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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering

ISSN 2095-2201

ISSN 2095-221X(Online)

CN 10-1013/X

Postal Subscription Code 80-973

2018 Impact Factor: 3.883

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.    2016, Vol. 10 Issue (1) : 150-158    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-014-0684-7
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Carbon emission analysis of a residential building in China through life cycle assessment
Yin ZHANG1, Xuejing ZHENG1(), Huan ZHANG1, Gaofeng CHEN2, Xia WANG1
1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
2. China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing 100044, China
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Abstract

In this paper, a quantitative life cycle model for carbon emission accounting was developed based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) theory. A residential building in Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city (Tianjin, China) was selected as a sample, which had been constructed according to the concept of green environmental protection and sustainable development. In the scenario of this research, material production, construction, use and maintenance, and demolition phases were assessed by building carbon emission models. Results show that use and maintenance phase and material production phase are the most significant contributors to the life cycle carbon emissions of a building. We also analyzed some factor influences in LCA, including the thickness of the insulating layer and the length of building service life. The analysis suggest that thicker insulating layer does not necessarily produce less carbon emissions in the light of LCA, and if service life of a building increases, its carbon emissions during the whole life cycle will rise as well but its unit carbon emission will decrease inversely. Some advices on controlling carbon emissions from buildings are also provided.

Keywords life cycle assessment      carbon emission      factor influence analysis     
Corresponding Author(s): Xuejing ZHENG   
Online First Date: 21 March 2014    Issue Date: 03 December 2015
 Cite this article:   
Yin ZHANG,Xuejing ZHENG,Huan ZHANG, et al. Carbon emission analysis of a residential building in China through life cycle assessment[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2016, 10(1): 150-158.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-014-0684-7
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2016/V10/I1/150
Fig.1  System boundaries for life cycle carbon emission analysis
Fig.2  Contents of inventory analysis
Fig.3  Loads in design days: (a) cooling load in a summer design day; (b) heating load in a winter design day
phases of the life cycle total carbon emissions/t carbon emissions per m2/(t·m−2) carbon emissions per m2 per year/(kg·m−2·a−1)
material production 1528.2 0.34 6.9
construction 170.7 0.04 0.8
use and maintenance 4536.7 1.02 20.4
demolition 17.1 0.00 0.1
total 6252.7 1.40 28.1
Tab.1  Carbon emissions in various phases
Fig.4  Functional unit carbon emission with insulating layers of different thicknesses
Fig.5  Emission percentages with different insulating layers: (a) 100?mm XPS; (b) 410?mm XPS
Fig.6  Emission percentages with different service lives: (a) 60-year service life; (b) 70-year service life; (c) 80-year service life
Fig.7  Relationship between functional unit emission and building service life
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