Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176

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Resources, Conservation and Recycling

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Life cycle analysis (LCA) for the incorporation of rice husk ash in mortar coating
a,∗ a
Carlos Alberto Mendes Moraes , Amanda Gonc¸ alves Kieling ,
b b
Marcelo Oliveira Caetano , Luciana Paulo Gomes
b
a University of Vale do Rio Sinos – UNISINOS, Materials Characterization Research Group, Avenue UNISINOS, 950 São Leopoldo, 93.022-000, RS Brazil
University of Vale do Rio Sinos – UNISINOS, Solid Waste Management Research Group, Avenue UNISINOS, 950 São Leopoldo, 93.022-000, RS Brazil

article info abstract

Article history: Considering that the civil construction segment is responsible for a significant amount of the environ-mental impact, once it
Received 19 March 2009 consumes a large amount of natural resources and energy, the incorporation of waste in the process brings sustainable benefits
Received in revised form 1 September 2009 for the companies as well as for society. In addition, the reduction of the useful life of mortar coating related to the lack of
Accepted 24 March 2010 adherence to the substrate pro-vokes a large generation of waste, increasing the environmental liability of the respective
industry. This study aimed to determine the technical and environmental viability of the incorporation of rice husk ash (RHA)
Keywords: waste in mortar coatings, in order to reduce the consumption of natural resources and improve the conditions of adherence of
Life cycle analysis
the cementitious matrix. For this evaluation, mechanical tests were car-ried out to test the adherence to the substrate, besides a
Recycling
survey of all the processes related to mortar coating production, from natural resources extraction till the application of the
Rice husk ash
Mortars product and its conse-quent impact. Finally it was used the life cycle analysis (LCA) tool to evaluate the environmental issue.
Civil construction The results showed an increase of 100% of bond strength for the mortars with 5% addition of RHA, and it was identified,
among the processes surveyed, a smaller number of significant impacts in relation to the mortar with no addition. It is noticed
that, for the conditions of this study, the mortars with RHA addition present better technical and environmental performance
compared to the usual mortars.

© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The growing concern about the production and use of materials and their
environmental aspects has promoted the development of researches focused
on the civil construction segment. It is also observed that this segment is
responsible for a significant amount of environmental impacts, due to the
large consumption of natural resources and energy.
The most efficient way to make the construction industry sus-tainable is
through the incorporation of waste from other industries in their materials
(Mehta, 2001). In this way, the waste recycling by the civil construction
industry has been consolidating itself as an important practice for
sustainability, be it reducing the envi-ronmental impact generated by the
segment, be it reducing costs. However, it is noticed in the related works, a
larger concern about evaluating the technological results of the applications,
without studying the necessary environmental parameters that must be
considered to viable the studied recycling waste.
The use of mortar coating, a product which is largely used by the segment,
causes significant environmental impacts. Starting by its composition, formed
by non-renewable raw-materials (cement, lime and sand), and, secondly, by
the reduction of its useful life due to the lack of adherence to the substrate,
which increases the civil construction environmental liability. Many
researches demon-strate that the incorporation of waste containing silica such
as rice husk ash (RHA) on pastes and mortars promotes a better perfor-mance
of the product. On the other hand, it is observed a lack in studying issues
related to the possible impacts that RHA recycling may generate.
Within this context, this work aimed at applying the life cycle analysis
(LCA) methodology to qualitatively compare the environ-mental performance
of mortar coating composed by cement, lime and sand, replacing part of the
volume of cement for rice husk ashes.
1.1. Environmental aspects and impacts evaluation

