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Environmental performance of three innovative calcium carbonate-based consolidants used in the field of built cultural heritage

  • GREEN CHEMISTRY
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Abstract

Purpose

In this study, the environmental performance of three newly developed materials for the conservation of built Cultural Heritage is preliminary evaluated by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). Although LCA has been adopted since many years in many fields, including the construction industry, still it is barely used the field of the Cultural Heritage conservation. Therefore, this paper aims to put a step forward to a wider use of the method for a more sustainable conservation of built heritage.

Methods

Cradle-to-gate approach was applied, which includes activities beginning with production of constituent and ancillary materials and concluding with the manufacturing of the product and its packaging. The functional unit was the production of 1 kg of the consolidant stored in a canister and ready to use. Ecoinvent database was used for the life cycle inventory of chemicals. This database was also taken into account to evaluate impacts related with energy (electricity) needs during manufacturing of the consolidants and production of polyethylene canisters (packaging material). The IMPACT 2002+ method was used to select the impact categories.

Results and discussion

The consolidants under investigation are calcium acetoacetate and two calcium alkoxides (calcium ethoxide and calcium isopropoxide). In the case of calcium acetoacetate consolidant, the highest environmental impact is related to the use of acetone dicarboxylic acid as raw material. Manufacturing process of the final product is not an energy-demanding process; hence, it is regarded as relatively clean from the environmental point of view. In the case of calcium ethoxide and calcium isopropoxide nanosuspensions, the innovative materials just recently developed for conservation purpose, manufacturing has been performed and optimized at a kg/lab scale; therefore, the results must be considered provisional. The two calcium alkoxides nanosuspensions show a relatively high environmental footprint that reflect the high consumption of ancillary materials, i.e. solid CO2 used to cool down the reaction and liquid ammonia as catalyst, currently released in the atmosphere.

Conclusions

The environmental footprint of calcium acetoacetate is relatively low showing that 1 kg of the consolidant is associated to 0.32 kg of CO2 equivalent emissions. In the case of two calcium alkoxides nanosuspensions, the global warming impact amounts to 198 kg (calcium ethoxide, 1 kg) and 132 kg (calcium isopropoxide, 1 kg) of CO2 equivalent emissions. Given the planned optimization of the industrial production currently under investigation, the environmental footprint of the two calcium alkoxides nanosuspensions is expected to reduce between 60 and 85%.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the European Commission’s financial support for the NANOMATCH project (FP7/2011-2014, grant agreement no. 283182) and HEROMAT project (FP7/2011-2015, project reference: 282992).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Dimičeva ulica 12, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Janez Turk, Alenka Mauko Pranjić, Luka Škrlep & Andrijana Sever Škapin

  2. Italian National Research Council, Institute for Energetics and Interphases, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova, Italy

    Patrizia Tomasin & Monica Favaro

  3. ABCR Laboratorios S.L., Polígono Industrial de Vilapouca, Forcarei, 36555, Pontevedra, Spain

    José Antelo

  4. Italian National Research Council, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova, Italy

    Adriana Bernardi

  5. Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Bul. Cara Lazara 1, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia

    Jonjaua Ranogajec

  6. Universidad Estatal Amazonica, Km 2 1/2 via Puyo-Tena, paso lateral Canton, Pastaza, Ecuador

    Matteo Chiurato

Authors
  1. Janez Turk
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  2. Alenka Mauko Pranjić
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  3. Patrizia Tomasin
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  4. Luka Škrlep
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  5. José Antelo
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  6. Monica Favaro
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  7. Andrijana Sever Škapin
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  8. Adriana Bernardi
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  9. Jonjaua Ranogajec
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  10. Matteo Chiurato
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Correspondence to Janez Turk.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Ivan Muñoz

Janez Turk and Matteo Chiurato contributed equally to this article.

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Turk, J., Pranjić, A.M., Tomasin, P. et al. Environmental performance of three innovative calcium carbonate-based consolidants used in the field of built cultural heritage. Int J Life Cycle Assess 22, 1329–1338 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1260-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1260-8

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