Olsson Josefine A, Miller Sabbie A, Alexander Mark G
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 29;14(1):4574. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40302-0.
Growing urban populations and deteriorating infrastructure are driving unprecedented demands for concrete, a material for which there is no alternative that can meet its functional capacity. The production of concrete, more particularly the hydraulic cement that glues the material together, is one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While this is a well-studied source of emissions, the consequences of efficient structural design decisions on mitigating these emissions are not yet well known. Here, we show that a combination of manufacturing and engineering decisions have the potential to reduce over 76% of the GHG emissions from cement and concrete production, equivalent to 3.6 Gt CO-eq lower emissions in 2100. The studied methods similarly result in more efficient utilization of resources by lowering cement demand by up to 65%, leading to an expected reduction in all other environmental burdens. These findings show that the flexibility within current concrete design approaches can contribute to climate mitigation without requiring heavy capital investment in alternative manufacturing methods or alternative materials.
城市人口的增长和基础设施的恶化正推动着对混凝土前所未有的需求，混凝土是一种没有其他材料能替代其功能的材料。混凝土的生产，尤其是将材料粘结在一起的水硬性水泥的生产，是全球最大的温室气体（GHG）排放源之一。虽然这是一个经过充分研究的排放源，但高效结构设计决策对减少这些排放的影响尚不为人所知。在这里，我们表明，制造和工程决策的结合有可能减少水泥和混凝土生产中超过76%的温室气体排放，相当于到2100年减少36亿吨二氧化碳当量的排放。所研究的方法同样通过将水泥需求降低多达65%，从而更有效地利用资源，预计会减少所有其他环境负担。这些发现表明，当前混凝土设计方法的灵活性有助于缓解气候变化，而无需在替代制造方法或替代材料上进行大量资本投资。