The NBR ISO 14001 (ABNT, 2004) defines environmental aspect as the
∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 51 3591 1224; fax: +55 51 3590 8162. E-mail element from the organization ’s
activities, products or ser-vices that
addresses: cmoraes@unisinos.br (C.A.M. Moraes), can interact with the environment. The concept of
amandakieling@hotmail.com (A.G. Kieling), marcelo@projeconsult.com.br (M.O.
Caetano), lugomes@unisinos.br (L.P. Gomes). environmental impact described by the norms refers to any
0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
mod-ification of the environment, adverse or beneficial,
doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.03.012 which results,
 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176
partially or totally, from the environmental aspects of the organi-zation.
According to Höjer et al. (2008), due to the world changes and problems
related to the environmental aspects and impacts gener-ated by society, there
is a need to look for efficient and powerful tools for understanding the
economical and technological evolu-tion, as well as the environmental
systems evolution, in order to have a larger interaction between society and
the organization planning.
The importance of identifying and evaluating the environmental aspects,
according to Zobel et al. (2002), is related to:
• Being required by the environmental management system;
• Finding the significant environmental aspects;
• Tools to implement environmental adjustments in the system;
• Tools to promote continuous improvement.
The concern related to the environmental impacts generated by society has
induced the development of new tools and methods that aim to help the
understanding with control and the reduction of those impacts. There is, then,
a number of different tools used in the analysis of the environmental impacts,
which have been developed by various authors. Höjer et al. (2008) classify
those tools in:
• Procedural tools: evaluation of the environmental impact, evaluation of
environmental strategies and environmental man-agement systems—
focused on procedures and connections for decision making;
• Analytical tools: analysis of life cycle, material flow analysis—focused on
the technical aspects of the analysis;
• Tools that include economical aspects: analysis of cost-benefit, life cycle
cost, inputs and outputs analysis.
In the same way, for the estimate of the significant aspects and impacts,
there is a series of methodologies already studied. Accord-ing to Zobel and e
Burman (2004) and Zobel et al. (2002), these are the main criteria used:
• The scale of the impact;
• The severity of the impact;
• The probability of occurrence;
• The permanence of the impact;
• The current or potential legal/regulatory exposition;
• The difficulty to change the impact;
• The relation with the parts involved.
Zobel et al. (2002) propose the use of the LCA method, accord-ing to ISO
14040 (Environmental Management: LCA—Principles and Structure) and
ISO/WD 14042 (Environmental Management: LCA—Impact Analysis) and
the documentation format according to ISO 14048, as a way to determine the
significant environmental aspects. According to those authors, this
proposition was taken for being a method with scientific rigor and with the
possibility of being repeated. As a conclusion, the method has proved to be
appropri-ate, although initially it represented an increase of work. However, it
is expected to be reduced later, because the information such as definition of
limits and description of process unities do not need to be updated frequently,
once they do not change from 1 year to another.
1.2. Life cycle analysis
The LCA is a procedure to evaluate the impact of the resources, of the
environment and the health of a system (production process, product or
service). In this case, the system is the process net nec-
essary to provide a specific service (Jørgensen´ et al., 2004). This tool
1171
