Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

An energy and carbon footprint assessment upon the usage of hemp-

lime concrete and recycled-PET façades for office facilities in France
and Italy
Chadi Maalouf a, *, Carlo Ingrao b, Flavio Scrucca c, Tala Moussa a, Alexandra Bourdot a,
Caterina Tricase b, Andrea Presciutti c, Francesco Asdrubali d
a
GRESPI, SFR Condorcet FR CNRS 3417, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Moulin de la Housse, 51687 Reims Cedex, France
b
Department of Economics, University of Foggia, Via Romolo Caggese, 1, 71121 Foggia, Italy
c
CIRIAF, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti, 67, 06125 Perugia, Italy
d
Department of Engineering, University of Roma Tre, Via Vito Volterra, 62, 00146 Rome, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are actual key issues in all the economic
Received 8 July 2016 sectors and, in particular, in buildings which is acknowledged worldwide as one of the most energy-
Received in revised form consuming.
29 September 2016
In this context, it would be desirable to duly address those issues by searching for and assessing proper
Accepted 21 October 2016
solutions and strategies: the usage of eco-friendly construction materials can be considered as one of
Available online 26 October 2016
those. This paper reports upon the performance of three façades containing sustainable products that are
manufactured using natural resources and, alternatively, post-consumer waste based materials; those
Keywords:
Hemp-lime concrete
are: hemp-concrete; and Recycled PolyEthylene Terephthalate (R-PET), respectively. The energy perfor-
Recycled-PET mance of each façade was assessed in terms of cooling and heating demands, electrical consumptions
Gas emissions and indoor thermal comfort including indoor temperature and relative humidity.
Carbon footprint Additionally, a Carbon Footprint (CF) assessment was carried out considering both the estimated
Energy performance energy demands and the life-cycle emission factors associated with the energy mix of the countries
where the façades were located, i.e. France and Italy.
Based upon the findings of the study, the R-PET façade represented the most performing solution
between the three façades in all the scenarios considered and, moreover, the humidity-sensitive flow
rate ventilation system came out as a solution able to reduce the electricity consumptions.
Finally, considering the Carbon Footprint results, the energy country mix emerged as a key issue,
making the Italian case study the worst one, though the total electrical energy consumption were
comparable with those of the other case studies.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Buildings is one of the most energy and resources consuming
sector as it consumes about 40% of the world global energy, 25% of
the global water and 40% of the global resources (United Nation
Environment Program, 2016). At the global aim of energy and re-
sources saving, recent studies investigated buildings considering
them as a fundamental part of the environment (Rossi et al., 2015),
and also characterised in detail innovative construction materials
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chadi.maalouf@univ-reims.fr (C. Maalouf).
(D'Alessandro et al., 2014). In this regard, the building sector has
recently undergone a notable evolution towards sustainable ma-
terials (Asdrubali et al., 2015), so contributing to both improving
and promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy in sus-
tainable development contexts. In addition, climate changes are
increasingly occurring as a result of the increasing atmospheric
concentrations of carbon dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases
(GHGs), thus posing several challenges to be faced in buildings.
Therefore, it is increasingly becoming crucial to accelerate the shift
from classical to environmentally friendly materials, and so to
contribute to the transition to equitable, sustainable, post fossil-
carbon societies (Ingrao et al., 2016a). Furthermore, responsible

