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Climate Change Impact of Innovative Structural Aluminium Reinforced Concrete, a Case Study in Norway

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Abstract:

The most common structural material used in the construction sector is steel-reinforced concrete. However, concrete cracking and reinforcement corrosion demand constant monitoring as well as timely and costly maintenance activities. Furthermore, concrete has substantial environmental impacts, being responsible for about 7% of total CO₂ emissions worldwide. Innovative materials in construction engineering have been studied with the goal of improving the sector’s environmental performance, mostly by reducing cement content in concrete. In this context, assessing the environmental profile of such innovations is essential to avoid shifting environmental burdens elsewhere. This study evaluates the climate change impact of a novel reinforced concrete that incorporates calcined blue clay as a supplementary cementitious material and Aluminium (Al) as reinforcement. Using a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the climate change impact of this innovative material is compared with that of conventional steel-reinforced concrete. The result show that the climate change impact of the innovative concrete is 46% less than that of the incumbent solution. Acknowledging the early development stage of the new concrete and the limitation regarding data robustness, this work contributes to the problem-solution space and provides direction to further explore possibilities for fully unlocking the new material’s potential, so it can outperform the incumbent one in terms of greenhouse gas emissions in the future.

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Periodical:

Key Engineering Materials (Volume 1051)

Pages:

49-59

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4028/p-GG3de0

Citation:

Cite this paper

Online since:

April 2026

Authors:

Ana Lyvia Tabosa da Silva*, Angela Daniela La Rosa, Geir Ringen, Xiang Ma

Keywords:

Aluminum, Climate Change, Innovation, Life Cycle Assessment, Reinforced Concrete

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RIS, BibTeX

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Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

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* - Corresponding Author

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