Exergy-based model for quantifying land resource in China: a case study of sintered brick

摘要

Land use and resource depletion are two main considerations in life cycle assessment (LCA). Unfortunately, the relationship between land use and resource depletion is always ignored and only a few studies tried to connect them. The objective of this paper is to establish an exergy-based model for quantifying land resource in China, which includes both the occupation phase and the renaturalisation phase of land use, and implement this model into a case study on sintered brick production. The results show that the exergy loss caused by land use accounts for an innegligible percentage in the cumulative exergy extracted from natural environment (CEENE) of sintered brick; the results also show that the duration of renaturalisation and the type of land are the cardinal factors for improving the accuracy of results.