Embodied Energy in Buildings

Prof. B. V. Venkatarama Reddy

Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore – 560 012
Need for
examining energy in buildings?
 Indian construction Industry

• Employment generation
• Volume of materials produced
• Annual expenditure
Historical developments in building materials

Type of Material Period

Mud, stones, wood/thatch Prior 8000 BC
Sun dried bricks 6000 BC
Pottery products 4000 – 8000 BC
Burnt Bricks 4000 BC
Lime 3000 BC
Glass 1300 BC
Iron products 1350 BC
Lime-pozzolana cement 300 BC – 476 AD
Aluminium 1808 AD
Portland Cement 1824 AD
Plastics 1862
Common building materials
Burnt clay Bricks
Stones, Concrete
blocks
Cement, Steel,
Concrete
Aluminum, Zinc, SS
Glass
Tiles (ceramic/burnt)
Plastics/PVC
Paints, Timber
 Common building materials
Burnt clay Bricks Mud
Stones, Concrete Unburnt bricks,
blocks Lime
Cement, Steel, Wood/bamboo/re
Concrete eds
Aluminum, Zinc, SS Country tiles
Glass Stone boulders
Tiles (ceramic/burnt) Thatch
Plastics/PVC
Paints, Timber
 Materials consumed in bulk quantities

Type of material Current annual Annual

consumption Consumption
by 2020
Burnt clay bricks 170 X 109 Nos. 260 X 109 Nos.
Cement 110 X 106 t 260 X 106 t
Structural Steel 12 X 106 t 25 X 106 t
Coarse aggregates 300 X 106 m3 750 X 106 m3
Sand 300 X 106 m3 750 X 106 m3
 200

Housing Shortage
180 Housing stock
No. of households

160

140

120
In Millions

100

80

60

40

20

0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Year

Housing demand and existing housing stock

Annual cement capacity and production in India
 Energy consumed in manufacture of
building materials
--------------------------------------------------
Current annual Consumption by
Consumption 2020
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2500 X 106 GJ 5000 X 106 GJ
or
~ 150 X 106 t of coal equivalent
Currently Building industry contributes:

---- 22% of CO2 emissions

Ex. Material resource consumption

Brick making: Fertile soil is used

Arable land: 1.62 X 106 sq. km.

Top soil consumption for bricks

1000 sq.km. (300mm depth)/year

@2.5% compound growth

Brick making can consume 300mm top
soil in ~75 years
Environment/resources conservation / protection

---- GHG emission reduction

---- Energy conservation
---- conservation of resources

How to achieve this?

1) Use energy efficient alternatives
2) Adopt energy efficient processes in manufacture
3) Switchover to renewable energy sources
4) Reduce transportation
5) Recycling of solid wastes into building products
6) Maximum use of local resources & skills
 Energy in buildings
Energy for maintenance Capital Energy
/servicing (Embodied energy)

• Material production
• Transportation
• Assembling into a
building
Low energy building materials
& technologies
Soil-cement blocks / Stabilised Mud Blocks

Definition/Concept/process

Mixture of
1) soil or and fines,
2) sand,
3) stabiliser (cement/lime) and
4) water

compacted into a high density block & cured

SMB production
Blocks of different shapes & sizes
3 storeyed load bearing
SMB vaults
Intersecting vaults
SMB Filler slab roof
Ferrocement channel roof
Composite beam and panel roof
Composite jack-arch panel roof
Energy in basic building materials

Type of material Energy

(MJ per kg)
Cement 4.5
Lime 5.63
Lime-pozzolana 2.33
Steel 42.0
Aluminum 236.8
Glass 25.8
Mangalore tile 6 - 15 per tile
 Energy in masonry materials
Type of unit Size (mm) Energy in 1 block Energy per brick
or brick (MJ) equiv. (MJ)

Size stone 180 X 180 x 180 0 0

Burnt clay 230 X 105 X 70 4.25 4.25 (100%)

brick
Soil-cement 230 X 190 X 100 2.60 (6% C) 1.00 (23.5%)
block 230 X 190 X 100 3.50 (8% C) 1.35 (31.7%)
Hollow 400 X 200 X 200 12.30 (7% C) 1.32 (31.2%)
concrete block 400 X 200 X 200 15.00 (10% C) 1.62 (38.1%)
Steam cured 230 X 190 x 100 6.70 (10% L) 2.58 (60.6%)
block
 Energy in Transportation
Type of Material Unit Energy in (MJ)
Production Transportation
50km 100km
1. Sand m3 0.0 87.5 175

2. Crushed aggregate m3 20.5 87.5 175

3. Burnt clay brick m3 2550 100 200

4. Cement tonne 5850 50 100

5. Steel tonne 42,000 50 100

 Energy in masonry unit

Energy in masonry

Energy in mortar
 Energy in mortars
Mortar type Proportion (by vol.) Energy per
m3 (MJ)
Cement Soil Sand
Cement mortar 1 0 6 1405

Cement mortar 1 0 8 1091

Cement-pozz. mortar 0.8:0.2 0 6 941

Cement-soil mortar 1 2 6 865

LP mortar 1 (1:2) 0 3 756

 Energy in masonry
Type of masonry Energy per m3 (MJ)
1. Burnt brick masonry 2141 (100%)

2. Hollow concrete 819 (38.3%)

block masonry (7% C blocks)
971 (45.4%)
(10% C blocks)
3. Soil-cement block 646 (30.2%)
masonry (6% C blocks)
810 (37.8%)
(8% C blocks)
Burnt bricks: Clay is destroyed

Soil-cement block:
Clay intact, aggregation of silt
& sand particles
 Energy in different roofing systems
(span: 3.6m)
Energy/m2 Equiv.
Type of roof of roof energy of
(plan) (MJ) R. C. roof
1. Composite beam-panel roof 500 0.59
2. R.C. ribbed slab roof 556 0.66
3. Brick masonry vault roof 601 0.71
4. Soil-cement block masonry vault 469 0.55
5. Ferrocement panel roof 111 0.13
6. SMB filler slab roof 686 0.81
7. Mangalore tile roof 221 0.26
8. R. C. roof 847 1.00
 Total embodied energy in a building
Type of building No. of Embodied Equivalent
storeyes & energy per amount of
built-up area 100m2 (GJ) coal (tonnes)
R. C. frame with 8
brick in-filled
walls
5120 m2 421 21
Load bearing 2
brickwork, R.C.
slab, Mosaic floor
149.5 m2 292 15
Soil-cement block 2
masonry, filler
slab, terracotta
160.5 m2 161 8
tile floor
Recycling of solid wastes
 Type of solid wastes
• Fly ash (105 mil. tons/annum)
• Coal mine wastes (50 mil. tons/annum)
• Lime stone waste (18 mil. tons/annum)
• Blast furnace slag (11 mil. tons/annum)
• Iron ore tailings (10.5 mil. tons/annum)
• Copper mine tailings (4 mil. tons/annum)
• Marble dust (6 mil. tons/annum)
• Red mud, lime sludge, phospho-gypsum, zinc
tailings, kiln dust, gold mine tailings etc

Source: Morchhale, et al J. of Rural Tech. 2 (2) 2005

 Examples
of
solid waste products
Gold mine tailings
from
Kolar Gold Fields
130 year old mine dump
Top of the mine dump
Stabilized compacted
blocks from
KGF mine tailings
 Some facts about KGF mine tailings

• 130 year old mine (now abandoned)

• 32 X 106 tons of tailings in 13 dumps
• Fortunately no serious environmental
problems
• Tailings can be converted bricks or blocks
• Can meet Bangalore’s demand for bricks for
another 50 years