Studies on Environmental Impact Assessment of Reinforced Concrete in Different Life Cycle Phases

Concrete is one of most used materials in construction and also one of the main responsible for the emission of carbon dioxide, or CO₂, in the atmosphere. Thus, in order to study ways to reduce this impact, it is important to evaluate the influence of each raw material of the reinforced concrete, as well as the phases of the life cycle in which these impacts are more relevant. This paper presents a review of recent studies related to carbon dioxide emissions of the materials of reinforced concrete. In this review, we sought to identify the phases of the life cycle of reinforced concrete most focused by researches. It was found that the cement production stage is the most contemplated in the studies, many of them focusing on the additions of complementary cementitious products, since cement is among the materials that contributes decisively to the total CO₂ emissions. The structure sizing, with the definition of concrete strength to be adopted in the design, were also extensively investigated, since these are phases in which it is identified a greater possibility of contribution, by the researchers, for the minimization of the impacts.