can be used to obtain a better understanding of the whole system used to
produce a specific product and, consequently, improve it (Chehebe, 1997).
The LCA, standardized by ISO 14.040 (ABNT, 2001), is an instru-ment of
evaluation of the environmental impact associated to a product or process that
comprehend phases that go from the extraction from nature of the elementary
raw-materials that belong to the productive system to the final product
disposal after being used. From this point of view, the LCA consists of a
support-ing technique for environmental management and for sustainable
development.
The methodology of LCA application comprehends 4 main phases:
definition of the objective; definition of the scope; anal-ysis of the inventory
and evaluation of the impact. The definition of the objective describes the aim
of the LCA use and the decisions used as support. The definition of the scope
defines the physical characteristics and the geographical frontiers of the
system to be analyzed, the functional unity, the amount of services (variable)
that supply the system, being those variables organized in dif-ferent scenarios.
The analysis of the inventory registers the data concerning the variables
involved, allocations among the variables, considering the environmental
relevance. The analysis of impact is the interpretation of the results obtained
in the analysis of the inventory, considering the satisfactory data for the
decision making
(Jørgensen´ et al., 2004).
The LCA applied in the civil construction can be used as envi-ronmental
diagnosis and prognosis of the various areas, being more easily applied and
used in the production of civil construction mate-rials (Carvalho, 2002). It is
known that the selection of products for the civil construction that cause as
less impact as possible on nature is a way to reduce the damages caused to the
natural environment during the extraction of raw-materials. However,
identifying prod-ucts economically and environmentally viable is not an easy
task (Lippiatt, 1998).
Mastella et al. (2001) emphasize that there are not better mate-rials but
processes that present differentiated aspects regarding particular requirements.
The choice for one specific material will depend on specific needs of each
plant or each company.
The concern regarding the production and use of materials and their
environmental aspects is in line with the concept of sus-tainable development
which involves, among other issues, those related to the civil construction
segment. So, according to Druszcz (2002), the use of constructive systems and
less impacting materi-als must be encouraged. The pursuit of a sustainable
development demands a reduction of waste from the process, as well as the
arousal of new administrative strategies that minimize the envi-ronmental
impacts (Güereca et al., 2006).
In this context, many researches use the LCA tool to verify the
environmental impacts consequent from the use of a specific waste. Lee and
Park (2005) used the LCA tool to quantify the environmental credits of the
recycling blast furnace slag. The results demonstrated a larger amount of
environmental credits when the waste was used as raw-material for the
manufacturing of Portland cement and slag cement.
Gäbel and Tillman (2005) analyzed the life cycle for 9 processes of
different cement manufacturing. The results of the analysis demonstrated that
the emissions of the process can be reduced from 30 to 80% when waste is
incorporated and alternative fuel is used.
Navia et al. (2006) studied, through ACV, the use of volcanic soil
contaminated by heavy metals as raw-material for the produc-tion of cement.
Two scenarios were compared: Scenario 1 which corresponds to the process
of production of the existing cement, and Scenario 2 which represents the
production of cement using contaminated volcanic soil. The comparative
results were favor-able to Scenario 2, especially considering the ecotoxicity
category,
1172 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176

