Comparative analysis of the life cycle of constructive structural materials in an aviary building

Abstract

The construction industry is flagged for causing severe impacts on the environment. Given this scenario, the challenge is to reduce the agents that cause environmental impacts. One way to achieving positive results is the replacement of traditional inputs, most of which, have a high impact on the environment, whether they are innovative or alternative building materials. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) allows a diagnosis on the production process of a product, by analyzing its entire production chain, from raw material extraction to disposal. The objective of this research was to compare the structural use impacts between aluminum and concrete in a poultry house. The method followed the recommendations of the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards. Besides that, the research consists of utilizing OpenLCA version 1.6.3 for the impact calculations and the Ecoinvent 3.3 as database. For the impact analysis, both methods, CML and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), were employed. Within the boundary of the study, which comprises the production of the material at the construction site, the results for aluminum evaluation inventory proved to have less impact then concrete’s. The use of primary energy spent during the production process with aluminum was also analyzed and, once again, its results showed less impact than concrete.