British Precast Architectural and Structural (BPAS) - 1m³ Of Precast Concrete Ground Beam

Declared Unit - 1m³ of Precast Concrete Ground Beam

Description:

The product covered in this EPD is a generic 1m³ of precast concrete ground beam. Concrete beams are made of cement, aggregates, water and (if needed) admixtures. In most cases the beam will be reinforced with steel bars.

The beams covered by this EPD have been manufactured through casting into preformed moulds. The dry components (a mixture of coarse and fine aggregates and cement) are thoroughly mixed before a measured amount of water is added and the mix is poured into the mould. Once demoulded, the beams are cured outside. This is an association declaration which uses average data from member companies of British Precast Architectural and Structural. It is based on data covering a period of 12 months (From January to December 2014). All data was collected from UK factories.

The type of EPD is Cradle to Gate with all options declared – This equates to a cradle to grave EPD without the inclusion of module D. The modules considered in the Life Cycle Assessment are modules A1-C4 inclusive.

Interpretation:

Interrogation of the LCA results show that the cradle-to-grave GWP (Global Warming Potential) impact of 1m³ of precast concrete ground beam is 447 kgCO₂e (Modules A1-C4).

For GWP, A1-A3 accounts for 99% of the lifecycle impact with carbonation reducing the overall impact by 8%. Further analysis of the GWP figures show that the largest contributors to this value are cement (71%), Steel (12%) and transport (10%).

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