mainly for avoiding the emissions of volcanic soil when disposed in landfill. Table 1
CP II F 32 compressive strength.
The authors concluded that the use of alternative raw-materials (in this case,
contaminated volcanic soil), which are the waste from another process, makes Ages 24 h 3 days 7 days 28 days

possible the development of cement production in a more sustainable way, NBR 11578 – >10 MPa >20 MPa >32 MPa
making the process slightly cheaper. CPIIE32 10 MPa 25 MPa 30 MPa 39 MPa
Table 2

1.3. Incorporation of materials in civil construction—rice husk ash RHA main characteristics.

Test Result
The civil construction industry responds for a significant amount of the
Test of fire loss Fire loss of 10.5%
impacts generated by human activities on the environ-ment, because its inputs
Chemical analysis The predominant element in
are big consumers of natural resources and energy. One way to minimize the RHA is silicon (Si). Presents
impacts generated by this segment is through the incorporation of industrial potassium (K), calcium (Ca),
waste for the development of materials and constructive processes, making phosphorus (P), iron (Fe),
pos-sible also the reduction in the costs of construction products. sulfur (S) and aluminum (Al) in
smaller amount, and traces of
magnesium (Mg), chlorine (Cl),
It has been demonstrated that the use of recycled materials is manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn),
environmentally preferred, once the environmental impacts asso-ciated to the titanium (Ti)
process of recycled materials are smaller than those associated to the X-rays diffractogram RHA appears mostly in
amorphous state
extraction and processing of raw-material (Lee and Park, 2005).
Test of scanning electron microscopy Homogeneous particles, not
being observed the original
A large number of researches point towards the use of waste in the civil longitudinal structure of the
construction industry. The development and use of cement containing mineral rice hull
admixture, is growing rapidly (Chindaprasirt and Rukzon, 2008). The mineral
additions in cement in the form of pozzolanic material have been used with
the aim of improving the mechanical strength and durability of mortar,
according to NBR 15270-2 (ABNT, 2005a) and NBR 15270-3 (ABNT,
associated to cost savings and the reduction of environmental impacts.
2005a), were in accordance to the criteria defined by the respective normative.
In this context, the rice husk ash appears as a pozzolanic mate-rial due to
The lime used in the mortar mixes was the hydrated lime CH-II DB.
its high amount of SiO2 . In Brazil, most of the works that study the rice husk
According to the manufacturer’s recommendations, before its use, the lime
ash in civil construction show that large part of those ashes present pozzolanic
remained at rest for 24 h after mixed with water.
characteristics, originated from their amorphous chemical structure and from
The sand used was surveyed, according to NBR NM 248 (ABNT, 2003),
their high concen-tration of silica.
to verify its particle size composition, being framed within the useful zone,
The cement paste containing silica, in regard to the Port-land cement paste that is, appropriate for the mortar coating manu-facturing.
with no additions, tends to exhibit a denser microstructure, less heterogeneous
and more compact, and with smaller proportion of voids developed. The The cement used in the mortar mixing was CP II F 32-CAUÊ. According
reaction of silica with calcium hydroxide formed in the cement hydration to the manufacturer’s data, the cement attends to the specifications of the
generates a resistant compound of hydrated calcium silicate. This compound Brazilian Association of Technical Normative, regarding its physical,
tends to fulfill the big capillary voids, with excellent characteristics of chemical and mechanical characteristics. In Table 1, it is presented the
adherence, different and even better than the hydrated calcium silicate mechanical resistance to compression, informed by the manufacturer.
obtained with the hydration of Portland cement (Silva and Libório, 2003).
Finally, the rice husk ash (RHA) used in the substitution was pro-duced in
laboratory, via fluidized bed, under controlled conditions. The temperature of
◦
In this way, when introducing materials in mortars, such as rice husk ash burning was 700 C and the residence time was 24 h. The physical–chemical
(high amount of silica), it will be possible to have a more effective link for the characterization and the analysis of the Index of Pozzolanic Activity of the
improvement of the paste versus aggregate, or paste versus substrate, rice hull ash done in Kieling et al. (2008) indicate the potentiality of the use of
interface zone (Silva, 2004). the material as an addition in Portland cement. The main RHA characteristics
Regarding the technological performance, it becomes evident that the use used in this work are described in Table 2.
of rice husk ash improves the properties of mortar coating adherence.
However, it is noticed a lack of researches that consider the developing
product life cycle. Due to what exposed above, it is reinforced that this work
2.2. Methods
considers in its analysis both the technological and the environmental aspects,
relevant to the application of rice husk ash in mortars. Various were the phases developed, beginning with the prepa-ration of the
substrate and the mortar (with and without RHA), and with the execution of
the coating. Later on, it was determined the resistance to adherence of the
2. Materials and methods coating mortars and the use of an LCA. The details of each phase are indicated
as follows.
2.1. Materials

The materials used in this work were previously tested and analyzed in 2.2.1. Substrate production
The substrates of coating mortar application were manufactured with
order to know the characteristics and all the elements of study. The structural
structural ceramic blocks, set with mixed mortar in the pro-portion1:2.3:10.3
ceramic blocks used in the manufacturing of substrates were identified as
Pauluzzi Est 140 mm × 190 mm × 290 mm. The results of characterization, (cement:lime:sand), with 1 cm joints, summing up three 0.9 m × 0.8 m of
walls.
 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176 1173
Table 3

Mortar composition in volume.

Mortar Cement Ash Lime Sand Consistency (mm) Water Water/binder

A0 1 0 2 9 260 2.25 2.25
A5 1 0.05 2.11 9.47 290 2.21 2.21
A10 1 0.10 2.22 9.99 300 2.25 2.25

Table 4 Table 5
Operating situation. Frequency requirements or probability of occurrence of an aspect/impact.
Situation Description Frequency Notes

