life. The Life Cycle CO2 Emissions
Assessment (LCCO2A) also is a simplified version of LCA, but the focus is the CO2 emissions
(Chau et al., 2015).
According to Cabeza et al. (2014), LCA, LCEA and LCCO2A have been applied in different areas
of the construction and building sector, like building materials, buildings (residential, office and
commercial), systems of buildings (walls, roofs, structures, etc.), infrastructure (bridges, roads,
etc.). So, it is an accepted methodology in scientific environment and it is expected that their
application will increase in future researches because of the growing of environmental concern in
the world.
LCA applied in conventional reinforced concrete structures could be verified in Tae et al. (2011)
and Lee et al. (2013). In the last years, it began to appear environmental evaluations using LCA,
LCEA and LCCO2A applied in green concretes, around the world. The developing of new
concretes that comes with the promise for sustainable development need to be confirmed, so, the
use of LCA and simplifications, it is an effective way to measure the real environmental benefits
(or maybe negative results) of this alternative materials.
Environmental assessment of green concretes with the LCA approach is very important. The
quantification of the environmental impacts comparing green and conventional concretes
production can be a good indicator of degree of the sustainability of structures. Knowing the long
service life of building and structures, approximately, more than 50 years, when concrete is put in
a structure, its impacts are locked in form many years (Gursel et al., 2014; Gursel et al., 2016).
The LCA applied in green concretes can study different scope and boundaries, involving from the
extraction of raw materials (aggregates), production of the binder and SCM used, concrete
manufacturing, construction, use, maintenance and end-of-life of structures. The end-of-life may
involve different scenarios, like reuse, recycling or landfilling and each of them will present different
environmental impacts and different ways to apply the methodology of LCA

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4. Methodology
Different studies were researched in the Brazilian post-graduate programs and online Brazilian
research platform, called Portal de Peridico da Capes. This platform provides, for free, several
papers published in international periodicals such as those related to ScienceDirect, Springer, etc.
The survey was conducted by the specific keywords: LCA, life cycle, green concretes, waste
concrete, fibre concrete, fiber concrete and CO2 emissions. The data from the papers was
tabulated in an electronic spreadsheet, organized by: authors, year of publication, journal, kind of
green concrete (industrial by-products, i. e. steel slag, rice husk ash, fly ash, etc., recycled
aggregates and fibres), the environmental categories analyzed, the scope and system boundary
of studies, different kind of binders used, material properties analyzed, and the software used.
The information collected was turned into graphics for the quantification.
5. Related Topics Green Concrete x LCA
LCA of green concretes is still a limited research field despite the expanding number of studies
in recent years. It was found in researches just few papers relating LCA and green concretes, a
total of 31 international papers and 1 Brazilian thesis, Silva (2015), who evaluated the
environmental impacts of sugar cane and rice husk ashes in concretes.
Figs. 1 and 2 present the number of studies found and the countries where the researchers belong,
respectively. It can be seen a trend of growth in publications after 2015. In Brazil, most of studies
related with LCA are focused in alternative cement as verified in Faibairn et al. (2012) and
Passuelo et al. (2014).

Figure 1 Quantification of kinds of green concretes evaluated. Source: Authors (2016).

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Figure 2 Countries where LCA and green concretes have been studied in international studies. Source:
Authors (2016).

Among the used articles, Australia was the country that had the largest number of researchers
(10). Followed by France (6), USA (5), Sweden (2) and Greece (2). South Korea, Portugal,
Malasya, Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain and Austria had just one researcher.
5.1 Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs), Wastes and Types of Binders Used in
Green Concretes
Fig. 3 shows the green concretes evaluated. The type of materials used were principally byproducts (73%), followed by C&D (14%), other kind of waste (8%), and fibers (5%).

Figure 3 Quantification of kinds of green concretes evaluated. Source: Authors (2016).

Related with the use of fibers in green concretes, it was observed that there are just few studies
where LCA were applied in these materials. And the fibers used are synthetic like steel,
polypropylene and textile. So there is a lack of studies that focused in evaluating the potential
environmental gains by the use of natural fibers, like vegetal fibers.
In Fig. 4 can be seen that Portland Cement was the most used type of binder (69% of the cases),
and alternative binders represented 31%.

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Figure 4 Type of binder used. Source: Authors (2016).

