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Sustainability Investigation in the Building Cement Production System Based on the LCA-Emergy Method

Author

Listed:
  • Hairuo Wang

    (School of Civil and Ocean Engineering, Jiangsu Ocean University, Lianyungang 222005, China)

  • Yexin Liu

    (School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China)

  • Junxue Zhang

    (School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China)

  • He Zhang

    (M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32603, USA)

  • Li Huang

    (School of Design Art, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China)

  • Dan Xu

    (School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China)

  • Chunxia Zhang

    (School of Art and Design, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China)

Abstract

As one of the highest energy and resource consumption industries in China, discussion on the sustainability of the cement production system has great significance. This study conducted sustainable calculations and analyses for cement production systems based on the emergy method. This study also considers the sustainability impact of clean energy on the overall cement production system. Through a series of sustainable indicator measurements, the results prove that: (1) the two primary sections, non-renewable resource and non-renewable energy, contribute 88.6% and 11.1% of the emergy proportion, respectively; (2) the emergy sustainability indicator (ESI) was only 0.058, which is significantly less than the standard; (3) through the analysis of eight hypotheses, a very small change between the absolute values was found, which demonstrates that the sensitivity changes are within acceptable limits for the cement production system; and (4) by integrating the biological power generation subsystem, sustainability has been optimized in the cement production system. Finally, two ameliorated strategies are discussed in this paper for the better sustainability performance of the cement production system in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Hairuo Wang & Yexin Liu & Junxue Zhang & He Zhang & Li Huang & Dan Xu & Chunxia Zhang, 2022. "Sustainability Investigation in the Building Cement Production System Based on the LCA-Emergy Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:24:p:16380-:d:996530
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fei Xie & Junxue Zhang & Guodong Wu & Chunxia Zhang & Hechi Wang, 2023. "The Environmental Sustainability Study of an Airport Building System Based on an Integrated LCA-Embodied Energy (Emergy)-ANN Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Hechi Wang & Zerong Yan & Junxue Zhang & Hongying Wang & Zhaoyi Yan & Xinxin Chen & Xinyi He & Jianwei Ge & Qi Zhou, 2023. "A Study on Ecological Emergy and Carbon-Emissions-Coupling Sustainability of Building Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-23, August.

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