Life Cycle Assessment Applied to End-of-Life Scenarios of Sargassum spp. for Application in Civil Construction

Cristiane Bueno, João Adriano Rossignolo (), Letícia Missiatto Gavioli, Camila Cassola Assunção Sposito, Fernando Gustavo Tonin, Mariana Matera Veras, Maria Júlia Bassan de Moraes and Gabriela Pitolli Lyra
Additional contact information
Cristiane Bueno: Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR), São Carlos 13565-905, Brazil
João Adriano Rossignolo: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil
Letícia Missiatto Gavioli: Post-Graduation Program in Material Science and Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil
Camila Cassola Assunção Sposito: Post-Graduation Program in Material Science and Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil
Fernando Gustavo Tonin: Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil
Mariana Matera Veras: Laboratory of Environmental and Experimental Pathology, LIM05 HC-FMUSP, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo 05403-010, Brazil
Maria Júlia Bassan de Moraes: Post-Graduation Program in Material Science and Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil
Gabriela Pitolli Lyra: Post-Graduation Program in Material Science and Engineering, Faculty of Animal Science and Food Engineering, University of São Paulo (USP), Pirassununga 13635-900, Brazil

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: Environmental risks and vulnerabilities in coastal regions include the massive deposits of brown algae of the genus Sargassum in regions such as the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and northern Brazil. Efforts have been made to turn this problem into an opportunity by seeking new uses for this biomass in the sectors of food, agriculture, health, biofuels, bioremediation, and civil construction. Thus, this study aimed to produce quantitative data for different end-of-life scenarios of the Sargassum algae, seeking for potential applications of this macroalgae in the civil construction sector. For this purpose, we conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of the Sargassum algae, in its natural destination, and evaluated its potential impact. This evaluation was then compared to the possible impacts of alternatives to their end of life, such as landfill disposal, drying and grinding to use as fibers or particles, burning the biomass to generate energy and fly ash, using a consequential LCA and the indicators of the ReCiPe 2016 method. For each of the proposed scenarios, the functional unit of 1 kg of the three types of unprocessed Sargassum algae that are found in the Brazilian deposits ( natans I , natans VIII , and fluitans ) was considered separately, and also for a composition that is closer to that found in the Brazilian deposits (50% fluitans , 15% natans I , and 35% natans VIII ). The results for both natural decomposition scenarios demonstrated a dominant contribution to the categories of impact for climate change, marine eutrophication, and land use, thus justifying the search for new initiatives for the use of the algae. The burning process showed a significant contribution to most of the indicators, with emphasis on the massive generation of particulate, inherent to the biomass burning process; however, it showed a reduction in the magnitude of climate change emissions from around 47% to less than 2%. Finally, the proposed scenario of processing Sargassum biomass to obtain particles presented prevalence of magnitude for potential impact in most of the proposed indicators, due to the processes with high electricity consumption, but keeping climate change emissions’ relative reduction from 47% to 6%. Thus, new studies may further investigate the potential of application of these materials in different products and components of civil construction.

Keywords: life cycle assessment (LCA); Sargassum; Sargassum life cycle; biomass life cycle; Sargassum end of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/6254/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/7/6254/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:7:p:6254-:d:1116712

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().