Comparative Life-Cycle Assessment of Fast-Curing Methods for Dry-Mix and Wet-Mix Cement Pastes
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 8
Abstract
In the precast concrete industry, steam curing is commonly used to accelerate early-stage strength development. Recently, curing also claims to offer advantages, including mitigating the burden and anticipating fast curing for cementitious materials. However, to the best of our knowledge, the environmental impacts of these fast-curing methods, compared with standard curing methods, have not been critically justified yet. In this study, a comparative evaluation for both dry-mix and wet-mix cement pastes adopting different curing methods was performed by life-cycle assessment (LCA), which is a commonly used evaluation method for the sustainability of concrete. The environmental impacts of each group, including global warming potential (GWP), ecosystem quality potential (EQP), and human health potential (HHP), were quantified. According to the results, adopting both or steam curing could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20%–50% concerning the standard curing for both dry-mix and wet-mix cement pastes. Instead of purified gas, adopting flue gas for curing could further reduce GHG emissions by up to 80%. Comparing the GWP/strength ratio over the investigated times, the curing method exhibited the highest environmental benefits in the first 3 days of curing. Moreover, the use of renewable energy sources and flue gas carbonation will significantly reduce the environmental impact of and other GHG and add to the sustainability aspect by utilizing renewable resources and waste.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 52078202).
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 8 • August 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 7, 2021
Accepted: Oct 3, 2022
Published online: May 24, 2023
Published in print: Aug 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Oct 24, 2023
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