C1,C3,C4,D modules for EN15804

Question

I have the following providers from EN15804 addon for econinvent

1. treatment of waste concrete, not reinforced, collection for final disposal | waste concrete, not reinforced | EN15804, U
2. treatment of waste concrete, not reinforced, sorting plant | waste concrete, not reinforced | EN15804, U
3. treatment of waste concrete, inert material landfill | waste concrete | EN15804, U
4. treatment of waste concrete, not reinforced, recycling | waste concrete, not reinforced | EN15804, U

I want to assign them to the modules C & D for an epd about concrete.

I think that they are as follows but I am not entirely sure:

1. C1
2. C3
3. C4
4. D

Can someone provide some insight?

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Hello again Giannis,

Nice to see that you are getting underway with EPD creation. I have some notes to the chosen processes.

1. In general you would go with a set distance for the disposal. Think of it like a scenario in classical LCA. Perhaps you would model 150 km to disposal, for a declared unit of 1 ton, equalling 150 tkm of transport with a representative transport process. This would be your C2. A general process might work, but is not as transparent.

2. I agree with your choices for C3 and C4.

3. Module D is avoided material or energy production, so the process of recycling does not fit into the process here. If the concrete is recycled, then the disposal process in C3 is the one you currently have chosen for D, without a C4 process. If the concrete is recycled into e.g. road gravel, then for module D you include the production of -1 tons of road gravel. This does not need to be produced now, as the concrete has been recycled to take its place. If your material is landfilled, there is nothing in module D.

I hope this helps, and good further luck

Comments

Thanks for your help Matias.

My questions are the following:

1. What about the provider I chose for C1 (demolition and deconstruction)? Any opinion on that?
2. About module D, I usually have a percentage of the product going for recycling and a percentage going to landfill.

So lets say that 50% of concrete goes to recycling through C3, and 50% of concrete goes to landfill in C4. I also know that lets say that the produced concrete has 80% recycled content in it.

With these in mind, are the providers I chose correct? With the addition of a provider for the production of concrete in module D

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C1 is dismantling of building. I would advise a process like diesel burned in construction machinery. Then calculate (likely from assumptions) how much diesel is necessary to dismantle your concrete construction. C1 is the precursor to transport.

There are two ways to model  the concrete disposal. Either you make one scenario where everything gets landfilled, and one scenario where everything gets recycled.
Alternatively you assume that from one ton, the disposed product gets mixed treatment. Then you include the C3 recycling for the 50% recycled, and include landfilling in C4 for the 50% landfilled. Then you would include 50% of displaced material from recycled concrete in module D.

It is complicated to create EPD's, and there are many nuances. I would recommend reading EN15804, especially the part about which processes are included in each module. This should give you a better idea of which processes will be representative for a given module.

Good luck

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Thanks again Matias for your time.

The problem I have is understanding the scope of module D and if it is focused on the RRR(reuse,recycle,recovery) potential of the specific product or any other product.

For example I know that a percentage of mortars from demolition waste goes for recycling, lets say 10%.

The material that comes out of this recycling process is usually mixed aggregate that can be used as a primary material for the production of cement. Let's say that it is 10% of cement.

On the other hand though, mortars when made do not include recycled material at all.

So how am I supposed to assemble module D. For the RRR potential of 10% that mortars give to another product system e.g. cement production or the RRR potential of 0% that mortars give to their product system?

I have seen published certified EPDs go for both of the above scenarios and I cant seem to find a clear solution while reading EN 15804 or PCR.

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Hello Giannis.
There are many things to consider when making an EPD. EN15804 gives some rules on allocation especially at the EoL, there are some rules in 14040/14044, and there are specific rules in PCR's from CEN/CENELEC. Specifically for concrete you must follow EN 16757:2022. I dont know this specific PCR, but perhaps you can find some guidance there.

An approach could be to ask what the general amount of recycled content is, in the product you are displacing. If the average content is 0, then you are only displacing virgin materials. Then the module would be that you produce -X kg of virgin displaced material.

If there generally is a degree of recycled material in the displaced product you displace X*Y kg of virgin material where Y is (1- % of recycled material in the product).
Giannis this is very technical. You will have an internal or external verifier to verify your EPD. I would recommend working closely with them, as they are LCA experts, and can answer all your questions. If you make a faulty EPD, they would anyway have to spend the hours on dialogue, commenting and review.