Andre Coelho - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Andre Coelho

Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, 2011

In line with the growing concern around the world about construction and demolition waste (CDW) m... more In line with the growing concern around the world about construction and demolition waste (CDW) management, an attempt has been made to quantify the amount of CDW generated in Portugal, a country where no reliable/official data exist. This is an increasingly important concern of companies, businesses and municipalities involved with CDW, in a context of rising demands and more demanding recent legislation. One methodology is presented to quantify the present generation, and another to extrapolate this generation over the next few years, up to 2020. It is concluded that at present substantially less CDW is generated than the figure usually cited for Portugal, based on Spanish estimates, although it is predicted that this value will be higher on a 10-15 year timescale, reaching over 400 kg person-1 year-1.

Waste Management, 2013

This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implications of man... more This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implications of managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), focused on the operation of a large scale CDW recycling plant. This plant, to be operated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (including the Setúbal peninsula), is analysed for a 60 year period, using primary energy consumption and CO 2 eq emission impact factors as environmental impact performance indicators. Simplified estimation methods are used to calculate industrial equipment incorporated, and the operation and transport related impacts. Material recycling-sorted materials sent to other industries, to act as input-is taken into account by discounting the impacts related to industrial processes no longer needed. This first part focuses on calculating the selected impact factors for a base case scenario (with a 350 tonnes/h installed capacity), while a sensitivity analysis is provided in part two. Overall, a 60 year global primary energy consumption of 71.4 thousand toe (tonne of oil equivalent) and a total CO 2 eq emission of 135.4 thousand tonnes are expected. Under this operating regime, around 563 thousand toe and 1465 thousand tonnes CO 2 eq could be prevented by replacing raw materials in several construction materials industries (e.g.: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard).

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2011

Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced s... more Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced some high quality economic, material and environmental information. Economic data, however, varies considerably between regions since local conditions strongly influence labour costs, tipping fees and/or market prices for recovered materials. Regional financial and regulatory constraints will bind the economic viability of conventional and selective demolition choices, which are essentially economic in a free market. Given this, the present study evaluates the economic implications of the two demolition types by analyzing a case study in Portugal. A few scenarios are considered, based on possible waste management options, some of which favour selective demolition over the conventional type.

Vernacular Heritage and Earthen Architecture, 2013

The region of Castro Laboreiro has a major potential for nature tourism. Local population has dec... more The region of Castro Laboreiro has a major potential for nature tourism. Local population has decreased leaving behind empty villages. This article suggests a vernacular village retrofit where the historical and formal built conditions can be made compatible with three environmental aims: high energy efficiency; materials with low environmental impact; energy self-sufficiency based on renewable energy generation. The case study focused on a vernacular house in Pontes village in Castro Laboreiro, where a licensed retrofit project, complied with the first cited environmental aim. The final intent is to apply these aims for the whole village. Tools like RCCTE (DL 80/2006) was used for simulating high efficient buildings and obtain low building consumption needs. To achieve energy autonomy for the whole village, a hybrid eolic and photovoltaic system was designed. Finally, BEDEC-iTec database was used, to determine alternative construction solutions to accomplish 50 to 60% lower embodied energy and CO 2 eq. emissions.

Energy self-sufficiency is a concern on the rise over the last few years, as energy transi-tion a... more Energy self-sufficiency is a concern on the rise over the last few years, as energy transi-tion away from fossil fuels is pressing and (energy) security issues gain importance. To help in creating a first overlook at regional energy self-sufficiency, a preliminary study is here reported, for the Portuguese region of Évora. The study quantifies the energy generated by a large photovoltaic array (composed by static and dynamic parts), plus a solar concentration backup system, managing energy storage through the latter and a Pb-Acid range of stationary batteries. Solar energy production technologies are prioritized because this region is one of the most radiated municipalities in Portugal (and across Europe), being low on other renewable energy sources (ex.: wind, hydraulic and geothermal). Preliminary results show that a peak photovoltaic system power capacity of 397 MW (dynamic and static systems combined), served by an 230 MW input power Pb-Acid battery system and backed up by a parabolic panel solar concentration system with 144 MW of electrical power output capacity, can cover energy demand at about 99.9% of the time. Surplus energy generated by the solar concentration backup system can still be offered or traded with neighboring regions, to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced s... more Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced some high quality economic, material and environmental information. Economic data, however, varies considerably between regions since local conditions strongly influence labour costs, tipping fees and/or market prices for recovered materials. Regional financial and regulatory constraints will bind the economic viability of conventional and selective demolition choices, which are essentially economic in a free market. Given this, the present study evaluates the economic implications of the two demolition types by analyzing a case study in Portugal. A few scenarios are considered, based on possible waste management options, some of which favour selective demolition over the conventional type.

