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Abstract
Considerable amount of energy is spent in the manufacturing processes and transportation of various building materials. Conservation of
energy becomes important in the context of limiting of green house gases emission into the atmosphere and reducing costs of materials. The
paper is focused around some issues pertaining to embodied energy in buildings particularly in the Indian context. Energy consumption in the
production of basic building materials (such as cement, steel, etc.) and different types of materials used for construction has been discussed.
Energy spent in transportation of various building materials is presented. A comparison of energy in different types of masonry has been made.
Energy in different types of alternative roofing systems has been discussed and compared with the energy of conventional reinforced concrete
(RC) slab roof. Total embodied energy of a multi-storeyed building, a load bearing brickwork building and a soilcement block building using
alternative building materials has been compared. It has been shown that total embodied energy of load bearing masonry buildings can be
reduced by 50% when energy efficient/alternative building materials are used.
# 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Energy and building materials; Embodied energy; Energy efficient materials
1. Introduction
Selection of materials and technologies for the building
construction should satisfy the felt needs of the user as well
as the development needs of the society, without causing any
adverse impact on environment. In recent years, awareness
of environmental aspects has grown in the building and
construction sector. Manufacturing processes of building
materials contribute greenhouse gases like CO2 to the atmosphere. There is a great concern and emphasis in reducing the
greenhouse gases emission into the atmosphere in order to
control adverse environmental impacts. Energy requirements
for production and processing of different building materials
and the CO2 emissions and the implications on environment
have been studied by Buchanan and Honey [1], Suzki et al. [2],
Oka et al. [3], and Debnath et al. [4] among others. These
studies pertain to New Zealand, Japan and India.
Indian construction industry is one of the largest in terms
of employing manpower and volume of materials produced
(cement, brick, steel and other materials). Construction
sector in India is responsible for major input of energy
resulting in the largest share of CO2 emissions (22%) into
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: 91-80-309-2327; fax: 91-80-360-0404.
E-mail address: venkat@civil.iisc.ernet.in (B.V. Venkatarama Reddy).
2. Earlier studies
Energy and CO2 implications of building construction in
New Zealand has been examined by Buchanan and Honey
[1]. A detailed analysis of nett carbon emissions resulting
from construction of buildings (in New Zealand) using
different structural materials has been made. The study
concludes that significant decrease in CO2 emissions would
0378-7788/02/$ see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 7 7 8 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 1 4 1 - 4
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B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
Cement
Lime
LP
Steel
Aluminium
Glass
5.85
5.63
2.33
42.0
236.8
25.8
B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
131
132
B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
Table 2
Energy in masonry materials
Type of material
Size (mm)
Stone block
Burnt clay brick
Soilcement block
Energy in one
brick/blocks (MJ)
(Block energy)
(brick energy) (%)
0
4.25
0
4.25
0
100
1.00
1.35
23.5
31.7
1.32
1.62
31.2
38.1
2.58
60.6
The following points are clear from the data given in the
table.
1. Stone blocks do not consume any thermal energy,
whereas burnt clay bricks consume maximum amount of
energy among the alternatives shown in the table.
2. Soilcement block with 6% cement is the most energy
efficient block consuming only 23.5% of burnt clay
brick energy.
3. Soilcement block and hollow concrete block with
78% cement have similar embodied energy values, i.e.
about 30% of the burnt clay brick energy.
4. Steam cured mud blocks consume about 60% of burnt
clay brick energy. This can be attributed to high percentage of lime and fuel used for steaming operations.
Table 3
Energy in transportation of building materials
Number
Type of material
Energy (MJ)
Production
1
2
3
4
5
Sand (m )
Crushed aggregate (m3)
Burnt clay bricks (m3)
Portland cement (tonnes)
Steel (tonnes)
0.0
20.5
2550
5850
42000
Transportation
50 km
100 km
87.5
87.5
100
50
50
175
175
200
100
100
of various building materials, along with the energy consumed in production. Thermal energy spent for natural sand
production is nil, but it requires about 175 MJ of diesel
energy/m3 for transporting it over 100 km distance. Crushed
aggregate consumes about 20 MJ/m3 during its production
and an additional 400800% more during transportation
for distances of 50100 km. The energy spent during transportation of bricks is about 48% of its energy in production,
for distances of 50100 km. Transportation energy required
for hauling high-energy materials such as steel and cement
is marginal when compared to the energy spent during
production.
