Retrofit as a carbon sink: The carbon storage potentials of the EU housing stock

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:214

Article

Pittau, Francesco¹  Lumia, Gabriele²  Heeren, Niko³  Iannaccone, Giuliana²  Habert, Guillaume¹ 

[1] Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Inst Bau & Infrastrukturmanagement, Chair Sustainable Construct, Stefano Franscini Pl 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland

[2] Politecn Milan, Dept Architecture Built Environm & Construct Engn, Via G Ponzio 31, I-20133 Milan, Italy

[3] Yale Univ, Sch Forestry & Environm Studies, Ctr Ind Ecol, 380 Edward St, New Haven, CT 06511 USA

关键词: Building renovation;    Europe;    Biogenic materials;    Carbon capture and storage;    Dynamic LCA;    Geocluster;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.304

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

in the next decades, a large share of residential buildings in EU-28 is expected to be renovated to achieve the 2 degrees C target requested by the Paris Agreement by 2050. Bio-based materials used for increasing the thermal insulation and temporary store carbon in construction elements might be a valuable opportunity that can contribute to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon society. This article investigates the effect of massively storing carbon in bio-based construction products when used for the renovation of existing facades. Five alternative construction solutions were compared, three with a large amount of fast-growing biogenic material used as insulation, one with timber used for the frame and additional fibrewood as insulation, and the last one with synthetic insulation. A statistic-based Geocluster model was developed to predict the future material flow for building renovation in EU-28 and a dynamic life cycle assessment performed in order to verify the contribution of construction materials in reducing/increasing the carbon emissions over time. The results show that fast-growing biogenic materials have an increased potential to act as a carbon sink compared to timber. In particular, if straw is used as an insulation material, the capacity to store carbon from the atmosphere is effective in the short-term, which represents an important strategy towards the Paris climate Agreement goals. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free