To comply with the new net zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) target set by the United Kingdom government by 2050, different sectors including the industrial sector are required to take action to achieve this target. Improving the building envelope and production of clean energy on site are among the activities that should be considered by businesses to reduce their carbon emissions. This research analysis the current energy performance and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of an industrial building in Liverpool, UK utilizing the Integrated Environmental Solutions Virtual Environment (IESVE) software modeling. Then it has proposed some methods for improving the current performance and reduce the carbon footprint of the building. The results indicated that the installation of wall and floor insulation could decrease the energy usage and CO2 emissions of the building by about 56.39%. Additionally, the production of clean energy on site using solar photovoltaic (PV) panels could reduce the annual CO2 emissions by up to 16%. Furthermore, this research provided some figures about offsetting the rest of CO2 emissions using different international offsetting schemes to achieve carbon neutrality of the building.
Urbanization has led to the damage of infrastructure due to floods and water accumulation on roads and sidewalks. To address this problem, pervious concrete was designed to drain water smoothly. However, pervious concrete has certain drawbacks, such as brittleness and poor tensile strength. To overcome these shortcomings, it is reinforced with fiber. Polypropylene fibers are commonly used for this purpose. On the other hand, managing waste plastic is a major problem as it has a significant environmental impact and requires large areas for landfills. Waste rope fibers (WRF) are among these wastes. There have been very limited investigations on the use of WRF in pervious concrete. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of polypropylene (PP) fibers and waste rope fibers (WRF) on the mechanical and structural properties of pervious concrete. PP and WRF fibers were added in proportions of 0.25%, 0.5%, and 0.75% by volume of concrete. A range of tests (compressive strength, tensile strength, density, permeability, load-deflection behavior, and ductility) were conducted to evaluate the resulting concrete. The results indicated that although the permeability was decreased by adding fibers, the fibers significantly improved the mechanical and structural properties of pervious concrete. The highest values for compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and ultimate load were 83.4%, 72.4%, and 89.62% for PP fibers-based mixtures, while they were 49.9%, 41.9%, and 102.83% for mixtures made with WRF at an addition rate of 0.5% for both types of fibers. The results also demonstrated that the existence of fibers improved the ductility of the concrete, which means that WRF can be used successfully in producing eco-friendly pervious concrete with better performance than the control specimen.
The development in the construction sector and population growth requires an increase in the consumption of construction materials, mainly concrete. Cement is the binder in concrete, so increasing cement production will increase the energy consumed, as well as in the emission of carbon dioxide. This harmful effect of the environment led to the search for alternative materials for cement, as the waste or by-products of other industries is a promising solution in this case. Among these common materials are ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and cement kiln dust (CKD). This dataset describes the compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity of mortar consisted of high content of GGBS and CKD combinations as a partial substitute for cement (up to 80%) at the ages of 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 56, 90 and 550 days. This dataset can help the researchers to understand the behaviour of GGBS and CKD in high replacement levels for cement during early (1 day) and later ages (550 days). According to this understanding, the authors believe that the data available here can be used to produce more environmentally friendly mortar or concrete mixtures by significantly reducing the amount of cement used by replacing it with waste or by-products of other industries.
Carbon dioxide emissions and the consumption of natural resources related to the cement manufacturing have prompted the need to develop more sustainable and environmentally friendly types of concrete. Geopolymer concrete is considered eco-friendly concrete because it is free of cement. Otherwise, nanomaterials have been introduced into geopolymer concrete in previous works with the aim of improving its properties. However, very restricted studies have focused on the combined utilizing of nano-clay and nano-titanium in geopolymer concrete. Therefore, in the current research, geopolymer concrete was developed from industrial wastes (fly ash; FA) by using a novel mixture of different nanomaterials: nano-clay (NC) and nano-TiO2 (NT). Mixtures with constant water to FA (12 %), and different alkaline contents: (40 %, 45 %, and 50 %) by FA, were performed and divided into three groups. In the first group, only FA was used as a binder, meanwhile, a combination of (FA+NC) and (FA+NT) was used separately in group two (binary). In the third group, (FA+NC+NT) were mixed together (ternary). Several hardened tests have been investigated: compressive, tensile strengths and density. Also, microstructural characteristics were monitored using XRD and SEM tests. The findings revealed that the addition of nanomaterials obviously enhanced the density of the microstructure, reducing the pores of the produced geopolymer concrete. Moreover, the compressive strength was enhanced up to 38 % for NC, and 24 % for NT in the binary blends while the improvement reached 55 % in the ternary blends.
The continuous depletion of natural resources used in concrete require vital replacement materials to reduce the consumptions of the natural resources. Moreover, the growth in the population increases the construction of new houses to accommodate the population, which increases the demand concrete and other construction materials. The replacement of the existing building materials with the newly materials proceed from recycling the waste materials for example, flooring tiles, which is usually disposed of in landfills without any benefit in Iraq. Therefore, this study aims to recycle locally available floor tiles waste by using it as a total alternative to fine aggregate to enhance the sustainability by reducing the depletion of natural aggregates. Three types of waste tiles were used in this research, which are marble, granite, and porcelain. Four mortar mixtures were designed, casted and tested in the research. One control mixture made from natural sand aggregate and three mixtures in which the sand was fully replaced with each of marble, granite, and porcelain waste tiles with comparable grading as that for sand. The cement was partially replaced with a 10% silica fume (SF) in all mixtures. The flowability, mechanical and durability tests of mortar mixtures were investigated. The results indicated that the combination of porcelain waste tiles aggregates with 10% silica fume imparted superior performance compared to all other mixtures with improvements of 99% in the compressive strength, 53% in the flexural strength and 17% in the water absorption resistance.
The disposal of solid waste has become one of the critical issues facing governments due to its environmental impact due to the difficulty of its decomposition. Electric cable waste (ECW) is one of these wastes. Its production increased in Iraq over time due to the demolition and reconstruction of residential and commercial homes. Therefore, reusing it in other industries, such as concrete technology, is a promising solution. Limited studies have studied the utilization of these local wastes as a replacement for natural sand in the short and long term. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the properties of mortar incorporating recycled ECW as a partial replacement for sand. The fine aggregate (natural sand) was replaced by weight with ECW ranging from 0 to 25 % in the step of 5 %. Flow rate, as well as mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strengths, and density), were executed at 7, 28, and 360 days. It was found that the best performance was obtained at a replacement ratio of 5 % of ECW with mechanical strengths close to or slightly less than the reference sample and a 17 % reduction in density. However, regarding sustainability, it is possible to produce a lightweight structural mortar with a density lower than 1700 kg/m3 and a compressive strength of 36 MPa at 360 days when replacing the natural sand with 25 % ECW.
