1. Guideline for Calculating
CO2 Emission from Ready
Mixed Concrete Production
and
Its Case Studies
Piti Sukontasukkul
Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, KMUTNB
Member of ACF-Sustainability Forum
‘Sustainability in Concrete Technology and Construction’
Petra Christian University, 18 September 2013

2. Environmental Issues in Concrete
Construction Sector
 CO2 Emission (use of fossil fuels)
 Manufacturing of cement and concrete
 Construction activities
 Transportation
 Natural resources depletion
 Wastes generation
 Soil and water contamination

3. Global Warming
Over the last 400,000
years, the atmospheric CO2
concentrations is
fluctuated up and down
with the upper and lower
limit about 300 and 200
ppm, respectively. (from
the ice core data).
Today, CO2 concentrations
worldwide is average about
380 ppm.
‘Sustainability in Concrete Technology and Construction’
Petra Christian University, 18 September 2013

4. Previous Actions to Environmental Issues
The National Trust (1895), UK
•A non-profit or charitable organizations
created to preserve “the benefit of the
Nation of lands and tenements of
beauty or historic interest and, as
regards lands, for the preservation of
their natural aspect, features and
animal and plant life……”
The Limits to Growth (1971):
A book with a purpose to
explore how exponential
growth interacts with finite
resources.
UN Conference on Human
Environment (1972)
•A Declaration containing 26 principles
concerning the environment and
development.
•“……23. Each nation must establish its
own standards 24. There must be
cooperation on international issues 25.
International organizations should help
to improve the environment…..”
‘Sustainability in Concrete Technology and Construction’
Petra Christian University, 18 September 2013

5. Previous Actions to Environmental Issues
Brundtland Report
(1987)
•A report mandated ‘reexamine,
create action plans, promote
international corporation and
rise level on understanding on
environmental issues.
Earth Summit: UN
Conference on
Environment and
Development (1992)
•..Alternative sources of energy
to replace the use of fossil fuels
which are linked to global
climate change…..
Kyoto Protocol (1997)
•A protocol to the UN
Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC or
FCCC) that set binding
obligations on the
industrialized countries to
reduce their emissions of
greenhouse gases.
IPCC Assessment
Reports (90, 95, 01, 07)
•"most of the observed increase
in global average temperatures
since the mid-20th century is
very likely due to the observed
increase in anthropogenic
greenhouse gas
concentrations."
‘Sustainability in Concrete Technology and Construction’
Petra Christian University, 18 September 2013

6. International and National Standards
Japan
•JSCE
Environmental
Performance
Verification for
Concrete
Structures
FIB
•FIB-TG 3.6
Guideline for
Environmental
Design of
Concrete
Structures
•FIB-TG. 3.8
Guideline of
Green
Concrete
Structures
ISO
•ISO/TC 71/SC 8
ISO/FDIs
13315-1:2011
(E)
Environmental
management
for concrete
and concrete
structures
Part 1: General
principle
•ISO/TC 71/SC 8
ISO/CD 13315-
2
Part 2: system
boundary and
inventory data
USA
•LEEDS for
Green
Building*
TCA
•Guideline for
Calculation
CO2 Emission
in Concrete
Production*
‘Sustainability in Concrete Technology and Construction’
Petra Christian University, 18 September 2013

7. TCA Manual for calculating CO2 emission
from concrete production (2011)
TCA recognizes the importance of concrete sustainability. TCA-
TG4 is established in 2010.
Launch in 2011, the manual provides a simple and easy to use
tool for engineers to calculate CO2 emission from the
production process of concrete used in their construction site.
Employing similar approach to ISO 13315 using LCI and LCIA to
calculate CO2 from concrete production process.
The manual is applied for both local (on-site) and ready mixed
concrete productions.

8. Scope of the manual
Determine CO2 emission from the production process of
concrete. Calculation extent to cover 3 main parts: Materials
Manufacturing, Concrete Production Process, and
Transportation. Production processes include: hand mixing,
small (drum) mixer, and ready-mixing process. Transportation
include ready mixed truck.
Impact Category: Global Warming
Impact Indicator: CO2 emission
Functional unit: kg of CO2 per 1 m3 of concrete.

