| Title |
Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of a road-safety barrier produced using recycled tire rubber |
| ID_Doc |
25179 |
| Authors |
Monteiro, H; Ribeiro, I; Gonçalves, M; Iten, M; Caetano, NS |
| Title |
Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of a road-safety barrier produced using recycled tire rubber |
| Year |
2022 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.egyr.2022.01.038 |
| Abstract |
Increasing end-of-life material recovery and its application in new products is essential to reduce resource consumption. This paper assesses the cradle-to-gate life cycle energy and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of a new road safety barrier product to be installed around guardrails' poles. To analyze the potential life cycle benefit of incorporating recycled materials, a base case product A, produced with conventional virgin synthetic rubber and polypropylene (PP), was compared with two equivalent alternatives under study: B (using recycled end-of-life tire rubber granulate (TRG) and PP), and C (using TRG and recycled polypropylene). The results show that the incorporation of recycled TRG has a positive effect in primary energy and carbon emissions. Product B presents less 38% CO2 emissions and 47% non-renewable primary energy than product A. The combination of TRG and recycled polypropylene (C), presents even more benefits: less 69% CO2 and 86% nonrenewable primary energy than A. Supply chain processes and material production have much higher impacts than the product manufacturing (e.g. product molding only represents 5% of the primary energy of product A). To conclude, recycled materials incorporation should be strongly encouraged since it has a great potential to reduce current carbon emissions and primary energy of products. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. |
| Author Keywords |
Circular economy; LCA; Primary energy; Recycling; Secondary material; Tire rubber |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (CPCI-S) |
| EID |
WOS:000770811000040 |
| WoS Category |
Energy & Fuels |
| Research Area |
Energy & Fuels |
| PDF |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.01.038
|