It may not be enough simply to know the global volume of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) ... more It may not be enough simply to know the global volume of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) generated in a certain region or country if one wants to estimate, for instance, the revenue accruing from separating several types of materials from the input entering a given CDW recycling plant. A more de-tailed determination of the distribution of the materials within the generated CDW is needed and this paper addresses this issue, distinguishing different buildings and types of operation (new construction, retrofitting and demolition). This has been achieved by measuring the materials from buildings of differ-ent ages within the Portuguese building stock, and by using direct data from demolition/retrofitting sites and new construction average values reported in the literature. An attempt to establish a benchmark with other countries is also presented. This knowledge may also benefit industry management, especially the one related to CDW recycling, helping to optimize procedures, equipment size and operation and even industrial plant spatial distribution. In an extremely competitive market, where as in Portugal low-tech and high environmental impact procedures remain the norm in the construction industry (in particular, the construction waste industry), the introduction of a successful recycling industry is only possible with highly optimized processes and based on a knowledge based approach to problems.

Waste Management, 2013

Part I of this study deals with the primary energy consumption and CO2eq emissions of a 350 tonne... more Part I of this study deals with the primary energy consumption and CO2eq emissions of a 350 tonne/h construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling facility, taking into account incorporated, operation and transportation impacts. It concludes that the gener-ated impacts are mostly concentrated in operation and transportation, and that the im-pacts prevented through material recycling can be up to one order of magnitude greater than those generated.
However, the conditions considered for the plant's operation and related transportation system may, and very likely will, vary in the near future, which will affect its environ-mental performance. This performance is particularly affected by the plant’s installed capacity, transportation fuel and input CDW mass. In spite of the variations in overall primary energy and CO2eq balances, the prevented impacts are always higher than the generated impacts, at least by a factor of three and maybe even as high as 16 times in particular conditions. The analysis indicates environmental performance for variations in single parameters, except for the plant’s capacity, which was considered to vary si-multaneously with all the others. Extreme best and worst scenarios were also generated to fit the results into extreme limits.

Waste Management, 2013

This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implica-tions of ma... more This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implica-tions of managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), focused on the operation of a large scale CDW recycling plant. This plant, to be operated in the Lisbon Metro-politan Area (including the Setúbal peninsula), is analysed for a 60 year period, using primary energy consumption and CO2eq emission impact factors as environmental im-pact performance indicators.
Simplified estimation methods are used to calculate industrial equipment incorporated, and the operation and transport related impacts. Material recycling - sorted materials sent to other industries, to act as input - is taken into account by discounting the impacts related to industrial processes no longer needed.
This first part focuses on calculating the selected impact factors for a base case scenario (with a 350 tonnes/h installed capacity), while a sensitivity analysis is provided in part two. Overall, a 60 year global primary energy consumption of 71.4 thousand toe (tonne of oil equivalent) and a total CO2eq emission of 135.4 thousand tonnes are expected. Under this operating regime, around 563 thousand toe and 1465 thousand tonnes CO2eq could be prevented by replacing raw materials in several construction materials indus-tries (e.g.: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard).

Waste Management & Research, 2011

In line with the growing concern all around the world about Construction and Demolition Waste (CD... more In line with the growing concern all around the world about Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) management, an attempt has been made to quantify the amount of CDW generated in Portugal, a country where no reliable / official data exist. This is an increasingly important measure to companies, businesses and municipalities involved with CDW, in a context of rising demands and more demanding recent legislation. One methodology is presented to quantify the present generation, and another to extrapolate this generation over the next few years, up to 2020. It is concluded that at present substantially less CDW is generated than the figure usually cited for Portugal, based on Spanish estimates, although it is predicted that this value will be higher on a 10-15 year timescale, reaching over 400 kg/person/year.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2013

