COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF MASONRY SYSTEMS WITH DIFFERENT CHEMICALLY CURED CONSTRUCTION BLOCKS

The construction sector is responsible for the one third of the pollutants emitted worldwide. The building activity absorbs approximately 40% of the worldwide inorganic materials consumption, 25% of the worldwide timber consumption and 16% of the worldwide water consumption. Furthermore, construction industries such as cement industry, steelworks, ceramics as well as industries of sealants and insulating material, consume large energy amounts for their production processes. Masonries, specifically, constitute a large part of a building construction, along with the materials that compose them. Aim of this paper is the comparative environmental impact analysis of three masonries of different block types, through a lifecycle perspective. The three systems under study are: i) Masonry consisting of vertical hole bricks, ii) Masonry consisting of horizontal holes bricks, and iii) Masonry consisting of blocks of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC). Overall, the results of this study show that the use of AAC blocks present significantly less environmental impacts than the traditional clay bricks, both in midpoint and endpoint analysis. In the crucial category of climate change, AAC blocks present reduced impact of up to 44%. Finally, a comparison with relevant studies was performed, in an at-tempt to provide additional validity to the results of this study.