Life Cycle Assessment of Sewer System: Comparison of Pipe Materials

Sewer system is fundamental urban infrastructure for the public sanitation. Construction of sewer system is needed to invest a huge amount of capitals and labours as well as generates various and wastes and atmospheric emissions, and hence sewer pipes should be appropriately managed in the environemental aspect which is analysis of greenhousegases(GHGs) emissions. In this study, we investigated the environmental impact by focusing on GHGs emission and developed the assessment model to identify the contributions of impacts by the different stages in the life cycle to the system by using life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool. The developed model was applied to Deajeon city and assessed the GHGs emissions from sewer system in Deajoen. We concluded that the concrete pipe can be the first option than other pipe materials in the environmental aspect and the amount of methane (CH4) formation estimated by the model cannot be neglected for total emssion of sewer system. ∗ Corresponding Author : Woojin LEE, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, KAIST, Tel : (82)42-350-3624 Fax : (82) -42-350-3610 Email: [email protected]