Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Hot Asphalt Pavements (Case Study: Energy Consumptions and Global Warming Potential)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Profesor, School of Civil Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, I. R. Iran.

2 MSc. Student, School of Civil Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, I. R. Iran.

Abstract

Roads and transportation infrastructures are national assets that play important role in the development of social welfare. During the construction process, maintenance and the whole life cycle of pavements, huge amounts of natural materials, fossil fuels and electricity are consumed to generate energy, which have deteriorating effects on the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to use management tools and methods to manage the use of natural resources, energy consumption and the effects on the environment in an optimal manner. In this respect, this study uses the life cycle assessment as a tool for quantifying and measuring energy consumptions and global warming potentials at some stages of the life cycle of asphalt pavements. This assessment was applied on four stages of pavement life-cycle, including mining and production of raw materials, hot mix asphalt production, transportation of materials and pavement execution, considering separately the electricity and fuel consumption, and Iran’s electricity situation. Energy consumption and production of greenhouse gases at each stage were calculated based on the collected data and previous studies. Results of this study showed that the hot mix asphalt production stage in the asphalt factory has major effect on the environment with a share of 48% in global warming potential. Also, results of the sensitivity analysis on transport distances showed that variations of materials-transport distance can have an important role in the life cycle assessment results.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Transportation Infrastructure Engineering
Volume 3, Issue 2 - Serial Number 10
September 2017
Pages 59-72

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 June 2017
  • Revise Date: 26 August 2017
  • Accept Date: 10 September 2017

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