Some studies evaluated different kinds of binders, to substitute Portland cement. All of then
focused in the geopolymers with alkali-activators. Geopolymers are inorganic materials rich in
Silicon and Aluminium that react with alkaline activators to become a cementitious materials.
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) are usually used as alkaline activators
(Turner & Collins, 2013).
Habert et al. (2011) presented a literature review analyzing OPC and geopolymers concretes and
concluded that the production of most standard types of geopolymer concrete has a slightly lower
impact on global warming than OPC concrete. However, in the others environmental impacts, the
production of geopolymer concrete was higher. These impacts can be reduced with the use of fly
ashes or granulated blast furnace slags in concrete mixtures.
For the Geopolymers binders the production and treatment of alkali activators expenditure
significant energy and CO2 emissions (Turner & Collins; 2013). According to the same authors
different values, of reduction in CO2 emissions, have been found in literature, between concretes
with geopolymers compared to concretes with OPC. These values are about, 26, 45 and 80%.
These authors found a small difference, approximately 9%. The key factors that have led to the
differences include the expenditure of significant energy during the production of alkali activators
and the energy consumed due to elevated temperature curing.
A more recently study, Jamieson et al. (2015), evaluated a new class of geopolymer, namely
Bayer-derived geopolymers. This material uses concentrated sodium aluminate solutions, called
Bayer liquor, with fly ash and other aluminosilicates to form this geopolymer. The authors
concluded that this combination of industrial by-products can reduce the energy consumption of
Bayer-derived geopolymer.
So, there is a divergence of environmental values presented between conventional and
geopolymer concretes, probably because of different assumptions in scope and boundaries, as
also different technologies and energy resources. Finally, there is a need to study new class of
geopolymers, focusing on substitutes of alkali activators, making this material more competitive
than the OPC.
The effect of the use of other alternative binders in concretes can be studied in future researches,
like cement based on magnesium and sulfoaluminate cements.

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5.2 LCA Methodology, Scope and Boundaries

Among the types of LCA methodology used Fig. 5 show that LCCO2A was the main (representing
52%). LCA and LCEA represented 39% and 9%, respectively.

Figure 5 Kind of LCA used. Source: Authors (2016).

It was verified different impact assessment methods in LCA studies. Serres et al. (2016) used midpoint methods, like EPD, CML, EDIP and BEES, with the indicators: consumption of energetic
resources, abiotic depletion, water consumption, Global Warming Potential (GWP), acidification
potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), ozone layer depletion (OP) and photochemical
oxidation (PO). Randl et al. (2014) evaluated GWP, AP and EP environmental indicators. Knoeri
et al. (2013) evaluated two-end-point methods, the Ecoindicator 99 and Ecological Scarcity. So
each study used different methods and environmental indicator to evaluate the green concretes.
However, the environmental indicator that has been most used was GWP, related to LCCO2A
studies. The justification for this interest in CO2 emissions is the great importance of global
warming in most of countries and after the Conference of Parties (COP21), which took place in
2015, in Paris, it is expected that the number of LCCO2A studies increase in most of countries.
The Portland cement production, in most studies, was appointed as the principal contributor for
environmental impacts, principally the GWP, in the calcinations of calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
Most of the studies concluded that the mainly part related with GWP, CO2 emissions, and other
environmental impacts is due to the Portland cement content. So, with the decrease on cement
percentage in concretes mixtures, there is a gain of environmental performance. This conclusion
was already known, the difference, is that with the application of LCA or LCCO2A, it is possible to
quantify these potential gains, changing from qualitative to quantitative data and information.
Fine and coarse aggregates presented low participation in the environmental impacts in the most
of the studies. Although they have great mass participation, the impacts related with the extraction
and processing are very low. Admixtures and water in most of studies were not took into
consideration. In studies where admixtures were accounted, they showed a low participation in
environmental impacts, because of smaller quantities of admixtures in concrete, less than 1% by
mass of concrete. The concrete mixing and batching showed a very low participation in most of
the studies. The transport phase showed values ranging between low and average values, as a
result of the availability of raw materials and factories locations in different countries. Finally, the

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by-products showed low environmental impacts and these impacts are associated with the
treatment of by-products, like grinding and drying.
All the analyzed studies that compared the environmental impacts and concrete strength
concluded that the substitution of cement with by-products in concrete mixes reduced
environmental impacts, principally the GWP, without considerable reduction in compressive
strength. Some of them, like Gursel et al. (2016), also concluded an improvement in durability,
related with the reduction of chloride penetration in green concretes analyzed.
As can be seen in Fig. 6, the main system boundary studied was cradle to gate (67%). Used and
Maintenance and End-of life represented 18% and 15% of the studies, respectively.

Figure 6 Scope and boundaries evaluated. Source: Authors (2016).

