General principle of computation

Transcription

1 General principle of computation SAVE-CONSTRUCTION Steel Solutions & Environmental Values Website developed by CTICM, ConstruirAcier, and L Enveloppe Métallique du Bâtiment This document is intended for all users of the save-construction website. January /6

2 Introduction Save-construction is a website ( that enables the generation of customised environmental profiles for steel construction products and systems. It consists of multiple interfaces, each dedicated to a range of products or systems. Each interface enables the configuration of data related to the product (or system) being designed, in order to obtain an environmental profile tailored to your project parameters. After calculation, save-construction delivers the environmental profile, consisting of a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and an environmental impact table, in NF P format. This data can then be incorporated into building environmental performance software. Save-construction is an open system that can be expanded with additional interfaces to enable compilation of environmental profiles for new products and systems, possibly produced from complementary materials other than steel. This website is not intended to replace the INIES database ( but to enable wider utilisation of joint FDESs. 1) General principle for the computation of environmental profiles Environmental profiles generated by save-construction are closely related to the joint Environmental and Health Declarations (FDESs) incorporated in the INIES database. Indeed, the computation of a profile is based on an FDES s LCI table. This FDES is compiled for a specific product, which belongs to an identified range. This product is generally a typical product, representative of the remainder of the range. The save-construction interface relating to this range enables adaptation of the product s LCI to the other products in the range. The environmental impact table is determined from the data of this LCI. The functional unit established for the product remains the same for the other products in the range. Each FDES utilised by save-construction therefore has a corresponding: range of products: for each range, a catalogue lists the product codes available on save-construction, individual interface, enabling the configuration and production of an environmental profile by means of an appropriate computational formula. The computation rules have been designed with the assistance of an independent third party: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Each save-construction interface has a detailed methodological report. The tools provided on save-construction, based on the NF P standard, will transition to the European format, standard EN and its national annex, when these documents come into force. 2) Method for the computation of environmental profiles The FDESs utilised by save-construction are compiled on the basis of the entire life cycle of the product in question: from the cradle to the grave, in accordance with the five steps outlined in standard NF P The environmental impact results, taken from these FDESs, enable the following observations: the production phase inventory data can be obtained as approximated values using a bilinear expression whose coefficients are the mass of the steel products and of the installation accessories, the transportation phase inventory data is proportional to the product of the distance travelled times the mass of the product (product + installation accessories), the erection, service life and end-of-life phase inventory data is proportional to the mass of the product (product + installation accessories). January /6

3 In order to tailor the calculated environmental profile to your project parameters, it can be configured on the basis of: the linear mass density or mass per unit area of steel in the product, determined from the online product catalogue, where applicable, the mass of a second component of the product (insulation, concrete, timber, etc.), the mass of related accessories (screws, nails, coach-screws and studs ), the transportation distance from the manufacturing site to the construction site. By default, the life considered is the product s Reference Service Life (RSL) (50 or 100 years), taken from the corresponding joint FDES. It is not configurable. Negative flows, with very small absolute values, may be present in small numbers in the LCI issued by saveconstruction for the configured product. For simplicity, these negative values were set to 0 in the reference FDES relating to this product and published on INIES database. If the LCIs generated by save-construction are used to produce new FDESs, the (joint) declaration mode remains unchanged. 3) Input data sources and assumptions Production phase Modelling of the production phase takes into account: the production of the steel sub-product (source: World Steel Association), if considered, the production of steel assembly accessories used during the erection phase (source: World Steel Association), the production of other raw materials (sources: APME, PlasticEurope, DEAM - PwC environmental database, etc.), the transportation of sub-products and other raw materials to the processing plant (source: AFNOR booklet FD P ), the processing of the sub-products to obtain the finished product (sources: processing plants), the production of energy consumed in the processing plant (source: AFNOR booklet FD P ). The data provided by the World Steel Association relates to the entire European region. The iron, posted as an input in this data, is iron ore. A 70% iron content was considered to obtain the net iron. Sub-product processing data comes from a representative sample of industrialists involved (manufacturers and steel construction companies) operating in mainland France. Raw material transportation distances to processing plants are averages obtained by collection of data from plants processing the products concerned. The total primary energy is calculated using the following parameters: the Net Calorific Value (NCV) for fossil fuels and biomass, gravitational energy for hydropower (1.11 MJ of gravitational energy yields 1 MJ of turbine-generated electricity, source BUWAL 1 ), the "burn-up rate" for uranium ore ( g of enriched uranium equates to 1 MJ of electricity, source BUWAL). 1 BUWAL : Bundesamt für Umwelt, Wald und Landschaft (Swiss Federal Office of Environment, Forest and Landscape) January /6

