Life Cycle Assessment of Offshore Low Head Pumped Hydro Storage

Aiming to comply with the Paris Agreement, the reduction of Europe’s GHG emissions in the energy sector is a must. Due to the intermittency of renewable sources, energy storage technologies are essential to this plan. Offshore Low Head Pumped Hydro Storage (LH PHS) is presented as an alternative to partly solve this problem. Considering that its...

The conceptual design of a graving dock: Using Life Cycle Analysis to reduce the carbon footprint of a graving dock for Damen Harlingen

An extensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is used to determine the efficiency in reducing the carbon footprint of a graving dock. Firstly by identifying the hotspots in a base design, and then by comparing the various design alternatives. The focus is on reducing the amount of reinforced concrete used in the design of the dock floor by adding...

Design of a Demountable Steel Timber Floor System: Design Rules and Recommendations for the Application of a Demountable Steel Timber Floor System

With the effects of climate change being more and more frequent, the European union, and other governments world-wide are looking for sustainable alternatives for processes and products that are part of the daily requirements of people. Among these requirements, the construction industry plays a vital role, as it accounts for the consumption of...

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Timber High-Rise: Research and Development of a Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Tool

There are two main challenges in the construction industry: carbon emissions and densification in cities. Timber high-rise might prove as a suitable solution to both these challenges. However, there is a lack of implementation of timber high-rise. This research argues that a lack of thorough analysis of timber design alternatives in the...

Cars are more than just the fuel they burn. Life Cycle Analysis with Cost Benefit Analysis of greener personal transport policies: Integrating a Life Cycle Analysis into a Cost and benefit analysis of policies that aim to increase the adaption of the electrical vehicles. Using the Dutch Climate Agreement personal transport policies and the Dutch electrical vehicle market as casus

After the Dutch government committed itself to the Paris Climate Agreement, there has been some development in policies that are introduced to limit the emissions of greenhouse gasses. These policies are introduced in the Dutch Climate Agreement. Some of these policies aim to stimulate the adoption rate of the battery electric vehicle into the...

A review of Absolute Life Cycle Assessment methods and applications: And their potential for benchmarking absolute product-level contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

As of 2016, governments globally adopted the task to achieve social, economic and environmental sustainability by committing to the targets from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs incorporate a set of 17 goals and 169 targets accompanied with more than 200 indicators that can guide towards achieving sustainable development by...

Life Cycle Analysis of EXASUN Module

This thesis deals with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the manufacture of an EXASUN X-Glass photovoltaic (PV) module to understand its true environmental impact. The methodology and general guidelines for conducting an LCA on a Photovoltaic (PV) system are developed, within the scope of this thesis. The LCA follows a standard framework,...

Bicycle and pedestrian bridge for the circular economy: Technical and sustainability assessment

The aim of this thesis is to present a design for a bicycle and pedestrian bridge which meets the requirements of Circular Economy; by incorporating strategies such as design for disassembly and modularity a structure is created which improves upon the long-term value of existing bridges. Circular Economy has in recent years begun to replace the...

The Harvested Home: A biobased building approach

The Harvested Home is a housing concept that completely eliminates non-renewable materials form its structure and envelope. It was developed specifically for the touristic island of Texel in Noord-Holland to be used in the re-development of one specific camping area near De Koog. More specifically, the site chosen is located within the Dunes of...

A fibre reinforced polymer quay wall: Feasibility study

The first quay walls were constructed in 2400 BC and were constructed with bricks. Since then, the quay walls have developed a lot. The quay walls nowadays are constructed out of steel, concrete or a combination of both materials. An upcoming material in the field of hydraulic engineering is fibre reinforced polymer (FRP). FRP has several...

A Visual Life Cycle Analysis - for architects and policymakers

The impact of urbanizing 400 million people in China in 20 years - a comparative analysis of common structural materials with bamboo as a promising alternative for (semi) high-rise developments. Transport, End of Life scenarios and Lifespan are essential factors in a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The Building Energy Use itself is becoming less...

Duurzaamheid als Aanbestedingscriterium bij Haveninvesteringen

Many industries are already aware of the fact that they can gain higher profits by integrating sustainability within their management process. The construction industry seems to be a late developer. Lately, port authorities have started many initiatives for a more sustainable port. To make ports more sustainable it is worthwhile to improve the...

Sustainability as a procurement criterion for port investments

Ports are known to be one of the most polluting sectors, and therefore provide an opportunity to reduce emission significantly. Until now, the attention has been given to reduction of emissions in transport and shipping. The scope of research must expand to include port infrastructures, which should be made more sustainable. In many industries,...

Comparison of quay wall designs in concrete, steel, wood and composites with regard to the CO2-emission and the Life Cycle Analysis

This thesis focuses on quay wall structures in the Port of Rotterdam. A quay wall is a soil retaining structure where ships can moore and transfer goods. Over the centuries the developments in quay wall structures have been tremendous, due to increasing ship dimensions, loads and crane designs. Next to that climate change is a hot topic nowadays...