9. System Boundary : Concrete Production
System Boundary
Concrete Mixing
Process
Concrete
Raw
Materials
tran
Energies :
Fuel,
Electricity
tran
Construction Site
or
Precast Factory
Cement content
Aggregate
content
Admixtures
Supplementary
materials
CO2
Transpor
tation
Concrete
Mix
Selection

10. Inventory data: Raw Materials
a Anna Korre and Sevket Durucan, EVA025-Final Report: Aggregates Industry Life Cycle Assessment
Model: Modeling Tools and Case Studies, 2007[11]
b MTEC, NSTDA
c Tananan Panussupsuk, M.Eng. Thesis, KMUTNB
Materials Unit (*)
CO2 emission
(kg-CO2/*)
Portland Cement Ton 847
River Sand Ton 3.920
Limestone a Ton 2.43-4.14
Rebar b Ton 1760
Masonry Brick c Sq. m 3.803
Masonry Mortar (1:2.5)c Sq. m 6.728
Plastering Mortar (1:3)c Sq. m 10.305

11. Inventory data: Production type
Mixers Type
Energy
(J/m3)
Electricity
(kW/m3)
Unit
CO2Emission
(kg-CO2/unit)
0.1 m3 Typea 1.68x107 - m3 2.68
0.2m3 Type 1.25x107 - m3 2.01
Ready-mixed Type d - 2.15 m3 1.23
d Insee Concrete, co., ltd. (Thailand)

12. Inventory data: Transportation
Type
Capacity
Fuel Consumption
EF CO2Emission
unit
kg-CO2/
litre
kg-CO2/
km
kg-CO2/
(km.unit)
Ready-mixed
Trucka
5 m3 2.7 km/l 0.54
km/
(l.m3)
2.58 0.96 0.19
Ready-mixed
Truckb
5 m3 2.9 km/l 0.58
km/
(l.m3)
2.58 0.89 0.18
Ready-mixed
Truck
(Idling mode)
5 m3 6 l/trip 1.20 l/(trip.m3) 2.58
15.48
kg-CO2/trip
3.10
kg-
CO2/trip.m3
a Travel within Bangkok and vicinity (Ref. CPAC, Thailand 2012)
b Travel outside Bangkok and vicinity (Ref. CPAC, Thailand 2012)
c Allowable truck load capacity

13. Additional Inventory: Transportation
Vehicle Type Unit (*)
CO2 emission
(kg-CO2 /*)
10 Wheel Truck (16 t)A km.ton 0.053
Pick-up Truck (7t)A km.ton 0.14
18 Wheeler A km.ton 0.014
8t Crane Truck (6w)C -Driving km. 0.683
25t Crane Truck (4w)C -Driving km. 1.206
25t Crane Truck (10w)C -Driving km. 0.992
8t Crane Truck (6w)C - Operating minute 0.629
25t Crane Truck (4w)C- Operating minute 0.198
25t Crane Truck (10w)C - Operating minute 1.563
Aอ้างอิงจาก MTEC: 2554[2]
Bอ้างอิงจาก บริษัทผลิตภัณฑ์และ
วัสดุก่อสร้าง (CPAC, Thailand
2012)
Cอ้างอิงจาก ข้อมูลที่ทาการจัดเก็บ

14. Inventory data: Energies
Energy Type Specific Heat or Energy per Litre Spec. CO2 Emission
Factor
btu/L Kcal/L kJ/L kWh/L kg-CO2/kWh kg-CO2/l
High speed
diesel
36722 9,277.45 38,743.7 10.76 0.24 2.58
Natural gas 35.32 8.92 37.26 0.0104 0.23 0.00238
Electricity - - - - 0.575 -

15. Case Study 1:
CO2 Emission from Ready Mixed
Concrete Production and
Transportation of Single House Real-
Estate Project

16. General Information
Housing project
• Project Name: Perfect Place, Property Perfect Co., Ltd.
• Number of Houses: 1119 Units (Fig. 1)
• Area: 397000 sq.m
• Construction Systems:
• Cast-in-place concrete structure 384 units
• Prefabricated concrete structure 735 units (not included in this
study)
Concrete
• Concrete strength: 24 MPa (28 days)
• Mix Proportions: 389:1024:775:200 kg. (C:CA:FA:W)

17. Project
Plan

18. Case Study
Const.
System
House Type
Number Quantity (m3)
Unit per house Total
Cast-in-place A 1 28.50 28.5
B 19 32.00 608
C 238 18.60 4426.8
D 1 16.60 16.6
E 30 15.50 465
F 7 32.00 224
G 84 20.60 1730.4
H 4 20.60 82.4
Sub Total 384 184.40 70809

19. Results: Concrete
Production
Materials Quantity EF Emission
kg/m3-
concrete kg-CO2/t (kg-CO2)
Cement 389 847 329.5
Coarse
Aggregate 1024 4.14 4.2
Fine Aggregate 775 3.92 3.0
Emission (kg-CO2 per m3-concrete) 336.7
Total Quantity of concrete (m3) 70,809.6
Total Emission from Concrete
Production (t) 23,841.6
Total Quantity
of concrete
(m3)
Emission
Factor Mixing
(kg-CO2/m3)
Total Emission
from Concrete
Production (t)
70809.6 1.2 87.10
98.77%
0.32% 0.91%
Material
Production
Transportation
Total Quantity of
Concrete
Number
of trip
Distance
(km)
Total
Distance
EF for Ready
mixed Truck
CO2
Emission (t)
70809.6 14161.92 12 169943.04 0.96 163.14
70809.6 14161.92 6 kg/trip 84.97

