Embodied exergy-based assessment of energy and resource consumption of buildings

Abstract

As an effective approach to achieve a more unified and scientific assessment, embodied exergy-based analysis is devised to assess the energy and resource consumption of buildings. A systematic accounting of the landmark buildings in E-town, Beijing is performed, on the basis of raw project data in the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) and the most recent embodied exergy intensities for the Chinese economy in 2007 with 135 industrial sectors. The embodied exergy of the engineering structure of the case buildings is quantified as 4.95E+14 J, corresponding to an intensity of 8.25E+09 J/m² floor area. Total exergy of 51.9% and 28.8% are embodied in the steel and concrete inputs, respectively, due to the fact that the case buildings are structured of reinforced-concrete. The fossil fuel source (coal, crude oil, and natural gas) is predominant among four categories of natural resources (fossil fuel, biological, mineral, and environmental), accounting for 89.9% of the embodied exergy, with coal as the dominant energy resource (75.5%). The material accounts for 89.5% of the embodied exergy, in contrast to 9.0%, 1.4%, and 0.1% for manpower, energy, and equipment respectively. This result indicates that great attention should be given to the use of various materials vs. their value of their contribution.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

energy / resources / exergy analysis / green building / ecological assessment

References

[1] AEM (1983). Agricultural Economic Manual. Beijing: Agriculture Press (in Chinese)

[2] Bullard C W, Penner P S, Pilati D A (1978). Net energy analysis: handbook for combining process and input-output analysis. Resour Energy, 1(3): 267–313

[3] CESY (2008). China Energy Statistical Yearbook (2008). Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House (in Chinese)

[4] CEY (2008). China Economic Yearbook (2008). Beijing: China Economic Yearbook Press (in Chinese)

[5] Chang Y, Ries R J, Wang Y (2010). The embodied energy and environmental emissions of construction projects in China: an economic input-output LCA model. Energy Policy, 38(11): 6597–6603

[6] Chang Y, Ries R J, Wang Y (2011). The quantification of the embodied impacts of construction projects on energy, environment, and society based on I-O LCA. Energy Policy, 39(10): 6321–6330

[7] Chen G, Qi Z (2007). Systems account of societal exergy utilization: China 2003. Ecol Modell, 208(2 – 4): 102–118

[8] Chen G Q (2005). Exergy consumption of the earth. Ecol Modell, 184(2–4): 363–380

[9] Chen G Q (2006). Scarcity of exergy and ecological evaluation based on embodied exergy. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 11(4): 531–552

[10] Chen G Q, Chen H, Chen Z M, Zhang B, Shao L, Guo S, Zhou S Y, Jiang M M (2011a). Low-carbon building assessment and multi-scale input-output analysis. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 16(1): 583–595

[11] Chen G Q, Chen Z M (2010). Carbon emissions and resources use by Chinese economy 2007: a 135-sector inventory and input-output embodiment. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 15(11): 3647–3732

[12] Chen G Q, Li Z, Chen Z M, Zhang B, Chen H, Shao L, Guo S (2010). Systems Carbon Metrics for Building. Beijing: Xinhua Press (in Chinese)

[13] Chen G Q, Shao L, Chen Z M, Li Z, Zhang B, Chen H, Wu Z (2011b). Low-carbon assessment for ecological wastewater treatment by a constructed wetland in Beijing. Ecol Eng, 37(4): 622–628

[14] Chen G Q, Yang Q, Zhao Y H (2011c). Renewability of wind power in China: a case study of nonrenewable energy cost and greenhouse gas emission by a plant in Guangxi. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 15(5): 2322–2329

[15] Chen G Q, Yang Q, Zhao Y H, Wang Z F (2011d). Nonrenewable energy cost and greenhouse gas emissions of a 1.5MW solar power tower plant in China. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 15(4): 1961–1967

[16] CSY (2008). China Statistical Yearbook (2008). Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House (in Chinese)

[17] Dai J, Fath B, Chen B (2012). Constructing a network of the social-economic consumption system of China using extended exergy analysis. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 16(7): 4796–4808

[18] Dixit M K, Fernández-Solís J L, Lavy S, Culp C H (2012). Need for an embodied energy measurement protocol for buildings: a review paper. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 16(6): 3730–3743

[19] Eichhammer W, Fleiter T, Schlomann B, Faberi S, Fioretto M, Piccioni N, Lechtenböhmer S, Resch G (2009). Study on the energy savings potentials in EU member states, candidate countries and EEA countries. Final Report

[20] Fang J-y, Wang G G, Liu G-h, Xu S-l (1998). Forest biomass of China: an estimate based on the biomass-volume relationship. Ecol Appl, 8(4): 1084–1091

[21] Gonçalves P, Gaspar A R, Silva M G (2012). Energy and exergy-based indicators for the energy performance assessment of a hotel building. Energy Build, 52(0): 181–188

[22] Hau J L, Bakshi B R (2004). Promise and problems of emergy analysis. Ecol Modell, 178(1–2): 215–225

[23] Kotas T J (1985). The Exergy Method of Thermal Plant Analysis. Lodon: Butterworth Publishers

[24] Lenzen M, Treloar G (2002). Embodied energy in buildings: wood versus concrete–reply to Börjesson and Gustavsson. Energy Policy, 30(3): 249–255

[25] Leontief W (1970). Environmental repercussions and the economic structure: an input-output approach. Rev Econ Stat, 52(3): 262–271

[26] Li D, Zhu J, Hui E C M, Leung B Y P, Li Q (2011). An emergy analysis-based methodology for eco-efficiency evaluation of building manufacturing. Ecol Indic, 11(5): 1419–1425