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.111
0959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653
human reproduction limits should be duly addressed along with
building comprehensively upon improved energy efficiency and
renewable energy.
In that context, people have the societal challenge to develop
societies, that are more and more centred upon bio-based econo-
mies or ‘bio-economies’, and so are characterised by both reduced
dependence upon imported fossil fuels and reduced GHG emissions
(Ingrao et al., 2016a).
More than 30 countries worldwide acknowledge and politically
support, altogether, the benefits that may result from establishing
an holistic, responsible bio-economy. The latter is expected to play
a crucial role in creating competitive, resource-efficient and low-
carbon economies, with the long-term objective of achieving the
transition towards global sustainable development (Ingrao et al.,
2016a). Additionally, an holistic, responsible bio-economy should
include a broad spectrum of applications of biological sciences and
their associated technologies to sustainably produce and utilise
quality and sustainable products/services in several fields of the
economy, for today and the future. Moreover, it should be built
upon sustainable production and consumption of renewable bio-
logical resources, as well as their conversion into bio-based prod-
ucts and energies. Hence, it should involve industrial and economic
sectors that produce, manage and utilise those resources like
buildings, for instance. A particular aspect of the value and strategic
attraction of a sustainable bio-economy for policy and decision-
makers is its ‘bio-greening’ global impact upon processes, prod-
ucts and systems (Ingrao et al., 2016a). In buildings, such could be
intended as providing the utilisation of natural resources and
recycled-waste related materials/products like, for instance, the
hemp-lime concrete and Recycled PolyEthylene Terephthalate (R-
PET) mats that were tested in the wall-compositions here-consid-
ered. Cultivated in different countries in Europe, especially in
Portugal and France (about 11,637 ha in 2012), hemp is a multiuse,
multifunctional crop which produces oil, proteins, for food and feed
production, and fibres for paper and textile industry (Callaway,
2004). Besides, it is a “cleaning plant” which leaves the ground
clean to the next cultivation with no need for herbicides. It also
improves the ground structure due to its deep roots, and brings an
important quantity of organics to soils as well as does not require
either fungicides nor insecticides, since there is practically no
parasite nor harmful disease to the hemp (Boutin et al., 2006).
Moreover, the physicalechemical and mechanical properties of
hemp make it a good candidate for usage in several industrial
sectors, in the form of fibres and hurds. In buildings, hemp products
are utilised mainly for production of insulation mats, concretes and
bio-composites (Elfordy et al., 2008; Arnaud and Gourlay, 2012;
Evrard and De Herde, 2010; Collet et al., 2013; Ingrao et al., 2015).
In particular, hemp hurds are utilised to produce a form of concrete
known as ‘hemp concrete’ or ‘hempcrete’, namely a bio-aggregate
based material in which hemp hurds are pasted together with
lime-based binders (Ingrao et al., 2015; Pretot et al., 2014).
Hemp concrete has been investigated in several experimental
and numerical studies such as, for instance, (Stevulova et al., 2013)
and (Arizzi et al., 2015). The authors of those studies showed low
density values ranging between 200 and 800 kg m
3 coupled with
low thermal conductivity (0.093e0.1 W K
1 m
1). As a result, it is
observed an enhancement of thermal insulation and a reduction of
heat diffusion through the walls leading to a moderation of the hot
waves in summer and a reduction of the heat losses during winter.
Accordingly, the hemp additives yield relatively lightweight ma-
terials with low Young modulus (Bledzki, 1999) and limited
compressive strength (less than 2 MPa) compared to other mate-
rials used in construction (Shea et al., 2012). Thus, the hemp con-
crete is not suitable for applications as load-bearing material and,
indeed, is generally associated with other structural wooden walls.
1641
The open porosity structure enhances the capacity to adsorb or
desorb water vapour with:
- a high vapour permeability which, according to Cerezo (2005), is
in the order of 10
10e10
11 kg m
1 s
1 Pa
1); and
- excellent vapour buffering values ranging between 1.94 and
2.15 g m
2.%RH, as documented by Collet (2004).
This material is being increasingly recommended by eco-
builders worldwide because it is characterised by very good
thermo-acoustic properties and, also, by good levels of transpir-
ability and hygroscopicity that make it be a good regulator of the
indoor moisture content and, so, contribute to greater levels of
indoor air quality (Ingrao et al., 2015). Additionally, based upon the
findings of the review study discussed in the Ingrao et al. (2015)'s
paper, hempcrete presents low environmental impact in the pro-
duction phase. Such is attributed to: the usage of industrial hemp,
which is a renewable vegetal-origin material; and the carbon which
is sequestered in the hemp products utilised (i.e. fibres or hurds),
during plant growth. PET is a thermoplastic polyester widely used
for bottles and containers of food or pharmaceutical products
(Massey et al., 2008). It is the most common kind of plastic used for
its good mechanical properties, chemical resistance, clarity, ther-
mal stability and low production cost. However, it is a good waste-
generating though it can be processed and recycled in order to
reduce the irrational and improper disposal of post-consumer
plastics. In 2014, more than 66 billion PET bottles were recycled
in Europe representing 57% of bottles and containers placed in the
market (Petcore, 2014). Post-consumer PET bottles, as reported by
Ingrao et al. (2014) based upon Dullius et al. (2006), can be recycled
to generate new bottles, fibres, or amorphous PET sheets that are
then used for thermo-forming, strapping tapes and other miscel-
laneous applications. The production of fibres represent the most
widespread recycling practice (Ingrao et al., 2014) and find several
applications in buildings as, for instance, reinforcement materials
for concretes and, mainly in Japan, for mortars for road and channel
construction (Ochi et al., 2007). Mechanical properties were
investigated by several author-teams such as, for instance, Borg
et al. (2016), Ge et al. (2014), and Ochi et al. (2007) who docu-
mented a quite upgrade in the compressive strength (Ochi et al.,
2007) allowing a restrained crack development (Borg et al., 2016)
with a Young's modulus of 2e3 GPa (de M. Giraldi et al., 2005;
Torres et al., 2000).
In addition, hygric characterisation of different composites
based upon R-PET was performed by Pegoretti and Penati (2004),
thus finding a mass diffusivity of 2.5 10
12 m2 s
1. However, studies
on thermal conductivity of lightweight concrete using R-PET ag-
gregates are quite limited. A lowest thermal conductivity of
0.3924 W m
1 K
1was measured by Akçao €zoglu et al. (2013) for
concrete made with 60% replacement of waste PET aggregate.
Hence, R-PET can be introduced in building applications in the form
of insulating panels, with significant environmental benefits com-
ing not only from the good thermal insulation performance but,
also, from the avoided usage of virgin PET in the panel production
phase (Ingrao et al., 2014, 2016b).
As described above, the literature regarding the characterisation
of hemp concrete and R-PET in terms of physical properties is quite
extensive, whilst few studies regarding their applications in
buildings for short periods, and the related consequences in terms
of indoor air quality, energy consumption and environmental gains,
are currently available.
In this context, the authors believe that, the novelty of paper
stands in the evaluation of the yearly energy performance of those
materials considering:
1642 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653

