A GaBi and Ecolizer Life Cycle Assessment of Charcrete
| dc.contributor.author | Hahn, Heekyung Hope | |
| dc.contributor.chair | Elliott, John | en_US |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Heisel, Felix | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-04-05T18:36:44Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-04-05T18:36:44Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-08 | |
| dc.description | 68 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Concrete is one of the most ubiquitous materials used around the world. However, while its strength and versatility make it a useful material, concrete has many negative impacts on the environment due to its large carbon footprint, overuse, and raw material consumption. In order to address this problem, a more sustainable formulation of concrete was developed at Cornell University in 2016 known as “Charcrete” where biochar was incorporated into a Portland cement-based mortar. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the Charcrete’s sustainability by conducting a life cycle analysis using the GaBi Life Cycle Assessment software and Ecolizer software. We hypothesized that substituting fine aggregate and Portland Cement with biochar to create Charcrete would result in an overall more environmentally and socially sustainable alternative across all GaBi and Ecolizer impact indicators: Acidification Potential, Climate Change Potential, Eutrophication, Human Toxicity, Ozone Depletion Potential, Photochemical Ozone Formation Potential, Abiotic Resource Use, Respiratory Inorganics, and Water Scarcity. For the most part, Charcrete did outperform Portland cement concrete across all impact indicators except for water scarcity. However, Charcrete is not carbon neutral until around 60% of fine aggregate is replaced and is much greater than our initial assumption that a composition of only 13% Charcrete biochar was necessary for carbon neutrality. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.7298/nr1b-pk66 | |
| dc.identifier.other | Hahn_cornell_0058O_10401 | |
| dc.identifier.other | http://dissertations.umi.com/cornell:10401 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1813/114512 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.title | A GaBi and Ecolizer Life Cycle Assessment of Charcrete | en_US |
| dc.type | dissertation or thesis | en_US |
| dcterms.license | https://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810.2 | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Design and Environmental Analysis | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Cornell University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Master of Science | |
| thesis.degree.name | M.S., Design and Environmental Analysis |
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