[27] Li J S, Alsaed A, Hayat T, Chen G (2014). Energy and carbon emission review for Macao’s gaming industry. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 29: 744–753

[28] Li J S, Chen G Q (2013). Energy and greenhouse gas emissions review for Macao. Renew Sustain Energy Rev, 22: 23–32

[29] Li J S, Chen G Q, Lai T M, Ahmad B, Chen Z M, Shao L, Ji X (2013). Embodied greenhouse gas emissions by Macao. Energy Policy, 59: 819–833

[30] Li J S, Duan N, Guo S, Shao L, Lin C, Wang J, Hou J, Hou Y, Meng J, Han M (2012). Renewable resource for agricultural ecosystem in China: ecological benefit for biogas by-product for planting. Ecol Inform, 12: 101–110

[31] Liu G Y, Yang Z F, Chen B, Zhang Y (2011). Ecological network determination of sectoral linkages, utility relations and structural characteristics on urban ecological economic system. Ecol Modell, 222(15): 2825–2834

[32] Liu M, Li B, Yao R (2010). A generic model of exergy assessment for the environmental impact of building lifecycle. Energy Build, 42(9): 1482–1490

[33] Liu H J (1999). Study on approaches for estimation heat value of municipal solid waste. Environmental Sanitation Engineering, 3: 004

[34] Martinaitis V, Bieksa D, Miseviciute V (2010). Degree-days for the exergy analysis of buildings. Energy Build, 42(7): 1063–1069

[35] Meillaud F, Gay J B, Brown M T (2005). Evaluation of a building using the emergy method. Sol Energy, 79(2): 204–212

[36] Metz B (2007). Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press

[37] MNCC (Ministry of National Construction of China) (2006). Green Building Evaluation Standard. Beijing: The State Council of the People’s Republic of China

[38] Odum H T (1983). System Ecology: An Introduction. New York: Wiely

[39] Odum H T (1996). Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making. New York: Wiley

[40] Pulselli R M, Simoncini E, Pulselli F M, Bastianoni S (2007). Emergy analysis of building manufacturing, maintenance and use: em-building indices to evaluate housing sustainability. Energy Build, 39(5): 620–628

[41] Rosen M A, Dincer I, Kanoglu M (2008). Role of exergy in increasing efficiency and sustainability and reducing environmental impact. Energy Policy, 36(1): 128–137

[42] Sakulpipatsin P, Itard L C M, van der Kooi H J, Boelman E C, Luscuere P G (2010). An exergy application for analysis of buildings and HVAC systems. Energy Build, 42(1): 90–99

[43] Schweiker M, Shukuya M (2010). Comparative effects of building envelope improvements and occupant behavioural changes on the exergy consumption for heating and cooling. Energy Policy, 38(6): 2976–2986

[44] Sciubba E (2001). Beyond thermoeconomics? The concept of extended exergy accounting and its application to the analysis and design of thermal systems. Exergy. Int J, 1(2): 68–84

[45] Szargut J (2005). Exergy method: technical and ecological applications. Wit Pr/Computational Mechanics

[46] Szargut J, Morris D (1985). Calculation of the standard chemical exergy of some elements and their compounds, based upon sea water as the datum level substance. Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences Technical sciences, 33(5–6): 293–305

[47] Szargut J, Morris D R, Steward F R (1988). Exergy Analysis of Thermal, Chemical, and Metallurgical Processes. New York: Hemisphere

[48] Tolga Balta M, Kalinci Y, Hepbasli A (2008). Evaluating a low exergy heating system from the power plant through the heat pump to the building envelope. Energy Build, 40(10): 1799–1804

[49] Torío H, Angelotti A, Schmidt D (2009). Exergy analysis of renewable energy-based climatisation systems for buildings: a critical view. Energy Build, 41(3): 248–271

[50] Ürge-Vorsatz D, Novikova A (2008). Potentials and costs of carbon dioxide mitigation in the world’s buildings. Energy Policy, 36(2): 642–661

[51] Vukotic L, Fenner R A, Symons K (2010). Assessing embodied energy of building structural elements. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Engineering Sustainability, 163(3): 147–158

[52] Wall G (1977). Exergy: a useful concept within resource accounting. Institute of Theoretical Physics. Report No. 77-42.2013.

[53] Wall G, Gong M (2001). On exergy and sustainable development—Part 1: conditions and concepts. Exergy. Int J, 1(3): 128–145

[54] Wang T H (2005). China: Building a Resource-Efficient Society. China Development Forum 2005. Beijing

[55] Yeo D, Gabbai R D (2011). Sustainable design of reinforced concrete structures through embodied energy optimization. Energy Build, 43(8): 2028–2033

[56] Yucer C T, Hepbasli A (2011). Thermodynamic analysis of a building using exergy analysis method. Energy Build, 43(2–3): 536–542

[57] Zhou J B (2008). Embodied Ecological Elements Accounting of National Economy. Dissertation for Ph.D Degree. Beijing: Peking University (in Chinese)

[58] Zhou S Y, Chen H, Li S C (2010). Resources use and greenhouse gas emissions in urban economy: ecological input–output modeling for Beijing 2002. Commun Nonlinear Sci Numer Simul, 15(10): 3201–3231

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the State Key Program for Basic Research (973 Program, No. 2013CB430402), the Innovation Project Foundation of Beijing Academy of Science and Technology (PXM2011_178215_000003) and Research Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Funded by the Ministry of Education of PRC (09YJCZH005).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2013 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg