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Can timber lower the environmental impact of tall buildings?

Related publications (31)

Embodied Carbon Premium for Cantilevers

David Michael Volpe Ruggiero, Paola Costanza Miglietta

This study addresses the critical need for sustainable architectural designs within the context of climate change and the significant role the built environment plays in greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of this paper is on understanding the influence of ...

2024

Spatio-temporal patterns and drivers of CH4 and CO2 fluxes from rivers and lakes in highly urbanized areas

Alexandre Buttler

Gaseous carbon exchange at the water-air interface of rivers and lakes is an essential process for regional and global carbon cycle assessments. Many studies have shown that rivers surrounding urban landscapes can be hotspots for greenhouse gas (GHG) emiss ...

Elsevier2024

An explorative method to support design decisions based on carbon constraints and daylight sufficiency needs

Nazanin Rezaei Oghazi

The global construction industry contributes to 37% of carbon emissions associated to both building operations and construction. To help achieve the net-zero targets set by 2050, it is mandated to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. As we ...

EPFL2024

Methods to assess the carbon footprint of structures involving UHPFRC elements

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Antonina Hochuli

The development of Ultra-High Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) has enabled the design of lightweight constructions. Although the greenhouse gas emissions of UHPFRC per volume are higher than that of conventional concr ...

Kassel University Press2024

RE:SLAB — a load bearing system for open-ended component reuse in building structures

Dario Redaelli, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Alex-Manuel Muresan, Edisson Xavier Estrella Arcos

The construction industry plays a major role in the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, and waste generation observed nowadays. Key to the circular economy, structural component reuse arises as a promising solution to divert cons ...

2024

Renewable energy integration and waste heat valorization in aluminum remelting for co-producing kerosene and methanol

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The aluminium sector relies on natural gas for the conversion of recycled scrap into new feedstock, which results in substantial atmospheric emissions. Hydric resources are also impacted, as they serve as heat sinks for the waste heat generated during the ...

Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024

CO2 Capture and Management Strategies for Decarbonizing Secondary Aluminium Production

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The production of aluminium largely depends on the use of fossil fuels, resulting in the emission of significant amounts of greenhouse gases. As the aluminium industry is working towards decreasing its environmental burdens, the elimination of direct emiss ...

2024

Influence of model uncertainty and long term deformations in action effects calculation in reinforced concrete structures

Xhemsi Malja

Most codes of practice adopt a semi probabilistic design approach for the dimensioning and assessment of structures. Accordingly, structural safety is ensured by performing limit state verifications using design values determined with adequately calibrated ...

EPFL2024

Multiscale Spatiotemporal Characterization of Embodied Environmental Performance of Building Structures in Geneva from 1850 to 2018

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Catherine Elvire L. De Wolf, Serena Vanbutsele

Load-bearing systems in buildings, significant in material use and embodied greenhouse gas emissions (EGHGE), have lacked detailed analysis on their environmental and functional relationships over time and space. This study evaluates the environmental impa ...

2024

Mesh-based topology, shape and sizing optimization of ribbed plates

In this paper, we present a new parameterization and optimization procedure for minimizing the weight of ribbed plates. The primary goal is to reduce embodied CO2 in concrete floors as part of the effort to diminish the carbon footprint of the construction ...

Springer2024

Short-term behavior of glass fiber-polymer composite bending-active elastica beam under service load application

Thomas Keller, Landolf-Giosef-Anastasios Rhode-Barbarigos, Tara Habibi

Bending-active elastica beam is a structural configuration that is based on the elastic deformation of an initially straight beam. This deformation occurs when horizontal displacements are applied to a sliding support, causing the beam to bend into an arch ...

2024

Tailoring nanocatalysts and reaction interfaces for water- and CO2-electrolysis

Thi Ha My Pham

Renewable energy sources offer a promising solution for mitigating sustainability and CO2 emissions-related issues due to their vast energy generation capacity. They enable hydrogen production via water electrolysis, as well as carbon capture and utilizati ...

EPFL2024

The Effect of Rivers on Energy Balance at the Neighborhood Scale. A comparative analysis of four Rhodanian sites in France and Switzerland

Emmanuel Rey, Sara Sonia Formery Regazzoni, Martine Laprise, Sergi Aguacil Moreno

This research aims to compare the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of new neighbourhood projects near the Rhône River in France and Switzerland. The study considers the influence of the river on energy demand and resilience to climate change of 12 project-ba ...

Wrocław University of Science and Technology Publishing House2024

Decarbonizing the fertilizers sector: an alternative pathway for urea and nitric acid production

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos

In order to alleviate the environmental impact that nitrogen fertilizers production is responsible for, several efforts have been addressed to incentivize the partial or total decarbonization of the supply chains of ammonia and its derivatives. The decarbo ...

2024

A global framework for data-informed bridge examination

Eugen Brühwiler, Philippe Schiltz, Numa Joy Bertola

Examining the performance of an existing bridge requires information on several aspects, such as design choices, material properties, and ongoing degradation processes. It often happens that some critical information is not available. The traditional appro ...

2024

Reuse of cut concrete slabs in new buildings for circular ultra-low-carbon floor designs

Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

The study explores an original idea that responds to the urgent need to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of load-bearing floor construction in new buildings by reusing saw-cut reinforced concrete (RC) pieces salvaged from soon-to-be demolished ...

2024

Impact of anthropogenic emission control in reducing future PM2.5 concentrations and the related oxidative potential across different regions of China

Yuan Yuan, Athanasios Nenes

Affected by both future anthropogenic emissions and climate change, future prediction of PM2.5 and its Oxidative Potential (OP) distribution is a significant challenge, especially in developing countries like China. To overcome this challenge, we estimated ...

Elsevier2024

FLO:RE – A new floor system made of reused reinforced concrete and steel elements

Maléna Bastien Masse, Numa Joy Bertola, Célia Marine Küpfer, Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet

Carefully extracting reinforced concrete (RC) elements from soon-to-be demolished structures and reusing them as load-bearing components is an emerging circular low-carbon alternative to building new structures. As floor construction typically accounts for ...

IABSE2024

Lotic-SIPCO2: Adaptation of an open-source CO2 sensor system and examination of associated emission uncertainties across a range of stream sizes and land uses

Andrew Lean Robison

River networks play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, as relevant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Advancements in high-frequency monitoring in aquatic environments have enabled measurement of dissolved CO2 concentration at tempo ...

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)2024

Biodiesel from Bark and Black Liquor-A Techno-Economic, Social, and Environmental Assessment

Julia Granacher

A techno-economic assessment and environmental and social sustainability assessments of novel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) biodiesel production from the wet and dry gasification of biomass-based residue streams (bark and black liquor from pulp production) for tran ...

MDPI2024