Normal (N) Situations that are expected and related to the Occurrence < 10% 1
operational routine 10% ≤ occurrence < 20% 2
Emergencial (E) Unexpected events that may cause serious 20% ≤ occurrence < 30% 3
damage to the environment and or to the 30% ≤ occurrence < 40% 4
worker’s health 40% ≤ occurrence < 50% 5
50% ≤ occurrence < 60% 6
60% ≤ occurrence < 70% 7
2.2.2. Mortar preparation 70% ≤ occurrence < 80% 8
80% ≤ occurrence < 90% 9
The mortars used were prepared with the trace 1:2:9 (cement:lime:sand), 90% ≤ occurrence < 100% 10
and with rice hull ash substitution of 5% and 10% in relation to the cement
volume, once the materials present different specific mass. The relation
water/binder was experimen-tally determined by fixing a consistency for fresh the degree of risk, which can be classified according to the caption presented
mortar of 240 mm, according to the NBR 13276 (ABNT, 2005b). In Table 3, in Fig. 2.
it is pre-sented the composition of the prepared mortars, being all the The LCA of each product was evaluated through comparing the degree of
constituents measured in volume. risk of the aspect and related impact, determined accord-ing to Fig. 1. It was
considered meaningful the emergency aspects and those with serious and
intolerable degree of risk.
2.2.3. Coating execution Besides, it was considered as a criterion for the LCA the number of
After 14 days, the substrates were coated by the same official mason with aspects/impacts classified as moderated, serious, and intolerable for each
mortars (according to the preparation specified in Sec-tion 2.2.2) in the process identified.
thickness of 2 cm, being those mortars directly applied to the base without the
use of roughcast. After, the mason-ries with mortar coating were cured in 3. Results
laboratory environment during 28 days.
3.1. Tack resistance to traction

2.2.4. Tack resistance to traction
Concluded the period specified for the curing (28 days), it was determined
the tack resistance to traction of the applied coatings in relation to the
substrate and the settlement mortar. The adherence tests were performed
according to the NBR 13528 (ABNT, 1995), being used circular bodies of
evidence, with 50 mm diameter with testing apparatus for mortar
tearing/capacity 20 kN.
According to NBR 13528 (ABNT, 1995), the results must corre-spond to
the average between at least five determinations with the same type of
rupture, and it is required a minimal (bond strength) of 0.2 MPa for internal
coatings (coating thickness equal to 20 mm) and 0.3 MPa for external
coatings.
The average results achieved indicate: 0.22 MPa of adherence to the
substrate or the mortar with no addition of RHA; 0.44 MPa for the mortar
with 5% of RHA and 0.27 MPa for the mortar with 10% of RHA.
It is observed that the mortar with 5% of addition presented a higher value
of adherence resistance to the substrate, with addi-tion of 100% of the value in
relation to the mortar with no addition. Yet, the mortar with 10% addition
presented a value slightly higher than the one with no addition. It is worth
notice that the mortars with RHA added presented rupture in the mortar,
indicating that the resistance was superior to the resistance to the mortar trac-
tion, while the mortar with no addition presented rupture in the interface
mortar/substrate.

2.2.5. Life cycle analysis
For the LCA of the use of A0, A5 and A10 mortar coatings, it was
developed a qualitative evaluation. In order to do so, it was based on the
evaluation criteria of the environmental aspects and impacts used in the
environmental management system by University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos-
UNISINOS (Gomes, 2008).
The method used at Unisinos was adapted to the present study, and the
main criteria of evaluation are indicated below.
It was identified all the production phases of cement coating mortar, sand
Besides, evaluating the application of the type of coating indi-cated by the
NBR 13528 (ABNT, 1995), it is verified that the mortar with 5% addition can
be used for internal coating (tack resistance to traction higher than 0.2 MPA),
and for external as well (tack
Table 6
Requirements of an aspect/impact severity (intensity and/or potential gravity of the impact).
Severity Notes

and lime, and also with addition of 5% and 10% of rice hull ash. Inexistence of environmental impact 0
Environmental impact restrict to the local of occurrence 1
Environmental impact restrict to the company, reversible 2
The characterization process of environmental aspects and impacts
with preventive actions
considered four criteria: operating situation, frequency or probability of Environmental impact restrict to the company, reversible 3
aspects and impact occurrence, severity, and degree of risk. Tables 4–6, and with corrective actions
Fig. 1 present, respectively, these criteria with the marks adopted for each Environmental impact non-restrict to the company, 4
case. reversible with corrective actions
Environmental impact restrict or not to the company, with 5
The crosschecking between frequency/probability × severity of risk,
irreversible consequences
through the multiplication between those parameters, defines
1174 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176

