Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for clay masonry units-case study: environmental product declaration (EPD) for clay blocks-production plant of clay blocks in Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses all phases of the life cycle of a construction product, takes into account the different impacts of these phases on the environment, evaluates, analyses and interprets the results. In life cycle assessment, the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardized way of quantifying the impact of a product or system on the environment. This study evaluates the environmental impact of 1 tone of clay blocks produced in production plant in Republic of Serbia and grouped by use of Product Category Rules (PCR). The aim of this study is to determine the life cycle stages of the clay blocks that affect significantly to environment. LCA analysis for clay blocks has been conducted with the One Click LCA software, developed by One Click LCA Ltd, Finland. All processes have been modelled based on the inventory data given in the £coinvent database (v3. 6). Based on the LCIA results in this study, product stage (modules A J-A3) contributes the most to the environmental impact. Taken as a whole, energy processes and raw material consumption dominate most impact categories.