Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA and Department of Construction Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA.
Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2021 Mar 4;23(2):275-290. doi: 10.1039/d0em00424c.
Steel-reinforced concrete is ubiquitously used in construction across the world. The United Nations estimates that the worldwide energy consumption of buildings accounts for 30-40% of global energy production, underlining the importance of the judicious selection of construction materials. Much effort has focused on the use of high-strength low-alloy steels in reinforcement bars whose economy of materials use is predicated upon improved yield strengths in comparison to low-carbon steels. While microalloying is known to allow for reduced steel consumption, a sustainability analysis in terms of embodied energy and CO2 has not thus far been performed. Here we calculate the impact of supplanting lower grade reinforcement bars with higher strength vanadium microalloyed steels on embodied energy and carbon footprint. We find that the increased strength of vanadium microalloyed steel translates into substantial material savings over mild steel, thereby reducing the total global fossil carbon footprint by as much as 0.385%. A more granular analysis pegs savings for China and the European Union at 1.01 and 0.19%, respectively, of their respective emissions. Our cradle-to-gate analysis provides an accounting of the role of microalloying in reducing the carbon footprint of the steel and construction industries and highlights the underappreciated role of alloying elements.
钢筋混凝土在世界范围内的建筑中被广泛使用。联合国估计，全球建筑能源消耗占全球能源生产的 30-40%，这凸显了明智选择建筑材料的重要性。人们已经投入了大量精力研究在钢筋中使用高强度低合金钢材，其材料使用的经济性是基于与低碳钢相比提高了屈服强度。虽然微合金化被认为可以减少钢铁消耗，但迄今为止尚未对其进行基于隐含能量和二氧化碳的可持续性分析。在这里，我们计算了用高强度含钒微合金钢材替代低等级钢筋对隐含能量和碳足迹的影响。我们发现，含钒微合金钢材的强度增加转化为与软钢相比大量的材料节省，从而使全球化石碳足迹减少了多达 0.385%。更详细的分析表明，中国和欧盟分别节省了其排放量的 1.01%和 0.19%。我们的摇篮到大门分析提供了微合金化在减少钢铁和建筑行业碳足迹方面的作用说明，并强调了合金元素被低估的作用。