- two different weather conditions, namely the semi-continental The energy conservation equation with coupled temperature
and the Mediterranean ones that were observed in Western and and moisture for porous media is considered, and the effect of the
Southern Europe; and absorption or desorption heat is added. This equation is written as
- buildings serving as offices and, so, being mainly occupied follows:
during week days.




vT v vT v vT v vq
r Cpm ¼ lðT; qÞ þ Lv rl DT;v þ Dq;v
In that context, this paper aims at performing a numerical vt vx vx vx vx vx vx
assessment of the thermal behaviours of three different walls (4)
incorporating hemp-lime concrete or R-PET. It was conducted by
using the simulation tool SPARK (Sowell and Haves, 2001; Tran Le rl
Cpm ¼ Cp0þ Cpl (5)
et al., 2009) which is suited to solve complex, time-consuming rq
problems, and helps give better evidence of the related results
obtained. The climate conditions are tested for three cities, Nancy where Cpm is the average specific heat which takes into account the
and Carpentras in France, and Perugia in Italy. Also, the annual dry material specific heat and the contribution of the specific heat
electrical energy consumption values calculated through the sim- of liquid phase. l is the thermal conductivity depending on mois-
ulations were used to perform a Carbon Footprint (CF) assessment ture content. For greater understanding, it is underscored that the
focussed on the use of each studied façade as an external wall in boundary conditions used take into account radiation, convection,
office facilities. and phase change.
It should be observed that this study is focussed only upon the 

use phase of the three wall-composition samples, and is the com- vT vT vT

l
Lv rl DT;v þ Dq;v
plementary part of a research designed to perform life-cycle vx x¼0;e vx vx x¼0;e
approach based evaluations aimed at assessing the energy and    
environmental issues associated with their application in buildings. ¼ hT;e Ta;e
Ts;e þ Lv hM;e rve;a;e
rve;s;e þ Fray;e (6)
Finally, this study can be considered as the first step towards the
evaluation of the improvements that can be made in buildings to 

vT vT vT
enhance both energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
l
Lv rl DT;v þ Dq;v
vx x¼L;i vx vx x¼L;i
   
