Life Cycle Assessment and Impact Correlation Analysis of Fly Ash Geopolymer Concrete

Xiaoshuang Shi; Cong Zhang; Yongchen Liang; Jinqian Luo; Xiaoqi Wang; Ying Feng; Yanlin Li; Qingyuan Wang; Abd El-Fatah Abomohra

doi:10.3390/ma14237375

Life Cycle Assessment and Impact Correlation Analysis of Fly Ash Geopolymer Concrete

Materials (Basel). 2021 Dec 1;14(23):7375. doi: 10.3390/ma14237375.

Authors

Xiaoshuang Shi¹, Cong Zhang², Yongchen Liang², Jinqian Luo², Xiaoqi Wang², Ying Feng², Yanlin Li², Qingyuan Wang^{1

2

3}, Abd El-Fatah Abomohra⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Science and Engineering (Ministry of Education), Department of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
² Failure Mechanics and Engineering Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Key Lab of Sichuan Province, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.
⁴ Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China.

Abstract

Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has drawn widespread attention as a universally accepted ideal green material to improve environmental conditions in recent years. The present study systematically quantifies and compares the environmental impact of fly ash GPC and ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete under different strength grades by conducting life cycle assessment (LCA). The alkali activator solution to fly ash ratio (S/F), sodium hydroxide concentration (C_NaOH), and sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide ratio (SS/SH) were further used as three key parameters to consider their sensitivity to strength and CO₂ emissions. The correlation and influence rules were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Gray Relational Analysis (GRA). The results indicated that the CO₂ emission of GPC can be reduced by 62.73%, and the correlation between CO₂ emission and compressive strength is not significant for GPC. The degree of influence of the three factors on the compressive strength is C_NaOH (66.5%) > SS/SH (20.7%) > S/F (9%) and on CO₂ emissions is S/F (87.2%) > SS/SH (10.3%) > C_NaOH (2.4%). Fly ash GPC effectively controls the environmental deterioration without compromising its compressive strength; in fact, it even in favor.

Keywords: CO2 emission; compressive strength; geopolymer concrete; grey relational analysis; multivariate analysis of variance.