Life cycle assessment of a residential building : the habitech center | |
| Author | Paudel, Amnaya |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-17-12 |
| Subject(s) | Life cycle, Human--Social aspects Buildings--Energy consumption |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The building sector is currently responsible for up to 30 to 40% of energy consumption and 40 to 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To accommodate the growing population and their lifestyles, and at the same time reduce emissions, new buildings must be energy efficient and environment friendly. The life cycle analysis (LCA) of building can provide information about each processes and activities involved in a building’s life span, and energy consumption and environmental impact. This study aims to present the methodology, data, analysis and observations using LCA on interlocking type of bricks and Habitech building. The results of interlocking bricks were compared with the conventional clay fired brick, while that of Habitech house was compared with building made by Community Organization Development Institute (CODI) under same functional unit. Data was collected from Habitech Center and also referred from electronic database as well as literature. Cradle-to-gate approach was chosen. SimaPro 8.2 software was used to carry out the LCA study. For the energy consumption analysis, Cumulative Energy Demand method was chosen, while for environmental impact, ReCipe midpoint (H) and ReCipe endpoint (H) method was chosen. LCA of bricks was carried out and compared under same functional unit for a 1.5m2 wall. Life cycle energy consumption for Habitech stone dust brick wall, Habitech soil cement brick wall and clay brick wall are found to be 49, 53 and 2661 MJ. Climate change is the environmental indicator which has high impact, followed by fossil depletion and Human toxicity. Habitech interlocking bricks are more energy efficient and has lesser environmental impact than clay fired brick. Comparison among the Habitech interlocking bricks shows that stone dust interlocking brick is more energy efficient than soil cement interlocking brick as stone dust brick do not require usage of cement. LCA of Habitech house was carried out under the Cradle-to-grave approach. The total life cycle energy consumption for Habitech house was 3029 GJ, which mostly consists of operational energy usage (2820 GJ). Operational energy has 93% share of total life cycle energy consumption. The ReCipe midpoint method shows that climate change is the environmental indicator which is impacted the most (213,990 kg CO2eq) followed by Human toxicity (93,748 kg 1,4-DBeq) and Fossil depletion (58,754 kg oil eq). Furthermore, Habitech house is compared with CODI house under same functional unit, method and assumptions. Habitech house consumes 23 GJ/m2 of total life cycle energy, whereas CODI house consumes 19 GJ/m2. In terms of GHG emissions, Habitech house emits 1.81 tCO2eq/m2 whereas CODI house emits 1.52 tCO2eq/m2. The overall conclusion of this study indicates that Habitech interlocking brick is better than conventional fired clay brick in terms of energy consumption and environmental impact caused by bricks. In case of houses, Habitech house with its existing technology and design consumes more energy and emits more GHG emission in its life time compared to similar kind of CODI building under same functional unit. Habitech house can be improved further by updating its design and proper material selection. |
| Year | 2017 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Salam, Abdul P.;Bohez, Erik L. J.;Sthapit, Gyanendra R.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2017 |