Environmental and spatial assessment for the ecodesign of a cladding system with embedded Phase Change Materials

New materials and techniques are increasingly developed to respond to the challenges posed by the need of reducing energy demand of buildings while keeping adequate answer to housing needs. The potential of Cement Based Composites (CBCs) panels in which a large amount Phase Change Materials (PCMs) is embedded have been explored in this study. To ensure that the use of the innovative product leads to an absolute reduction of the environmental impacts, the assessment of its environmental profile along life cycle stages and with multi-dimensional environmental indicators have been performed. The technological development of the CBCs panel have been supported by a tailored methodology made of the combination of the environmental and spatial assessment. Life Cycle Assessment at material and component level has been used through all the steps of the design process. As a result, the glycerine and fatty acids, by-products in the biodiesel production, resulted in having a great potential to substitute paraffin if they are secondary material (e.g. from the purification of waste cooking oil). The spatial assessment has been carried out, considering the climatic conditions of the first 50 most populated cities in the European Union. It allowed to identify the EU cities with the highest potential for PCMs application and the optimal configuration of the CBC panel (single or dual layer). When compared to sandwich panels available in the market, environmental benefits are expected from the use of PCMs when the insulating layer can be reduced by 25% without affecting the thermal performance.

BALDASSARRI Catia;  SALA Serenella;  CAVERZAN Alessio;  LAMPERTI TORNAGHI Marco; 

2017-11-30

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

JRC103394

0378-7788,   

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778816313470?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC103394,   

10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.011,