| Abstract [eng] |
To study the environmental implications of Portland Cement, magnesia cement, and Portland Slag Cement, this research thesis compares their life-cycle assessments (LCAs), with an emphasis on climate change, human health, ecosystem quality, and resources. By taking into account its possible advantages, including CO2 capture, a lower calcination temperature, recyclability, and resistance to impurities, the study seeks to determine if magnesia cement is a sustainable alternative to ordinary Portland Cement. Software SimaPro 9.0 was used to perform a life cycle assessment based on ISO 14040:2007 and 14044:2007 standards. The study was divided into four key phases: determination of the goal and scope, analysis of the inventory, evaluation of the impact, and interpretation. The cradle-to-gate boundary condition was selected to look at the important manufacturing processes of each material. The functional unit of measurement was one tonne of cement. Scientific literature and the Ecoinvent database were used to gather data about the inputs and outputs of the various cement production processes. Four kinds of damage-oriented impacts were taken into account throughout the impact assessment process using IMPACT 2002+: human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources. A sensitivity analysis was performed which evaluated the validity of the hypothesis and estimated the impact of parameters on the life cycle assessment results. In comparison to Portland cement and Portland slag cement, magnesia cement has a lower environmental impact across all evaluated impact categories except the human health category, according to the results of the LCA. Notably, magnesia cement production has a 38.6% and 17.8% decrease in climate change impacts compared to Portland cement and Portland slag cement, respectively. In the human health category, magnesia cement has an impact that is about 22% lesser than the impact of Portland cement but about 36% more than Portland slag cement. In the ecosystem quality category, magnesia cement has an impact that is about 87% lesser than Portland cement and about 78% lesser than that of Portland slag cement. In the resources category, magnesia cement‘s impact is about 95% lower than the impact of Portland cement and about 89% lower than that of Portland slag cement. According to these findings, magnesia cement has the potential to foster sustainability in the cement industry by providing a viable alternative for lowering CO2 emissions and minimizing its environmental impacts. It is identified that the Abo Akademi process, which entails extracting magnesium from serpentinites and mineralizing CO2, may be a viable and affordable supply of magnesite. Magnesia cement production offers benefits in the area of climate change since it has a comparatively low carbon footprint. |