4 The source documents used for the modelling of this phase are: Laboratorium fur Energiesysteme, ETH, Zurich, 1996, International Energy Agency (IEA), Electricity information These documents provide information regarding, in particular: the breakdown between electricity generation routes in France: - Coal: 4.08% - Oil: 1% - Natural gas: 3.8% - Nuclear: 76.48% - Renewable energy: 2.76% (geothermal, solar, biomass, industrial and municipal waste) - Hydro: 11.88% the distribution of natural gas in the European Union: - Algeria: 12.5% - Germany: 7.95% - Netherlands: 44.32% - Norway: 10.23% - Russia: 25% Transportation phase Representative of the transport sector in France, the transportation phase is determined in accordance with the instructions and requirements of AFNOR booklet FD P This phase models the transportation of the finished product from the processing plant to the construction site. The transportation data used is, as far as possible, data collected from industrialists or steel construction companies associated with the joint FDES. In the event of lack of information from a participant in this data collection, the following data was used: distance from the processing plant to the construction site: 500 km type of transport: lorry, actual vehicle load: 24,000 kg vehicle payload: 24,000 kg percentage of unladen return trips: 30%, nominal lorry fuel consumption: 0.38 L/km. The model for calculating the amount of diesel fuel consumed is derived from the following document: "Methodology for completion of the AIMCC environmental communication form", Chapter 11.1 Calculation of fuel consumption, March Modelling of this stage, based on standard NF P , takes into account the production and combustion of diesel for the transportation of the product from the processing plant to the construction site. The distance from the processing plant to the construction site varies by a factor of up to three depending on the product. Deployment phase Product erection data comes from a representative sample of industrialists involved (manufacturers or steel construction companies) operating in mainland France. Handling, lifting and product assembly operations are considered in this phase. If packaging waste is considered for product packaging, their end of life is taken into account in this phase. January /6

5 Service life phase This step takes into account maintenance operations (e.g. cleaning with fresh water) as necessary. End-of-life phase Modelling of the product s end-of-life phase includes: the "recycling and reuse" process: The vast majority of steel products are recovered at end of life. They are reintroduced at the beginning of production chain at the steel plant, to partially replace the raw material (ore): it is then referred to as secondary material. In accordance with NF P , these steel flows are accounted for under the stock method, which does not consider the impacts of outgoing material flows after the dismantling operation. Specifically, neither the impacts relating to the processing and transportation required for the creation of the secondary material, nor the savings achieved by virtue of the raw material saved, are considered. On the other hand, secondary material flows are recorded at the production stage. the "landfill" process: The remaining products are non-hazardous waste that is sent to landfill. The transportation distance considered from the dismantling site to the landfill site is 250 km. Transportation parameters employed in this phase (actual load, payload, lorry fuel consumption and percentage of unladen return trips) correspond to the default values defined in NF P The source of data for modelling the impacts of landfilling is appendix III of the decree of 9 September 1997, relating to household and related waste storage facilities, amended by the decrees of 31 December 2001 and 3 April End-of-life scenarios for product ranges are as follows: Products Steel windbracing Light-gauge steel beam Steel beam Portal frame constructed from steel welded plate section Steel hollow section Single-skin steel cladding Steel cladding liner tray Single-skin steel roofcovering Steel roof decking Steel composite action floor Permanent formwork for concrete Dry floor End-of-life scenarios Rate of recycling and reuse Rate of landfill 98% 2% 96% 4% Austenitic stainless steel standing seam roofcovering 80% 20% With regard to sandwich panels for cladding/ rockwool core roofcovering / polyurethane panels, the following rates have been used in order to consider the differences in recycling processes for the materials incorporated in these products: January /6

6 End-of-life scenarios Rate of recycling and reuse Rate of landfill Mass of steel 90% 10% Mass of insulation 37% 63% The end-of-life scenarios of steel construction products are described in the European Commission document "LCA for Steel Construction" ECSC Final report 7210 PR 116. The scenario for stainless steel roofcovering is described in the following document: Comparing the Sustainability of Architectural Metals, C. Houska and Dr. S. Young, 50th annual CSI Show and Convention, Las Vegas, 28 March - 1 April Omitted flows Standard NF P permits exclusion of the following flows from the system boundaries: lighting, heating and cleaning of workshops, the administrative department, employee transportation the manufacture of the production equipment and transportation systems (machines, lorries, etc). Monitoring and updating of source data Save-construction is subject to regular monitoring by its administrators for updating of source data when this is updated or revised. January /6