Life-Cycle Assessment of Sculptured Tiles for Building Envelopes in Mediterranean Climate

Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) were conducted to evaluate sculptured cement mortar tiles, proposed by Hershcovich et al. (2021), and conventional cement mortar flat tiles for thermal insulation of a typical residential building in Mediterranean climate. The production (P) and operational energy (OE) stages were compared between the sculptured tiles and the conventional flat tiles. The P stage used Portland cement with 95% clinker (CEM I) and Portland limestone cement with 65% clinker (CEM II). The OE stage used 31% coal, 56% natural gas, and 13% photovoltaic (PV) (adopted in 2020) and 8% coal, 57% natural gas, and 35% PV (planned for 2025). The ReCiPe2016 single-score method was used to assess environmental damage over short (20 years), long (100 years), and infinite (1000 years) time horizons of living pollutants. The results show that the use of sculptured tiles caused environmental damage in the short time horizon and environmental benefits in the long and infinite time horizons in the 2020 scenario, while it led to environmental benefits only in the infinite time horizon in the 2025 scenario.

Automated summary

This study compared the production and operational energy consumption of sculptured cement mortar tiles and conventional cement mortar flat tiles for thermal insulation in a Mediterranean climate. The environmental damage was assessed using the ReCiPe2016 method over different time horizons, and the results showed that the impact of sculptured tiles on the environment varied across time periods.