En analys av CO2e-utsläpp vid tillverkning och transport av prefabricerade betongelement

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The global concrete consumption amounts to 25 gigatons annually, making it the most widely used building material (Petek Gursel, et al. 2014). The continued increasing world population in connection with urbanization will lead to a greater demand for cement. The problem with the increased manufacturing process of cement is that carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 will account for 10-15 % of global CO2 emissions, compared with the values measured in 2016, which only reached 5-8 % (Habert & Ouellet-Plamondon, 2016). The aim of the thesis is to analyse stages in the manufacturing process of prefabricated concrete from an environmental point of view with consideration to CO2 emissions. This will later result in providing concrete improvement measures or alternatively only provide useful knowledge for the concrete industry’s future. The stages that will be analysed are transport, concrete, rebar (reinforcement) and cellular plastic production. Method: The methods chosen for the implementation of the thesis were Literature Studies and Interviews. The purpose of the literature study was to educate the authors on the subject and collect various results from current research. The interviews contributed to the necessary information to be able to carry out the analyses at work. Findings: The thesis has resulted in a total amount of CO2eq emissions in four different stages in the concrete manufacturing process. Cement proved to be the biggest contributing factor to CO2eq emissions. There are several different measures to reduce CO2eq emissions in the concrete manufacturing process. The measures discussed the most frequently concern the cement production, which is favourable for the concrete production as a whole. The discussion also highlights measures taken in action at a concrete factory level. Implications: This study shows that cement accounts for the majority of the total CO2 emissions for concrete production. Therefore, much focus placed on improving the cement production with consideration to CO2 emissions is necessary. This does not mean that less focus should aim on research for green transport, insulation production and steelmaking. All productions stages have potential for improvement. Hence, it is important to continue the research to reduce the total CO2 emissions in the production of prefabricated concrete elements. Limitations: The study was limited to the manufacturing process of prefabricated concrete. A specific project HUS F was analysed for CO2 emissions in four production stages; concrete, reinforcement, insulation materials and transport.