Bio-based construction materials as an opportunity to ensure a safe transition to Zero carbon building

Abstract

The Paris Agreement set a carbon budget that aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep the increase in the global average temperature to below 2°C by 2050. The building and construction sector contributes to the increasing temperatures due to the significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions they produce. In order to reduce operational energy demand, several technologies have been already developed. However, another source of greenhouse gas emissions remains, embodied energy. Several studies have already been carried out on the impact of bio-based materials, which can be used in various applications in the construction sector with a significant potential for carbon storage.

This thesis aims to demonstrate whether the use of bio-based materials for insulation is a viable strategy for carbon compensation in order to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement in Europe. With a period of analysis between 2020 and 2050, the carbon budget is allocated with three different scenarios in order to get the budget that Europe has for new buildings construction. The influence on the budget of a bio-based insulation technology, used in the renovation of external walls and roofs of existing residential buildings, is then analysed. Three different renovation rates and five market penetration alternatives are considered, where the lack of accessibility of bio-based material is compensated using a standard, non-bio-based material. In order to validate whether the bio-based material used as insulation technology in new buildings is sufficient to compensate the impact of the global warming potential from new building elements, an analysis of the required insulation thickness is performed for two building types and two standard structures.

The results show that depending on the allocation scenario used, the carbon budget for new buildings is strongly influenced. They demonstrate that a rapid renovation of the existing residential building stock can contribute to consuming the construction budget. Therefore, a rapid penetration of bio-based insulation into building practice is necessary. Additionally, they show that extensive carbon compensation with bio-based insulation in the standard structure is very difficult to achieve due to build volume constraints, development for new carbon negative technologies is needed.