Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo

Cross-laminated bamboo (CLB) is a new type of mass timber product that can be a substitute for traditional non-renewable construction materials. This study conducted a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of CLB panels over 100 years. The LCA was integrat...

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Main Authors: Yinqiao Wang, Kai Lan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Cleaner Environmental Systems
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666789424000813
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author Yinqiao Wang
Kai Lan
author_facet Yinqiao Wang
Kai Lan
author_sort Yinqiao Wang
collection DOAJ
description Cross-laminated bamboo (CLB) is a new type of mass timber product that can be a substitute for traditional non-renewable construction materials. This study conducted a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of CLB panels over 100 years. The LCA was integrated with process model simulation to explore the effects of varied fuel options (combusting bamboo residues or converting bamboo residues into biochar and combusting natural gas) and end-of-life cases on the results, and coupled with Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the uncertainties and variabilities associated with the CLB life cycle stages. Our results show that, on the 1 m3 CLB basis, the average life-cycle global warming potential (GWP) ranged from −318 to −947 kg CO2eq. Combusting the bamboo residues from production processes resulted in lower life-cycle GWP than utilizing bamboo residues to produce biochar and burning natural gas for energy supply. Increasing the recycling rate of CLB panels can further reduce the life-cycle GWP. The landfill decay of bamboo wastes is a significant carbon emission source, highlighting the importance of considering end-of-life cases for CLB panels. Trade-offs emerge among varied environmental impact categories when the scenarios are compared.
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spelling doaj-art-dd4d46e8d2b54feabf6eacc4a130bdcd2025-08-20T02:34:44ZengElsevierCleaner Environmental Systems2666-78942024-12-011510024310.1016/j.cesys.2024.100243Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bambooYinqiao Wang0Kai Lan1Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USACorresponding author.; Department of Forest Biomaterials, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USACross-laminated bamboo (CLB) is a new type of mass timber product that can be a substitute for traditional non-renewable construction materials. This study conducted a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the environmental impacts of CLB panels over 100 years. The LCA was integrated with process model simulation to explore the effects of varied fuel options (combusting bamboo residues or converting bamboo residues into biochar and combusting natural gas) and end-of-life cases on the results, and coupled with Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the uncertainties and variabilities associated with the CLB life cycle stages. Our results show that, on the 1 m3 CLB basis, the average life-cycle global warming potential (GWP) ranged from −318 to −947 kg CO2eq. Combusting the bamboo residues from production processes resulted in lower life-cycle GWP than utilizing bamboo residues to produce biochar and burning natural gas for energy supply. Increasing the recycling rate of CLB panels can further reduce the life-cycle GWP. The landfill decay of bamboo wastes is a significant carbon emission source, highlighting the importance of considering end-of-life cases for CLB panels. Trade-offs emerge among varied environmental impact categories when the scenarios are compared.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666789424000813Life cycle assessmentCross-laminated bambooMass timber productDecarbonization
spellingShingle Yinqiao Wang
Kai Lan
Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
Cleaner Environmental Systems
Life cycle assessment
Cross-laminated bamboo
Mass timber product
Decarbonization
title Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
title_full Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
title_fullStr Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
title_full_unstemmed Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
title_short Life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product: Cross-laminated bamboo
title_sort life cycle assessment of emerging mass timber product cross laminated bamboo
topic Life cycle assessment
Cross-laminated bamboo
Mass timber product
Decarbonization
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666789424000813
work_keys_str_mv AT yinqiaowang lifecycleassessmentofemergingmasstimberproductcrosslaminatedbamboo
AT kailan lifecycleassessmentofemergingmasstimberproductcrosslaminatedbamboo