2. Mathematical model ¼ hT;i Ts;i
Ta;i þ Lv hM;i rve;s;i
rve;a;i þ Fray;i (7)

This section is devoted to present the equations that were Since the wall comprises several material layers, equations at
developed to assess the heating and cooling loads, on both the the interface between layers are added. In this case study, the
room and the air level. contact between layers is assumed perfect, moisture and thermal
The thermal performance of an envelope including the dura- resistances at the interface are neglected and the temperature and
bility of the material are highly dependent on moisture transport capillary pressure are considered continuous, according to Mendes
through envelope. Thus, understanding the humidity transfers is and Philippi (2005); Tran Le et al. (2009).
crucial to improve performance and indoor thermal comfort
ðTÞA ¼ ðTÞB
especially when using a bio-sourced material like hemp concrete (8)
ðjÞA ¼ ðjÞB
(Lelievre et al., 2014; Tran Le et al., 2010).
Along the years, several investigators have developed models of where T is the temperature and j is the capillary pressure.
moisture transport in buildings and, in particular, in single building According to the Kelvin's law:
materials such as, for instance, (Künzel, 1995; Mendes, 1997;
Pedersen, 1992) ф ¼ expðjg=Rv TÞ (9)
The majority of those models nearly have a similar physical
basis: heat and mass equation, Philip and de Vries model (Philip Then, it can be deduced that:
and De Vries, 1957), and the laws of Fourier, Fick and Darcy. For
Rv ðTÞA Rv ðTÞB
contrast, Umidus model (Mendes, 1997) which, as known, takes lnðфÞA ¼ lnðфÞB (10)
g g
into account the liquid and vapour phases transfer is employed in
this work. The wall thickness L is presented in Fig. 1 as well as the
where Rv is the constant of water vapour, ф is the relative humidity
different transport phenomena including mass and heat
and g is the gravity acceleration. Because the temperatures for both
convections.
materials are the same at the interface, the above equation can be
The governing partial equations to model heat and mass transfer
written as:
are given as following:


 ðфÞA ¼ ðфÞB (11)
vq v vT v vq
¼ DT þ Dq (1)
vt vx vx vx vx which means that relative humidity is the same at the interface for
With the boundary conditions at the external surface (x ¼ 0) and both materials, whilst moisture content is discontinuous because of
the internal surface (x ¼ L): the different pore structures of those materials.

