TY - JOUR

T1 - An evaluation of the environmental impact and energy efficiency of producing geopolymer mortar with plastic aggregates

AU - Lazorenko, Georgy

AU - Kravchenko, Ekaterina

AU - Kasprzhitskii, Anton

AU - Fini, Elham H.

N1 - This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (No. 19-79-10266, https://rscf.ru/project/19-79-10266/).

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - The imperative to mitigate carbon emissions and seek sustainable alternatives to cementitious materials has driven the advancement of geopolymer binders, which are inorganic binders of aluminosilicate industrial-waste materials activated by alkaline agents. The use of geopolymers carries the potential for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emission. Furthermore, the incorporation of plastic waste as aggregates addresses not only resource conservation but also environmental sustainability. This study conducted a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of the use of geopolymers from fly ash as a precursor with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste as a substitute for natural aggregates. It was observed that when replacing natural aggregates with PET waste to the maximum extent, the global warming potential (GWP) in the category of emissions related to aggregate preparation increased by 16.7 %. This increase was attributed to significant emissions generated during PET processing, including activities such as washing and grinding. The total GWP to produce one cubic meter of geopolymer mixture was 643.55 kgCO2-e without PET aggregates and 667.86 kgCO2-e with maximum use of PET aggregates. The optimization of energy-intensive PET preparation processes led to a remarkable reduction of 19.63 % for production of geopolymer mixture with maximum use of PET aggregates. These findings show the potential for improved sustainability in the production of geopolymer mixtures and emphasize the critical role of optimizing the production processes in mitigating their environmental impact.

AB - The imperative to mitigate carbon emissions and seek sustainable alternatives to cementitious materials has driven the advancement of geopolymer binders, which are inorganic binders of aluminosilicate industrial-waste materials activated by alkaline agents. The use of geopolymers carries the potential for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emission. Furthermore, the incorporation of plastic waste as aggregates addresses not only resource conservation but also environmental sustainability. This study conducted a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of the use of geopolymers from fly ash as a precursor with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste as a substitute for natural aggregates. It was observed that when replacing natural aggregates with PET waste to the maximum extent, the global warming potential (GWP) in the category of emissions related to aggregate preparation increased by 16.7 %. This increase was attributed to significant emissions generated during PET processing, including activities such as washing and grinding. The total GWP to produce one cubic meter of geopolymer mixture was 643.55 kgCO2-e without PET aggregates and 667.86 kgCO2-e with maximum use of PET aggregates. The optimization of energy-intensive PET preparation processes led to a remarkable reduction of 19.63 % for production of geopolymer mixture with maximum use of PET aggregates. These findings show the potential for improved sustainability in the production of geopolymer mixtures and emphasize the critical role of optimizing the production processes in mitigating their environmental impact.

KW - Carbon emissions

KW - Environmental impact

KW - Global warming potential

KW - Plastic waste

KW - Polyethylene terephthalate

KW - Environmental impact

KW - Polyethylene terephthalate

KW - Plastic waste

KW - Carbon emissions

KW - Global warming potential

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/cfe294eb-3c7c-38f4-ae68-790f848001a2/

U2 - 10.1016/j.rcradv.2024.200216

DO - 10.1016/j.rcradv.2024.200216

M3 - Article

VL - 22

JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling Advances

JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling Advances

SN - 2667-3789

M1 - 200216

ER -