Hassan, M (2010) Evaluation of the environmental and economic impacts of warm-mix asphalt using life-cycle assessment. International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 6(3), pp. 238-250. ISSN 1557-8771
Abstract
The use of warm-mix asphalt (WMA) has received considerable attention in recent years to reduce energy consumption and air emissions. Despite these promising benefits, the promotion of WMA based on a single factor such as reduced energy consumption or reduced emissions does not provide a complete evaluation of this technology and may omit critical environmental factors that should be considered in the decision-making process. The objective of this paper was to conduct a lifecycle assessment of WMA technology as compared with a conventional hot-mix asphalt mixture. To achieve this objective, a life-cycle inventory (LCI) that quantifies the energy, material inputs, and emission during aggregate extraction, asphalt binder production, and hot-mix asphalt production and placement, was developed. Based on this inventory, life-cycle impact assessment of WMA technology was conducted. Based on this analysis, it was determined that WMA provides a reduction of 24% on the air pollution impact of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) and a reduction of 18% on fossil fuel consumption. Overall, the use of WMA is estimated to provide a reduction of 15% on the environment impacts of HMA.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | life-cycle assessment; life-cycle inventory; sustainable construction; warm-mix asphalt |
| Index terms: | impact assessment, economic impact, environmental factor, consumption, air pollution, placement, sustainable construction, energy consumption, fossil fuel, lifecycle, inventory, promotion, decision-making process, aggregate |
| Subjects: | management, decision analysis, value management, project delivery, energy systems, sustainable construction, inventory management, financial analysis, climate science, materials science, consumer economics, environmental science |
| Topics: | Cost Management, Stakeholder Management, Human Resources, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Risk Management, Sustainability, Supply Chain Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here