Analysis of environmental impacts of geopolymers: The future of construction materials

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) Abstract Concrete is the most widely used construction material in the world because of its excellent properties, availability, versatility, and price. However, despite of its good attributes concrete causes relevant environmental impacts due to the huge amount of it [1]. For environmental protection and sustainable development, in the last thirty years, many researchers have studied and investigated new eco-sustainable materials, such as geopolymers, as components of a new class of low-energy materials characterized by highly desirable chemical and mechanical properties [2]. The primary area of application of geopolymer technology is currently in the development of reduced-CO2 construction materials as an alternative to Portland-based (calcium silicate) cements. In this context, LCA represents the most common approach to assess potential environmental impacts, in fact it has recently been applied in a number of studies examining the life cycle impacts of OPC and concrete production. This paper focuses on the possible production of geopolymeric blocks because they are considered as a new family of eco-sustainable masonry unit because they widen the possibilities to recycle waste to useful products, especially building materials that can contribute to environmental and economic benefits [3]. In particular, the present work investigates the possibility of utilizing wastes from recycling construction and demolition treatment plant as raw materials in the industrial production of geopolymer paving blocks in South of Italy. Results of the LCA carried out in this study prove that energy consumption in the binder and concrete production processes it the major responsible for CO2 emissions, although the latter depends to a high degree on the national energy mixture, for which the producer is obviously not responsible