It was observed that most of the studies, like Deventer el al. (2010), Yoshioka et al. (2013), Islam
et al. (2015), Gursel et al. (2016), Serres et al. (2016), Teixeira et al. (2016) and Yin et al. (2016)
focused in cradle to gate phases, acounting from extraction of raw materials, production of cement,
concrete prodcution in factories, transport to building site and some case the construction of
structures. Because of the specialty of transport distances in some studies they are estimated.
Other studies evaluated a cradle to gate (contemplating use, maintenance and end-of-life phases),
as verified in Collins (2010), Habert el al. (2013), Gursel et al. (2014), and Anastasiou et al. (2015).
An interesting study was done by Turk et al. (2015), who conducted a sensitivity analysis of the
impact of transport distances in different scenarios of end-of-life, and in some cases the recycling
scenario only pays off if the transport distances is not too long. So the end-of-life scenarios must
be evaluated in combination with these waste transport distances, to choose the lowest
environmental impact option. According with Wu et al. (2014), the end-of-life phase have a
considerable impact on the GWP in concrete structures, specially in recycle and reuse scenarios.
5.3 Software
In the world there are some LCA software. It can be cited GaBi, SimaPro, Umberto, openLCA,
BEES. GaBi, SimaPro and Umberto are the main tools used in Europe and Brazil (IBICT, 2015).
Fig. 7 shows the software used in the analyzed studies.

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Figure 7 LCA software used. Source: Authors (2016).

In the studies, 90% used SimaPro, and just 10% opted for GaBi. The SimaPro is developed by
Pre Consultants. Licenses range from business and educational licenses, existing standalone
versions and multi-user. The company frequently updates the software with updates including new
and existing databases as well as new features or bug fixes.
There are some justifications for the adoption of SimaPro (ILCD, 2015):

The Pre Consultants has an extensive network of partners globally, as service providers,
which include, for example, 2.-0 LCA Consultants (Denmark), the GreenDelta (Germany),
the ESU-services Ltd. (Switzerland) and LCA Brazil (Brazil).
It has considerable database, which include ecoinvent 3.0, Agri- Footprint 1.0, ELCD 3.0,
European Life Cycle Data and etc.
It presents several life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA), like ILCD 2011 midpoint, ReCiPe
(midpoint), ReCiPe (Endpoint), USEtox, IPCC 2007, CML IA, Traci 2, BEES, EDIP 2003,
Ecological scarcity 2006, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Ecological footprint, Eco-indicator 99,
Impact 2002+, EPS 2000 and several methods for calculate the water footprint.
Allows import and export EcoSpold 1 format.

A disadvantage that this software is not free.

5.4 Properties Evaluated in Green Concretes
It was studied two properties of concrete in hardness state, strength (62%) and durability (29%);
and one property in fresh concrete, workability (11%). The results are presented in Fig. 8.

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Figure 8 Evaluated green concrete properties. Source: Authors (2016).

These properties must be taken into consideration in functional unit of studies, to compare different
concretes but with similar properties. Gursel et al. (2014) defend that concrete properties should
be defined transparently for an equivalent, functional unit based comparison of concrete mixtures
analyzed in different studies.
The strength was evaluated by the compressive strength stress and elastic modulus. The
durability was evaluated by water absorption, chloride migration and chloride permeability. The
workability was evaluated in most studies by slump flow test. So it is important to do experimental
procedures to help the definition of the functional studies in LCA studies applied to green
concretes.
It would be interesting to define some of the required or recommended tests, related to concrete
properties, for each type of green concrete studied, results in a pattern to be followed in the studies
of green concrete and LCA.
6. Conclusions
The Literature Review of LCA applied to green concretes allowed some conclusions:

Among the used articles, Australia was the country that had the largest number of
researchers (10). Followed by France (6), USA (5), and others;
By-products were the most used SCMs (73%). Moreover, fibers and other kind of waste,
and C&D represented 14%, 8% and 5%, respectively;
Portland Cement represents the mainly type of binder used (69%), against 31% of
alternative binders (geopolymers with alkali-activators);
LCCO2A was the most used form to evaluate the environmental impacts, by GWP
potential, representing 52% of the researches. LCA and LCEA represented 39% and 9%,
respectively;
The main scope and system boundary studied was cradle to gate (67%). Use and
Maintenance (18%), and end-of-life (15%) were also evaluated;
SimaPro was the most used LCA software (90%). Some justifications are: the pre
consultants extensive network, the considerable database and others;
Some properties of green concretes were evaluated. In hardness state 62% used strength
and 27% durability. Just 11% used workability as the evaluation of fresh concrete;

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It was observed that there is a need for more LCA studies applied to green concretes, in
Brazil.

With conclusions some future needs can be considerer to improve the studies on LCA applied to
green concretes:

More studies about the use of fibers in reinforced concrete, specially natural fibers;
Evaluation of alternative binders in concretes, like cement based on magnesium and
sulfoaluminate cements;
Evaluation of alternatives SCMs, like sugar cane bagasse ash, municipal waste incinerator
ash;
Expanding the scope and boundaries of LCA studies, covering the use, maintenance and
end-of-life phases, principally reuse and recycling scenarios;
Special attention in the carbonation effect of CO2 sequestration from atmosphere and
durability of structures;
Defining some pattern to be followed in the studies of green concrete and LCA about the
properties of concrete;
Evaluation of environmental impacts of the application of green concretes in real
structures.

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