Fig. 1. Chart of the matrix of degree of risk (combination of frequency/probability × severity).

resistance to traction higher than 0.3 MPa). On the other hand, the adherence to improve the coating mortar characteristics commonly used, besides
results for mortar with no addition and for mortar with 10% CCA indicate its attesting the concern with the environment.
application only in internal coatings. The limits of the LCA proposed are presented in the flowchart of Fig. 3
and refer to the activities involved until the application of A0, A5 and A10
3.2. Life cycle analysis mortars in substrate of structural ceramic block. They do not take into
consideration the impacts caused by the productive process of the ceramic
3.2.1. Scope block, neither the generation of demolition waste nor its recycling after the
The aim of the LCA of the conventional coating mortar and mortar with mortar is applied.
substitution of rice hull ash (RHA) is to evaluate the applicability in real scale
of the latter in civil constructions 3.2.2. Inventory
The collecting data for the LCA evaluation was done from the
identification of 16 processes and 16 respective spreadsheets of aspects and
impacts related to the production processes of cement,

Fig. 3. Flowchart of mortar life cycle. The dotted chart represents the differentiated
Fig. 2. Chart of the classification of the degree of risk.
phases of the A5 and A10 Mortars (those with RHA addition)
production process.
 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176 1175
Table 7

Environmental aspects and impacts identified through process.

Process Aspects and Impacts of process

Without RHA With RHA

Total Signif. Total Signif.

Limestone extraction 22 9 22 5
Clay extraction 18 4 18 4
Clay transportation 11 4 11 4
Gypsum extraction 20 4 20 4
Gypsum transportation 12 4 12 4
Limestone crushing 25 10 25 6
Limestone transportation 12 5 12 4
Cement manufacturing 32 14 32 6
Cement transportation 12 6 12 4
Lime manufacturing 12 4 12 4
Lime transportation 12 4 12 4
Generation of rice husk ash 0 0 5 0
Beneficiation of rice husk ash 0 0 25 3
CCA transportation 0 0 12 4
Sand extraction 20 10 20 10
Sand transportation 11 4 11 4
Sand production 16 5 16 5
Mixture with cement, ash, water, lime and sand 14 7 14 7
Mortar application 8 1 8 1
Total 257 95 299 83

sand and lime (A0) coating mortar, and 19 processes and spread-sheets related
to the production processes of coating mortars of cement, sand, lime and
substitution of 5% of RHA (A5) and 10% of RHA (A10).
Based on these spreadsheets it was obtained all the impacts and their
significance classification, in order to define the life cycle of each mortar.
Table 8 presents the classification of the aspects and environ-mental
impacts for A0, A5 and A10 mortars. It is verified that for A0 mortar the
number of moderated (MO), serious (SE) and intol-erable (IN)
aspects/impacts is, respectively, 47, 31 and 19. For A5 and A10, the number of
SE and IN aspects/impacts equals 23 and 9, respectively. For the moderated
aspects/impacts there is a differ-ence, being identified 68 for A5 mortars and
61 for A10.

3.2.3. Environmental impact analysis 3.2.4. Interpretation

Table 7
presents the amount of environmental aspects and impacts raised through
process and how many of those were pointed as significant for the coating
mortars. For the A0 mortar it was identi-fied a total of 257 environmental
impacts (95 significant, 47 of them emergency), and for the A5 and A10 a
total of 299 environmental impacts, 83 of them significant (51 emergency
impacts).
With the evaluation of the aspects and environmental impact spreadsheets,
generated according to Table 7, it is noticed that a larger number of
environmental impacts identified in mortars with RHA (299 environmental
impacts identified) is justified by the exis-tence of more productive processes
(generation, beneficiation and ash transportation) in relation to those without
RHA (257 environ-mental impacts identified). Even with a larger amount of
impacts,

Table 8
Classification of the aspects and environmental impacts.