  
vT vq 
rl DT þ Dq ¼ hM;e rve;a;e
rve;s;e (2) 2.1. Air model
vX vx x¼0;e

 The air in the zone is assumed to be well mixed respecting the

vT vq   
perfect gas law. The net heat transferred into the zone across its
rl DT þ Dq  ¼ hM;i rve;s;i
rve;a;i (3)
vX vx x¼L;i faces must equal the heat stored in the volume of air in the cell. This
involves heat fluxes through the envelope (transmission, long and
 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653
Fig. 1. Heat and mass transfer through a material envelope.
short-wave radiation input), additional thermal loads, air exchange
due to natural convection or ‘Heating, Ventilating and Air Condi-
tioning’ (HVAC). The energy equation can be written as:
  vT
ri cp V þ I ¼ FWest
FEast þ FSouth
FNorth þ FBottom
FTop
vt
þ FSource
where I is the room's thermal inertia. The humidity condition in the
room is due to moisture transfer from interior surfaces, moisture
production rate, and the gains or losses due to air infiltration,
natural and mechanical ventilation, as well as sources or sinks due
to the room occupancy. This yields the following mass balance
equation for room air:
vri
V ¼ QmWest
QmEast þ QmSouth
QmNorth þ QmBottom
QmTop
vt
þ QmSource
2.2. Radiation exchange
For the short-wave radiation transmitted through the walls, it
can be considered that radiant energy enters the room by pane
window. However, the mean radiant temperature method is used
to calculate long-wave radiation exchange between walls. A linear
equation expressing the radiative flow between a wall and all the
other walls of the room is written as:
Fint
rad;LW ¼ hr SðT
Tm Þ
The value of hr is expressed by:
hr ¼ 4εs0 Tm
3
where Tm is the mean radiant temperature of the walls and is given
by:
1643
SSj TSj
Tm ¼ (16)
SSj
2.3. Simulation environment SPARK
(12)
To develop the equation system presented and discussed in the
previous sections, the authors of this paper used the Simulation
Problem Analysis and Research Kernel (SPARK) because, according
to Sowell and Haves (2001), it allows to solve efficiently differential
equation systems. Indeed, SPARK is an equation-based simulation
environment that was developed by the Simulation Research Group
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for constructing and
running models of complex systems. Problem description for a
SPARK solution begins by breaking it down in an object-oriented
way. This means perceiving the problem in terms of its compo-
nents and representing it as a SPARK object: a model is then
developed for these components. Since there may be several
(13) components of the same kind, SPARK object models, equations (or
group of equations) are defined in a generic manner called ‘classes’
serving as templates for any number of objects required to
formulate the whole problem. The problem model is then
completed by linking the objects together. Using graph theoretical
techniques, SPARK reduces the size of the equation system and uses
a Newton-Raphson iterative method to solve the reduced system.
After convergence, it solves for the remaining unknowns. Several
numerical studies on agro-materials used in buildings were carried
out using SPARK by implementing mathematical models through
the finite difference method. Details and validation can be found
documented by Maalouf et al. (2014); Tran Le et al. (2009, 2010).
(14) 3. Case studies
Three different types of façades located in France and Italy were
tested to evaluate their energy performance and the related Carbon
(15) Footprint (CF). The composition of the first façade includes external
hemp concrete layer associated with brick (HCB façade). The second
comprises a hemp concrete wall with indoor lime plaster (HC
façade). The third façade is based on a thermal block, a thermal
1644 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653
Fig. 2. Section of the studied office.
insulation layer realized with R-PET mats,1 a ventilated cavity
associated with a cladding layer (R-PET façade). For greater un-
derstanding and appreciation of the study, the characteristics of the
three walls tested were detailed in Tables 1e3.
The case study is a virtual office of 24 m2 and 3 m height,
occupied by two persons for 6 days per week from 8 a.m. to 13 p.m.
and from 14 p.m. to 18 p.m., equipped with two computers of
130 W each (see Fig. 2). In order both to improve work environment
and save energy, LED luminaries of 90 W are employed. For the
internal temperature conditions two scenarios are considered: a
heating period scenario with set point reference values (from
November to April) and a free floating period in the remaining
period of the year (MayeOctober). For the heating period, the in-
door temperature is set at 20  C during occupation period and 19  C
during the vacancy time. In the free floating period, the tempera-
ture is allowed to fluctuate between 17  C and 26  C, so making it
possible to estimate heating and cooling loads utilising a PI
controller. To facilitate calculation without affecting the quality and
reliability of the study, a south-facing façade is only considered in
this study. It has a 40% surface area double glazing surface with a
PVC frame and Ug ¼ 2.8 W/m2 K coupled with an external solar
overhang of 1 m width. For the solar radiation entering through the
window with the overhang, calculation was performed with
Codyba software (Noe €l, 2004) and the data was inserted in SPARK.
Concerning the ventilation systems, two types were tested: the
constant flow rate (36 m3/h) and the relative humidity sensitive
rate (16e43 m3/h) as shown in Fig. 3. In respect to the standard NF
EN 12831, the air infiltration rate is estimated to 0.2 h
1. An addi-
tional night free cooling of 2 h
1 is considered in the summer
season (from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.) for optimisation of the cooling energy
consumption. Because of lack of data for the hollow brick, the
moisture transfer was neglected in this layer (for the HCB and R-PET
façades). This assumption has a little impact on the indoor moisture
conditions as the thickness of gypsum and lime mortar layers are
higher than their moisture penetration depth (Koronthalyova and
Holubek, 2016) and due to the interaction with ventilation sys-
tem (Woods et al., 2013). Table 4 shows the values of the used
thermal convection coefficients (Lefebvre, 1994). Mass transfer
coefficients are computed using Lewis relation as follows:
1
Technical details about the R-PET are available in Ingrao et al. (2014).
hT
Le ¼ (17)
hM ra Cpa
where ra (kg m
3), Cpa (J. kg
1, K
1) are the mass density and the
specific heat capacity of the air; hT and hM are the heat and mass
transfer convection coefficients.
Simulations were run for a period of 24 months, the results of
the first twelve months were neglected and used to initialize the
calculation, then the final results are presented for the last twelve
months period from January to December. The time step is set to
10 min.
Also, simulations were run for three locations with different
climatic conditions that are representative of most of Europe. The
chosen countries are Nancy and Carpentras in France and the city of
Perugia in Italy as shown on the map of Fig. 4. Nancy city has a
semi-continental climate, the winters are cold and the summers are
mild. In Carpentras, the weather is Mediterranean with dry and hot
summers and mild winters. Even though Perugia is located in the
central part of Italy, the climate is similar to the north of Italy (mild
in winter and hot and humid in summer). For clearness reasons, the
weather data used for the calculations were summarised in Table 5.
4. Simulation results
4.1. Constant air flow rate case
A detailed analysis of the indoor air conditions in Nancy city
during winter and in Carpentras city during summer, were devel-
oped and discussed in this section. For greater understanding, it
clarified that Perugia air conditions are not presented since the
variations are close to Carpentras.
For Nancy, the indoor relative humidity profiles are depicted for
a period of one week in the winter season (mid-December) and for
the three façades. In Fig. 5, one can see that during occupancy
hours, the indoor relative humidity varies between 27% and 49%.
The relative humidity for HC and R-PET façades are close since the
lime hemp and lime mortar plasters have close buffering moisture
values higher than gypsum. In vacancy hours, the relative humidity
increases since indoor temperature set point decreases from 20 to
17  C (see Fig. 6). For the three cases indoor relative humidity
profiles are close and is less affected by façade material because of
the air ventilation rate.
In Carpentras where the climate is relatively hot in summer, the
internal and external wall surface temperatures are shown for a
typical day in mid-June (Fig. 7). The time shift (4), defined as the
time it takes for the heat wave to propagate from the outer surface
to the inner surface of the wall, and the decrement factor (f), which
is the ratio between the two temperature signal amplitudes (a/b),
are calculated for further energy performance improvement. For
the HC façade shown in Fig. 7, the decrement factor and the time
shift are respectively 0.2 and 14 h, so showing a good temperature
attenuation of 8 . The decrement factors are also calculated for the
other façades. Results for the three façades are too close because
their wall surface density are too close. However there is a slight
shift in the temperature, which is due to the difference between
their transmittance coefficients (0.26 Wm
2 K for HC, 0.3 for HCB
and 0.23 for R-PET). The HCB wall has a temperature shifted about
0.1  C higher than the R-PET. These results suggest that the cooling
demand of the HCB façade could be higher than the other cases.
4.2. Relative humidity sensitive ventilation case
Fig. 8 shows the air flow rate profile for the hemp-concrete
façade (HC) in cold and hot seasons in Carpentras. In winter, the
 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653 1645

