Sustainable Practices of Aggregate Production in the U.S. Using a Life-Cycle Inventory Assessment Approach

摘要

Despite the fact that aggregates are used in all pavement applications and other branches of construction, only limited life-cycle inventory database compatible with ISO 14040:2006 guidelines exist for the aggregate industry. This paper introduces a life-cycle inventory assessment approach that can be used in the environmental assessment of mineral aggregates production processes. Such an approach requires building a more reliable and representative inventory database in the U.S. As a preliminary screening to assess the present status of the crushed aggregate production, a case study is presented to calculate energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from aggregate production and compared to other sectors included in the mineral industry. An initial screening type case study was also conducted using a generic inventory database (energy and greenhouse gases) reported in the literature. According to the results obtained from the screening LCA, crushed aggregate production contributes approximately 2.3 million metric tons CO2-equivalent, merely 2.15% of the mineral industry.