Process Aspect and environmental impacts

RHA 0% RHA 5% RHA 10%

IN SE MO IN SE MO IN SE MO
Limestone extraction 2 4 4 0 2 7 0 2 4
Clay extraction 0 1 5 0 1 5 0 1 5
Clay transportation 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
Gypsum extraction 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3
Gypsum transportation 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
Limestone crushing 3 4 3 0 3 7 0 3 4
Limestone transportation 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 1 1
Cement manufacturing 3 8 5 1 2 10 1 2 8
Cement transportation 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 1 2
Lime manufacturing 0 1 6 0 1 6 0 1 6
Lime transportation 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1
Rice hull ash generation 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
Beneficiation of rice husk ash 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 6
RHA transportation 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2
Sand extraction 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 3 4
Sand transportation 1 0 2 1 0 2 1 0 2
Sand production 1 1 3 1 1 3 1 1 3
Mixture with cement, ash, water, lime, and sand 2 2 5 1 3 5 1 3 5
Mortar application 1 0 2 1 0 2 1 0 2
Total 19 31 47 9 23 68 9 23 61
1176 C.A.M. Moraes et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 1170–1176
these mortars have a smaller number of those classified as signifi-cant (83 or
28% out of the total), comparing to the mortar without RHA, which
represents 95 or 37% out of the total.
Regarding the A5 and A10 mortars, according to Table 8, it is perceived
an equal amount of significant impacts, and of impacts classified as serious
and intolerable. The difference relies on the amount of moderated impacts,
being the number of these impacts equal 68 for A5 and equal 61 for A10.
Based on these interpretations, the life cycle analysis, related to the
application of the studied coating mortars, shows that those added with RHA
are more relevant and appropriate comparing to the mortar with usual coating,
within the conditions considered in this work.
According to the method used, it is observed that the higher the RHA
content in the mortar is, the bigger is the possibility of atten-uating impacts
that are more aggressive to the environment. Such fact is a consequence of the
reduction of the probability/frequency of aspects/impacts occurrence for the
activities related to cement production. This can be clearly perceived by
analyzing Table 7. As the incorporation of RHA in the mortar is a substitution
to cement, in all the studied processes that are directly involved in the man-
ufacturing of cement (extraction, crushing and transportation of limestone,
and manufacturing and transportation of cement) there is a reduction in the
production and, consequently, reduction of the probability/frequency of the
aspect/impact occurrence, which gen-erates the reduction of significant
impacts. Comparing A0 and A5 for the “limestone extraction” process, for
example, the reduction of the impacts considered significant amounts 55%,
approximately.
4. Conclusion
The analysis of the results from this work potentiates the use of rice hull
ash as a pozolanic material applied in coating mortars.
Technically, the results of resistance to adherence indicate a superior
performance of the mortar added with 5% RHA, which can be used in internal
and external coatings. The results achieved for the resistance to adherence of
mortars with 10% RHA, and for the one with no addition, limit their use for
internal coat-ing only. Regarding the environment, comparing to the mortar
with no addition, the mortars with RHA incorporation presented a smaller
number of significant environmental impacts. This occurred because the
consumption of cement is higher for the mortar with no addition, causing the
increase of the number of significant impacts related to the activities of
cement manufactur-ing (extraction, crushing, and transportation of limestone;
cement manufacturing and transportation).
Considering the application and environmental technical aspects of the
manufactured mortars, it is observed that the A5 mortar reveals to be more
relevant and appropriate comparing to A0 and A10 mortars. The last two
present similar technical perfor-mance, being the environmental performance
of A10 superior.
In this way, it is suggested that the viability of a waste addition in
conventional mortars should consider not only the improve-ment of the
characteristics of the cementitious matrix, but also the environmental
sustainability issues. The LCA is an environmental tool with potential to
evaluate the sustainability of a new prod-uct. Anyway, it is necessary to go
deeper into the quantification of the results, in order to be able to measure
social and economical gains.
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