The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal sepa-... more The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal sepa-rate the materials and then crush and sieve them prior to final delivery. These plants have limited overall capacity and the quality of the output material is not good enough for higher grade applica-tions such as concrete and brick production. This study aims to better understand the economic im-plications of implementing and operating a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant to serve a densely populated urban area in Portugal (Lisbon and its outskirts). This first part deals with the location of the plant, its design and the material entering and leaving it. There follows an economic analysis which leads to the sensitivity analysis presented in part two, providing important conclu-sions for the economic viability of full-scale CDW recycling plants. The methodology used can be applied to other locations and resulted, within the regional data frame of the Lisbon Metropolitan area, on a return of the investment period of around 2 years, considering a plant capacity of 350 tonne/h, collection of 21.8 million €/year in gate fees and given the need to pay around €11.9 million €/year in running costs. Hence, there is a high profit potential in this venture, even though con-sidering the high initial investment needs. Moreover, the venture seems economically viable even in the absence of specific regulatory government policy intervention for recycling CDW, which may indicate a clear alignment between economic viability and environmental benefits, arising from this CDW recycling plant operation.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2015

The present investigation aims at evaluating overall conditions for being self-sufficient regardi... more The present investigation aims at evaluating overall conditions for being self-sufficient regarding construction materials, in the Portuguese region of Évora. After identifying and quantifying the most important and widely used materials in construction (today and in possible future periods) within the region, the study makes a first estimate of each material need and generation potential, so as to evaluate and compare them. The study develops strictly within regionally defined boundaries, resorting to municipality level statistics as much as possible. As a preliminary study, evaluation quantifies needs and generation potentials, but does not detail on infrastructural, technological, hu-man labor or cost implications. Materials analyzed amount to around 98% in mass of all listed ma-terials, which was considered a good start as far as a preliminary self-sufficiency resource manage-ment study is concerned. This research concludes that attaining construction materials regional self-sufficiency requires an up-start philosophical change from new construction to maintenance and retrofit. It also states that reuse and recycling are major sources of materials, which combined with the previous conclusion can guarantee natural occurring deposit (e.g.: sand, limestone, soils) life-times of hundreds up to thousands of years. Moreover, materials such as wood and soils can be cru-cial to the whole industry self-sufficiency, rising up to as much as 33% of all construction materials use, in mass (replacing large amounts of concrete, sintered ceramics, metals and plastics).

Waste Management, 2012

The purpose of this study is to quantify comparable environmental impacts within a Life Cycle Ana... more The purpose of this study is to quantify comparable environmental impacts within a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) perspective, for buildings in which the first (Materials) and last (End of Life) life cycle stages are adjusted to several waste/material management options. The methodology used, unlike most LCA analysis, consists of a "top-down" approach, rather than a "bottom-up" calculation, which usually involves large amounts of data and the use of specific software applications. This approach is considered appropriate for a limited but expedient LCA study designed to compare the environmental impacts of different life cycle options. Present results, based on real buildings measurements and demolition contractor activities, show that shallow superficial selective demolition may not result in reduced environmental impacts -calculations actually show an increase in most impact categories (although generally less than 5%), in the Materials and End of Life stages, due to extra transportation needs -whilst core material separation in demolition operations and its recycling and/or reusing does bring environmental benefitsaround 77% reduction in the climate change impact category, 57% in acidification potential and 81% in the summer smog impact (for the life cycle stages referred).

Journal of Cleaner Production, Jan 2013

Part I of this paper contained a technological description and economic evaluation of a large-sca... more Part I of this paper contained a technological description and economic evaluation of a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant in the Lisbon Metropolitan area. It concludes that economic viability is likely under the operating conditions considered, but these may and will very probably change in the near future. Reasons for such assumption have to do with the inherent uncertainty related to CDW generation (which might vary, for instance, due to socio-economic conditions in the region), and, as examples, variability of CDW input gate fees and tariffs associated with the landfill of rejected materials, which are market dependent parameters. This made it necessary to perform a (simplified) economic viability sensitivity analysis, focused on the investment return period and global economic balance. If parameters such as the plant's capacity, the CDW input gate fee and landfill fee are varied, the investment return period is affected in different ways, though its value is generally kept below 8 years, for parameter variations of ±30%. The analysis indicates economic performance for variations in single parameters, except for the plant's capacity, which was considered to vary simultaneously with all others. Extreme best and worst scenarios were also tested in an attempt to define the model's boundaries.

