Purpose

Ceramic facing bricks are construction materials used to produce an attractive aspect to building walls and provide protection from external exposure.

The purpose of this research is twofold: first, to conduct a comparative cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts of manufacturing options available for obtaining different colours and appearance of facing bricks, and second, basing on LCA results, to examine recent literature and environmental product declaration (EPD) items (ISO 14025:2006) to verify if current EU best available techniques (BATs) in ceramic manufacturing industry that are dated 2007 are still relevant today, especially in the light of current technological progresses.

The considered manufacturing options are necessary to obtain three different final appearances of the facing brick. In the first option, the brick is left in its natural colour. The second and third options include the applications of two type of coatings, which are the engobing and the glazing solutions.

Methods

The analysis of life cycle stages was performed according to the cradle-to-gate approach (ISO 14040:2006b UNI EN ISO 14040:2006—environmental management-life cycle assessment-principles and framework; ISO 14044:(2006c) ISO 14044:2006/Amd 1:2017 environmental management-life cycle assessment-requirements and guidelines-amendment 1/Amd 1:2017). The software tool used is SimaPro® version 9.0.0.31, and inventories are based on ecoinvent v.3.5. LCA was performed basing on ceramic BATs and literature data, assuming the German energy mix.

The consistency of results and the evaluation of ceramic BATs were discussed on the basis of a comparison of results with recent LCA studies and application of sensitivity analysis.

Results and discussion

One of the results of this study is that coating options entail significant environmental impacts. As instance, the application of both engobe and glaze coatings increases the global warming potential (GWP) up to 7.2% and human toxicity (HT) up to 143.1%. Finally, results confirm the importance of implementing existing saving technologies for the firing stage, being the main contributor to climate change among production activities.

Moreover, environmental impacts that have been obtained assessing the product life cycle with BATs are generally higher if compared with current literature, in a range up to + 240%.

Conclusions

In conformity with ISO standards, this LCA analyses the potential environmental impacts of facing bricks, considering three manufacturing options.

The evidences provided by this study demonstrate the importance to include coating materials in LCA studies involving facing bricks. Finally, results let the authors to conclude that a revision of BATs is necessary in order to update technology requirements that are contained in the document to the current state of the art.

中文翻译：

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比较的LCA作为评估面砖制造中现有最佳技术（BAT）和更具生态可持续性的涂料解决方案的工具

目的

陶瓷饰面砖是用于对建筑墙面产生吸引人的外观并提供防外部暴露的保护作用的建筑材料。

这项研究的目的是双重的：首先，进行从摇篮到大门的生命周期评估（LCA），以评估可用于获得不同颜色和饰面砖外观的制造选项对环境的影响；其次，基于LCA结果，以检查最近的文献和环境产品声明（EPD）项（ISO 14025：2006），以验证2007年至今在陶瓷制造行业中的当前欧盟最佳可行技术（BAT）是否仍然适用，尤其是考虑到当前的技术进展。

为了获得饰面砖的三种不同最终外观，必须考虑使用制造方法。在第一种选择中，砖块保留其自然色。第二种选择和第三种选择包括两种类型的涂料的应用，即胶凝和上光解决方案。

方法

生命周期阶段的分析是根据从摇篮到大门的方法进行的（ISO 14040：2006b UNI EN ISO 14040：2006-环境管理-生命周期评估的原则和框架； ISO 14044：（2006c）ISO 14044：2006 /修正1：2017环境管理-生命周期评估-要求和准则-修订1 /修正1：2017）。使用的软件工具为SimaPro®版本9.0.0.31，清单基于ecoinvent v.3.5。假设德国混合能源，LCA是基于陶瓷BAT和文献数据进行的。

在将结果与最近的LCA研究进行比较并进行敏感性分析的基础上，讨论了结果的一致性和陶瓷BAT的评估。

结果与讨论

这项研究的结果之一是涂层的选择会对环境产生重大影响。例如，同时使用engobe和釉料涂层，可将全球变暖潜能（GWP）提升至7.2％，将人类毒性（HT）提升至143.1％。最后，结果证实了在烧成阶段实施现有节能技术的重要性，这是导致生产活动中气候变化的主要因素。

此外，与现有文献相比，使用BAT评估产品生命周期所获得的环境影响通常更高，范围高达+ 240％。

结论

根据ISO标准，该LCA考虑了三种制造方案，分析了饰面砖的潜在环境影响。

这项研究提供的证据表明，在涉及饰面砖的LCA研究中包括涂料的重要性。最后，结果使作者得出结论，即有必要对BAT进行修订，以便将文档中包含的技术要求更新为最新技术水平。