Sustainability and recyclability of composite materials for railway turnout systems

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:285

Article

Kaewunruen, Sakdirat²  Liao, Pengcheng^1,2 

[1] Chongqing Luneng Dev Grp Co LMD, 777 Luneng Xingcheng,Yulu Ave, Chongqing 400000, Peoples R China

[2] Univ Birmingham, Sch Engn, Dept Civil Engn, Lab Track Engn & Operat Future Uncertainties TOFU, Birmingham B15 2TT, W Midlands, England

关键词: (Fibre-reinforced foamed urethane) FFU;    Recyclability;    Recoverability;    Life-cycle;    Railway turnouts;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124890

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

To minimize the maintenance frequency as well as the environmental impact caused by the growing number of railway materials reaching the end of their lives, appropriate sustainable management is inevitable prior to either turning them into wastes or leaving them in landfill sites. This paper presents the recent developments of Fibre-reinforced Foamed Urethane (FFU) sleepers installed in the railway turnouts. It determines the recycling and recovering processes of this infrastructure system. The results of recyclability (R-cyc) and recoverability (R-cov) rates for the railway turnout system are subject to assumptions associated with data which are taken from relevant sources (e.g. UNIFE). The result presents a value of 92.23% and 93.50%, respectively. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that Mass Recovery Factor (MRF) has superior effect on R-cyc and R-cov values compared to Energy Recovery Factor (ERF). In addition, this study evaluates environmental life-cycle impacts based on the calculation of carbon emissions and energy consumption over 75 year's lifespan. Comparison of the life-cycle sensitivity for the whole railway turnout system is conducted between FFU sleepers and concrete sleepers. The results show that concrete sleeper emitted almost the same carbon emission as the FFU material, but with much more maintenance and replacement frequency over the mentioned lifespan. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free