International Conference - Vernacular Heritage & Earthen Architecture, 2013

Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, 2011

In line with the growing concern around the world about construction and demolition waste (CDW) m... more In line with the growing concern around the world about construction and demolition waste (CDW) management, an attempt has been made to quantify the amount of CDW generated in Portugal, a country where no reliable/official data exist. This is an increasingly important concern of companies, businesses and municipalities involved with CDW, in a context of rising demands and more demanding recent legislation. One methodology is presented to quantify the present generation, and another to extrapolate this generation over the next few years, up to 2020. It is concluded that at present substantially less CDW is generated than the figure usually cited for Portugal, based on Spanish estimates, although it is predicted that this value will be higher on a 10-15 year timescale, reaching over 400 kg person-1 year-1.

Waste Management, 2013

This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implications of man... more This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implications of managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), focused on the operation of a large scale CDW recycling plant. This plant, to be operated in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (including the Setúbal peninsula), is analysed for a 60 year period, using primary energy consumption and CO 2 eq emission impact factors as environmental impact performance indicators. Simplified estimation methods are used to calculate industrial equipment incorporated, and the operation and transport related impacts. Material recycling-sorted materials sent to other industries, to act as input-is taken into account by discounting the impacts related to industrial processes no longer needed. This first part focuses on calculating the selected impact factors for a base case scenario (with a 350 tonnes/h installed capacity), while a sensitivity analysis is provided in part two. Overall, a 60 year global primary energy consumption of 71.4 thousand toe (tonne of oil equivalent) and a total CO 2 eq emission of 135.4 thousand tonnes are expected. Under this operating regime, around 563 thousand toe and 1465 thousand tonnes CO 2 eq could be prevented by replacing raw materials in several construction materials industries (e.g.: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard).

Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2011

Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced s... more Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced some high quality economic, material and environmental information. Economic data, however, varies considerably between regions since local conditions strongly influence labour costs, tipping fees and/or market prices for recovered materials. Regional financial and regulatory constraints will bind the economic viability of conventional and selective demolition choices, which are essentially economic in a free market. Given this, the present study evaluates the economic implications of the two demolition types by analyzing a case study in Portugal. A few scenarios are considered, based on possible waste management options, some of which favour selective demolition over the conventional type.

Vernacular Heritage and Earthen Architecture, 2013

The region of Castro Laboreiro has a major potential for nature tourism. Local population has dec... more The region of Castro Laboreiro has a major potential for nature tourism. Local population has decreased leaving behind empty villages. This article suggests a vernacular village retrofit where the historical and formal built conditions can be made compatible with three environmental aims: high energy efficiency; materials with low environmental impact; energy self-sufficiency based on renewable energy generation. The case study focused on a vernacular house in Pontes village in Castro Laboreiro, where a licensed retrofit project, complied with the first cited environmental aim. The final intent is to apply these aims for the whole village. Tools like RCCTE (DL 80/2006) was used for simulating high efficient buildings and obtain low building consumption needs. To achieve energy autonomy for the whole village, a hybrid eolic and photovoltaic system was designed. Finally, BEDEC-iTec database was used, to determine alternative construction solutions to accomplish 50 to 60% lower embodied energy and CO 2 eq. emissions.

Energy self-sufficiency is a concern on the rise over the last few years, as energy transi-tion a... more Energy self-sufficiency is a concern on the rise over the last few years, as energy transi-tion away from fossil fuels is pressing and (energy) security issues gain importance. To help in creating a first overlook at regional energy self-sufficiency, a preliminary study is here reported, for the Portuguese region of Évora. The study quantifies the energy generated by a large photovoltaic array (composed by static and dynamic parts), plus a solar concentration backup system, managing energy storage through the latter and a Pb-Acid range of stationary batteries. Solar energy production technologies are prioritized because this region is one of the most radiated municipalities in Portugal (and across Europe), being low on other renewable energy sources (ex.: wind, hydraulic and geothermal). Preliminary results show that a peak photovoltaic system power capacity of 397 MW (dynamic and static systems combined), served by an 230 MW input power Pb-Acid battery system and backed up by a parabolic panel solar concentration system with 144 MW of electrical power output capacity, can cover energy demand at about 99.9% of the time. Surplus energy generated by the solar concentration backup system can still be offered or traded with neighboring regions, to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced s... more Studies on selective demolition (also named deconstruction) in the past few years have produced some high quality economic, material and environmental information. Economic data, however, varies considerably between regions since local conditions strongly influence labour costs, tipping fees and/or market prices for recovered materials. Regional financial and regulatory constraints will bind the economic viability of conventional and selective demolition choices, which are essentially economic in a free market. Given this, the present study evaluates the economic implications of the two demolition types by analyzing a case study in Portugal. A few scenarios are considered, based on possible waste management options, some of which favour selective demolition over the conventional type.

