Preliminary life cycle assessment of highway infrastructure designed with photocatalytic cover

Photocatalytic concrete is an innovative advancement in material science which enables a photocatalytic process that reduces airborne pollutants such as S O x , P M 10 , VOCs, and N O x . This research was undertaken in order to quantify the environmental impacts (both positive and negative) of photocatalytic concrete utilizing life-cycle assessment (LCA) software. This preliminary study examined some of the environmental impacts of constructing highway noise barriers with photocatalytic concrete covers. The LCA captures the amount of N O x that is broken down by the photocatalytic processes and also the N O x and C O 2 emissions released during manufacturing. The results show that there is an overall increase in C O 2 produced when photocatalytic concrete is used but a lifetime net reduction in N O x due to photocatalysis. Without ranking the relative importance of N O x versus C O 2 it is difficult to identify whether photocatalytic are preferable to traditional concrete noise barriers.