20. Case Study 2:
CO2 Emission from Construction
of a Single House using
Prefabricating System

21. General Information
Total area 112.65 sq.m
1st floor 65.75 sq.m
2nd floor 46.91 sq.m

22. Scope and Category
• Impact Categories: CO2 Emission from Energy
Usage involved in Construction Process
• Functional Unit: kg of CO2 Emission per Unit Work
• Scope:
– Determining CO2 emission based on energy usage
involved in construction of super-structure of a single
house using prefabrication system. Substructures are
excluded from the study.
– Consider only concrete work start from mixing,
delivery, casting, delivering and installing.

23. Construction Process
Prefabrication Factory
PresentationforW.R.GRACE Seminar 2013

24. System Boundary: Prefabrication Factory
Ready mixed
concrete
Steel
Installing template
Welding steel
Curing
Wastes
Prefabrication
component
Electricity Fuels
CO2
System Boundary
Precast Concrete
Placing concrete
Storage
Trans.
Trans.
Trans.
Trans.

25. Additional Inventory: Prefabrication Equipments
Equipments Energy Type Unit(*)
CO2
emission
(kg-CO2/*)
Rebar Cutter Electricity Time 0.061
Rebar Bender Electricity Time 0.0003
Concrete Vibrator Electricity m3 of
concrete
0.0362
Moving Crane*
Electricity
m3 of
concrete
0.0414
*ได้จากการคานวณจากข้อมูลที่จัดเก็บ
(ระยะเคลื่อนที่ของเครนไฟฟ้าในการขนส่งเฉลี่ยที่ 30 เมตร)
Eอ้างอิงจากสมาคมคอนกรีตแห่งประเทศไทย [3]

26. Construction Process
Installation Process

27. System Boundary: Installation Process
Installing
Welding
components Wastes
Concrete
structure
Electricity Fuels
CO2
System Boundary
Beam , Slab , Wall
Finishing
Trans.
Prefabrication
component
Trans.
Trans.

28. Bill of
Quantity
Type Component Concrete Quantity (m3) Type Component
Concrete Quantity
(m3)
1st Fl. Beam GB21 0.895 2nd Fl Slab S3 1.420
GB22-1 0.312 RC 1.077
GB22-2 0.208 S2 0.660
GB23 0.113 S1A 1.716
GB24 0.336 S4 3.188
GB25 0.320
GB26 0.238
GB27 0.242
GB28 0.281
GB29 0.150
GB30 0.242
GB31 0.499
GB32 0.148
Total 3.984 Total 8.061
1st Fl. Wall W1-2 1.381 2nd Fl. Wall 2W3 0.373
W8 0.789 2W5 0.760
W9-1 0.450 2W4S 1.395
W5 1.025 2W1-1 0.825
W4-2 0.504 2W4 0.583
WB9 0.721 2W8 0.668
WB8 0.152 2W2 1.616
W1-1 0.800 2W10 0.844
W7 0.689 2W11 0.632
W6 0.661 2W1-2 1.331
W2 1.200 2W9 1.585
W3 0.539 2W6S 0.883
W4-1 0.836
Total 9.747 Total 11.495

29. Prefabricating Process
Category Task
EF
kg-CO2/(*)
Unit (*)
Quantity kg-CO2
Ready mixed
Concrete
Materials Ready mixed Concrete(320 ksc.) 335.86 m3 33.29 11,179.64
Process Mixing and loading 1.23 m3 33.29 40.94
Delivery Delivery (10 km) 0.18 m3.km 33.29 31.91
Casting
Process Placing and Compacting 0.03 m3 33.29 0.51
Stocking 1.71 hr.m3 33.29x3.95 3.75
(average moving distance 30 m and average operating time of 3.95 min/m3)
Total 11,256.75

30. Delivery and Installation
Floor Task Equipment
EF
kg-CO2/(*)
Unit
(*)
Quantity kg-CO2
All floor Delivery 18 Wheeler (15 km) 0.014 km.t 44.3 117.69
1st floor Installation
4 Wheel Crane Truck (25 ton) -
Operating Mode
0.198 min 264.1 52.3
2nd Floor Installation
4 Wheel Crane Truck (25 ton) -
Operating Mode
0.198 min 259.0 51.3
Total 121.3

31. Summary

32. Conclusion
• Based on the three main categories: materials,
process, and transportation, it could be seen that
the CO2 Emission of a single house concrete
construction is mainly fell in the material
category.
• Cement is still a major contributor in the CO2
emission from the manufacturing stage to the
construction stage.
• This manual is still far from finished and research
is needed to be carried out in order to fulfill the
gap.