It may not be enough simply to know the global volume of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) ... more It may not be enough simply to know the global volume of Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) generated in a certain region or country if one wants to estimate, for instance, the revenue accruing from separating several types of materials from the input entering a given CDW recycling plant. A more de-tailed determination of the distribution of the materials within the generated CDW is needed and this paper addresses this issue, distinguishing different buildings and types of operation (new construction, retrofitting and demolition). This has been achieved by measuring the materials from buildings of differ-ent ages within the Portuguese building stock, and by using direct data from demolition/retrofitting sites and new construction average values reported in the literature. An attempt to establish a benchmark with other countries is also presented. This knowledge may also benefit industry management, especially the one related to CDW recycling, helping to optimize procedures, equipment size and operation and even industrial plant spatial distribution. In an extremely competitive market, where as in Portugal low-tech and high environmental impact procedures remain the norm in the construction industry (in particular, the construction waste industry), the introduction of a successful recycling industry is only possible with highly optimized processes and based on a knowledge based approach to problems.

Waste Management, 2013

Part I of this study deals with the primary energy consumption and CO2eq emissions of a 350 tonne... more Part I of this study deals with the primary energy consumption and CO2eq emissions of a 350 tonne/h construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling facility, taking into account incorporated, operation and transportation impacts. It concludes that the gener-ated impacts are mostly concentrated in operation and transportation, and that the im-pacts prevented through material recycling can be up to one order of magnitude greater than those generated.
However, the conditions considered for the plant's operation and related transportation system may, and very likely will, vary in the near future, which will affect its environ-mental performance. This performance is particularly affected by the plant’s installed capacity, transportation fuel and input CDW mass. In spite of the variations in overall primary energy and CO2eq balances, the prevented impacts are always higher than the generated impacts, at least by a factor of three and maybe even as high as 16 times in particular conditions. The analysis indicates environmental performance for variations in single parameters, except for the plant’s capacity, which was considered to vary si-multaneously with all the others. Extreme best and worst scenarios were also generated to fit the results into extreme limits.

Waste Management, 2013

This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implica-tions of ma... more This work is a part of a wider study involving the economic and environmental implica-tions of managing construction and demolition waste (CDW), focused on the operation of a large scale CDW recycling plant. This plant, to be operated in the Lisbon Metro-politan Area (including the Setúbal peninsula), is analysed for a 60 year period, using primary energy consumption and CO2eq emission impact factors as environmental im-pact performance indicators.
Simplified estimation methods are used to calculate industrial equipment incorporated, and the operation and transport related impacts. Material recycling - sorted materials sent to other industries, to act as input - is taken into account by discounting the impacts related to industrial processes no longer needed.
This first part focuses on calculating the selected impact factors for a base case scenario (with a 350 tonnes/h installed capacity), while a sensitivity analysis is provided in part two. Overall, a 60 year global primary energy consumption of 71.4 thousand toe (tonne of oil equivalent) and a total CO2eq emission of 135.4 thousand tonnes are expected. Under this operating regime, around 563 thousand toe and 1465 thousand tonnes CO2eq could be prevented by replacing raw materials in several construction materials indus-tries (e.g.: ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastics, paper and cardboard).

Waste Management & Research, 2011

In line with the growing concern all around the world about Construction and Demolition Waste (CD... more In line with the growing concern all around the world about Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) management, an attempt has been made to quantify the amount of CDW generated in Portugal, a country where no reliable / official data exist. This is an increasingly important measure to companies, businesses and municipalities involved with CDW, in a context of rising demands and more demanding recent legislation. One methodology is presented to quantify the present generation, and another to extrapolate this generation over the next few years, up to 2020. It is concluded that at present substantially less CDW is generated than the figure usually cited for Portugal, based on Spanish estimates, although it is predicted that this value will be higher on a 10-15 year timescale, reaching over 400 kg/person/year.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2013