6. Energy in mortars
Mortar is a mixture of cementitious material and sand. It is
used for the construction of masonry as well as plastering.
Cement mortar, cementsoil mortar, cementpozzolana
mortar are used for masonry construction and plastering.
Cement mortar is a common choice for masonry and rendering works. Cementsoil mortar has been used for the
construction of SMB masonry. Cementpozzolana and LP
mortars can also be used for masonry construction and other
applications. Total energy content of these four types of
mortars is given in Table 4. Details of mortar type, their
proportions and energy content/m3 of mortar are given in
this table. The following observations can be made from the
data given in the table.
B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
Table 4
Energy in mortarsa
Type of mortar
Proportion of materials
Energy/m3
(MJ)
Cement
Soil
Sand
Cement mortar
1
1
0
0
6
8
1268
1006
0.8:0.2b
0.8:0.2b
0
0
6
8
918
736
Cementsoil mortar
1
1
2
2
6
8
849
773
LP mortar
1 (1:2)c
732
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Table 5
Energy in different types of masonry
Energy/m3 of masonry (MJ)
Equivalent of brick
masonry energy (%)
2141
100.0
38.3
45.4
30.2
37.8
65.2
Number
Type of masonry
1
2
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B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
135
Table 6
Energy in different roofs/floor systems (span 3.6 m)
Number
Type of
roof/floor
Energy/m2
of plan
area (MJ)
Equivalent of
RC solid slab
energy (%)
1
2
3
4
5
RC slab
SMB filler slab roof
RC ribbed slab roof
Composite brick panel roof
Burnt clay brick masonry
vault roof
SMB masonry vault roof
Mangalore tile roof
Ferroconcrete roof
730
590
491
560
575
100.0
80.8
67.3
76.7
78.8
418
227
158
57.3
31.1
21.6
6
7
8
Table 7
Total embodied energy in a building
Type of building and specifications
Number of
storeyes
Built-up
area (m2)
Total embodied
energy/100 m2 (GJ)
Equivalent amount of
coal/100 m2 (tonnes)
8
2
2
5120
149.5
160.5
421
292
161
21
15
8
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B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
Fig. 6. Two storeyed load bearing soilcement block masonry building with SMB filler slab roof and floor.
RC building respectively. These values are in close agreement with the energy values of 35 GJ/m2 of built-up area
reported by Debnath et al. [4]. Debnath et al. [4] suggest
using alternative materials for reducing the energy content of
buildings. Use of alternative building materials for building
construction has resulted in considerable reduction (50%)
in the embodied energy of the building (reduction from 2.9
to 1.6 GJ/m2).
10. Conclusions
Embodied energy in basic building materials, different
types of masonry materials, mortars, masonry and floor/
roofing systems and the energy expenditure in transportation
of building materials has been discussed in this paper. The
paper focuses on materials and construction techniques as
practised in India. The following broad conclusions emerge.
1. Soilcement block is the most energy efficient among
the alternative materials for walling, consuming only
one-fourth of the energy of burnt clay brick. Concrete
blocks and steam cured blocks also consume much less
energy during manufacturing process, when compared
to burnt clay brick.
2. Building materials are transported over distances in
excess of 100 km in many urban centres in India. Diesel
energy spent for transportation could be about 510% of
energy spent during manufacturing process for burnt
clay bricks. Energy spent in transporting high-energy
materials like steel and cement is negligible when
compared to the energy spent in the manufacture of
these materials.
3. LP mortars have lowest energy content when compared
with other mortars like cement mortar, cementpozzolana mortar, etc.
B.V. Venkatarama Reddy, K.S. Jagadish / Energy and Buildings 35 (2003) 129137
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