Eco-friendly ceramic bricks: a comparative study of life cycle impact methods.

The growing need for natural resources for the production of inputs for construction, such as ceramic bricks, as well as the high rates of solid waste generation in the sector, makes construction an industrial segment with unfavorable environmental effects. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) emerges as a tool capable of assisting in the quantification and analysis of the impacts associated with construction materials, whether traditional or alternative. Thus, the goal of this paper is to assess the environmental impacts associated with the development of alternative building materials. To compare the conventional and the alternative bricks, both were evaluated according to the LCIA methods Ecoindicator 99, IMPACT 2002+, and ReCiPe 2016, in the midpoint and endpoint levels. The sensitivity analysis was carried out considering as an alternative input for the firing process, a mixture composed of wood and biomass originating from the Pennisetum purpureum. According to Ecoindicator 99 method, the categories respiratory organics, fossil fuels, and radiation stand out, which showed greater sensitivity in altering the input used in the firing process, reducing their impacts by 38.38%, 34.68%, and 31.81%, respectively, when comparing product III (ceramic brick incorporated with OSPW and submitted to the firing process with the mix of wood and Pennisetum purpureum) and product I (ceramic brick incorporated with OSPW and submitted to the traditional firing process). In addition, in the respiratory organics category, the IMPACT 2002+ method showed a reduction of approximately 43% of the impacts associated with product III, when compared to the product with the greatest impact in this category. In a global analysis of the results presented by the ReCiPe 2016 method, the product III had the lowest associated environmental impact when compared to the other evaluated systems.

Life cycle approach applied to the production of ceramic materials incorporated with ornamental stone wastes.

The use of the ornamental stone wastes, such as the originated from granite or marble, has been the subject of technological studies that evaluated its application in ceramic and cement materials; however, some complementary assessments, such as its life cycle assessment, are still not well explored in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this study was to discuss the main environmental impacts related to the manufacture of ceramic specimens, comparing conventional production versus the production of specimens incorporated with ornamental stone wastes. For this, the life cycle assessment was conducted in accordance with ISO 14.040 and 14.044. For this research, the ornamental stone wastes from the municipality of Cachoeiro do Itapemirim-ES and clay from the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes-RJ were used. The system was modeled, using the SimaPro 9.0 software and the Ecoinvent database 3.3, for the life cycle assessment of the ceramic specimens and the potentiality regarding the use of ornamental stone wastes in ceramic materials using alternative input energy for burning, contributing to the effectiveness of the solid wastes reuse by the ceramic industry. The evaluation identified that the ornamental stone wastes incorporated into the ceramic specimens had significant potential in reducing environmental impacts and that the alternative input energy in burning stage makes them even more relevant. The study points out as the main result, the reduction of 35.74% of the impacts related to the category of the emission of greenhouse gases, and scarcity of mineral resources, 14.83% reduction, when compared to specimens to conventional brick production and alternative brick production, which emphasizes that the ceramic materials with wastes contribute to the mitigation of impacts.