The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal sepa-... more The few construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling plants that there are in Portugal sepa-rate the materials and then crush and sieve them prior to final delivery. These plants have limited overall capacity and the quality of the output material is not good enough for higher grade applica-tions such as concrete and brick production. This study aims to better understand the economic im-plications of implementing and operating a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant to serve a densely populated urban area in Portugal (Lisbon and its outskirts). This first part deals with the location of the plant, its design and the material entering and leaving it. There follows an economic analysis which leads to the sensitivity analysis presented in part two, providing important conclu-sions for the economic viability of full-scale CDW recycling plants. The methodology used can be applied to other locations and resulted, within the regional data frame of the Lisbon Metropolitan area, on a return of the investment period of around 2 years, considering a plant capacity of 350 tonne/h, collection of 21.8 million €/year in gate fees and given the need to pay around €11.9 million €/year in running costs. Hence, there is a high profit potential in this venture, even though con-sidering the high initial investment needs. Moreover, the venture seems economically viable even in the absence of specific regulatory government policy intervention for recycling CDW, which may indicate a clear alignment between economic viability and environmental benefits, arising from this CDW recycling plant operation.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2015

The present investigation aims at evaluating overall conditions for being self-sufficient regardi... more The present investigation aims at evaluating overall conditions for being self-sufficient regarding construction materials, in the Portuguese region of Évora. After identifying and quantifying the most important and widely used materials in construction (today and in possible future periods) within the region, the study makes a first estimate of each material need and generation potential, so as to evaluate and compare them. The study develops strictly within regionally defined boundaries, resorting to municipality level statistics as much as possible. As a preliminary study, evaluation quantifies needs and generation potentials, but does not detail on infrastructural, technological, hu-man labor or cost implications. Materials analyzed amount to around 98% in mass of all listed ma-terials, which was considered a good start as far as a preliminary self-sufficiency resource manage-ment study is concerned. This research concludes that attaining construction materials regional self-sufficiency requires an up-start philosophical change from new construction to maintenance and retrofit. It also states that reuse and recycling are major sources of materials, which combined with the previous conclusion can guarantee natural occurring deposit (e.g.: sand, limestone, soils) life-times of hundreds up to thousands of years. Moreover, materials such as wood and soils can be cru-cial to the whole industry self-sufficiency, rising up to as much as 33% of all construction materials use, in mass (replacing large amounts of concrete, sintered ceramics, metals and plastics).

Waste Management, 2012

The purpose of this study is to quantify comparable environmental impacts within a Life Cycle Ana... more The purpose of this study is to quantify comparable environmental impacts within a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) perspective, for buildings in which the first (Materials) and last (End of Life) life cycle stages are adjusted to several waste/material management options. The methodology used, unlike most LCA analysis, consists of a "top-down" approach, rather than a "bottom-up" calculation, which usually involves large amounts of data and the use of specific software applications. This approach is considered appropriate for a limited but expedient LCA study designed to compare the environmental impacts of different life cycle options. Present results, based on real buildings measurements and demolition contractor activities, show that shallow superficial selective demolition may not result in reduced environmental impacts -calculations actually show an increase in most impact categories (although generally less than 5%), in the Materials and End of Life stages, due to extra transportation needs -whilst core material separation in demolition operations and its recycling and/or reusing does bring environmental benefitsaround 77% reduction in the climate change impact category, 57% in acidification potential and 81% in the summer smog impact (for the life cycle stages referred).

Journal of Cleaner Production, Jan 2013

Part I of this paper contained a technological description and economic evaluation of a large-sca... more Part I of this paper contained a technological description and economic evaluation of a large-scale high-end CDW recycling plant in the Lisbon Metropolitan area. It concludes that economic viability is likely under the operating conditions considered, but these may and will very probably change in the near future. Reasons for such assumption have to do with the inherent uncertainty related to CDW generation (which might vary, for instance, due to socio-economic conditions in the region), and, as examples, variability of CDW input gate fees and tariffs associated with the landfill of rejected materials, which are market dependent parameters. This made it necessary to perform a (simplified) economic viability sensitivity analysis, focused on the investment return period and global economic balance. If parameters such as the plant's capacity, the CDW input gate fee and landfill fee are varied, the investment return period is affected in different ways, though its value is generally kept below 8 years, for parameter variations of ±30%. The analysis indicates economic performance for variations in single parameters, except for the plant's capacity, which was considered to vary simultaneously with all others. Extreme best and worst scenarios were also tested in an attempt to define the model's boundaries.

International Conference - Vernacular Heritage & Earthen Architecture, 2013