TY - JOUR
T1 - Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Fugitive Dust Control Methods
AU - Raymond, Alena J.
AU - Kendall, Alissa
AU - Dejong, Jason T.
AU - Kavazanjian, Edward
AU - Woolley, Miriam A.
AU - Martin, Kimberly K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the Engineering Research Center Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) under NSF Cooperative Agreement EEC-1449501. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - Fugitive dust at construction sites reduces air quality and can affect respiratory health. Contractors must often use dust control strategies to meet environmental regulations for dust mitigation. Water application is the most common mitigation strategy, although alternatives such as magnesium chloride (MgCl2) are also used. Although these strategies reduce fugitive dust emissions at the site, they cause other environmental impacts onsite and off-site throughout their life cycle. A new approach to dust mitigation, enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP), has been developed to improve dust mitigation while reducing life cycle impacts. A life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) was performed to compare common dust mitigation strategies with EICP across a variety of environmental impacts and cost. LCSA has not previously been applied to dust mitigation strategies, so this work contributes new knowledge on the sustainability of existing and novel approaches to dust mitigation. The results show that EICP is potentially more sustainable than water application, particularly as watering frequency or persistence of the EICP treatment increases. Compared with MgCl2, EICP may be more environmentally intensive and more expensive. However, indicators for salinization of water and soil, impacts of concern for MgCl2, do not exist, making the comparison incomplete. It is anticipated that with further research and development focused on preventing EICP process emissions, enhancing the durability of EICP treatment, and reducing production costs, the technology will become more favorable for fugitive dust control.
AB - Fugitive dust at construction sites reduces air quality and can affect respiratory health. Contractors must often use dust control strategies to meet environmental regulations for dust mitigation. Water application is the most common mitigation strategy, although alternatives such as magnesium chloride (MgCl2) are also used. Although these strategies reduce fugitive dust emissions at the site, they cause other environmental impacts onsite and off-site throughout their life cycle. A new approach to dust mitigation, enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP), has been developed to improve dust mitigation while reducing life cycle impacts. A life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) was performed to compare common dust mitigation strategies with EICP across a variety of environmental impacts and cost. LCSA has not previously been applied to dust mitigation strategies, so this work contributes new knowledge on the sustainability of existing and novel approaches to dust mitigation. The results show that EICP is potentially more sustainable than water application, particularly as watering frequency or persistence of the EICP treatment increases. Compared with MgCl2, EICP may be more environmentally intensive and more expensive. However, indicators for salinization of water and soil, impacts of concern for MgCl2, do not exist, making the comparison incomplete. It is anticipated that with further research and development focused on preventing EICP process emissions, enhancing the durability of EICP treatment, and reducing production costs, the technology will become more favorable for fugitive dust control.
KW - Biogeotechnics
KW - Erosion
KW - Fugitive dust control
KW - Life cycle assessment (LCA)
KW - Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA)
KW - Particulate matter (PM)
KW - Sustainable construction
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U2 - 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001993
DO - 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001993
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098643096
VL - 147
JO - Journal of Construction Engineering and Management - ASCE
JF - Journal of Construction Engineering and Management - ASCE
SN - 0733-9364
IS - 3
M1 - 04020181
ER -