Table 1
Hemp concrete brick façade (HCB) properties.

Façade (HCB) Layers Mass density Thermal conductivity at 50 % relative humidity Specific heat Transmittance
(from inside to outside) (kg m
3) (W m
1 K
1) (J kg
1 C
1) (W/m
2 K
1)

Gypsum plaster 900 0.25 850 0.3

(1.5 cm)
Optibric PV3+ Imeris 700 0.187 850
(20 cm)
Sprayed hemp concrete 450 0.095 1000
(20 cm)
Lime sand plaster 1650 0.4 830
(2 cm)

Table 2
Hemp concrete façade (HC) properties.

Façade (HC) Layers Mass density Thermal conductivity at 50 % relative humidity Specific heat Transmittance
(from inside to outside) (kg m
3) (W m
1 K
1) (J kg
1 C
1) (W/m
2 K
1)

Hemp-lime plaster 930 0.2 1000 0.26

(1 cm)
Lime sand plaster 1650 0.4 830
(1 cm)
Sprayed hemp concrete 450 0.095 1000
(36 cm)
Lime sand plaster 1650 0.4 830
(1 cm)

Table 3
R-PET façade properties.

Façade (R-PET) Layers (from inside to Mass density Thermal conductivity at 50% relative humidity Specific heat (J Transmittance (W/
outside) (kg m
3) (W m
1 K
1) kg
1  C
1) m
2 K
1)

Lime sand plaster 1650 0.4 830 0.22

(1.5 cm)
Thermal block (25 cm) 531 0.18 900
Thermal insulation 30 0.0365 240
(10 cm)
Ventilated cavity
Cladding (4 cm) 750 0.3

indoor relative humidity being lower than the outdoor, decreases

the ventilation air flow rate as well as the heating energy demands.
As one can see, the air flow rate varies between 16 and 31 m3/h and
does not exceed 33 m3/h. Otherwise, in the warm season, the in-
door relative humidity is relatively high which enhances the needs
for cooled air; the air flow rate being in the range 20e42 m3/h in
August. This can explain the highest need for cooling when hu-
midity sensitive flow rate ventilation is employed.

Table 4
Values of the thermal convection coefficient.

External vertical Internal Internal Internal vertical

façade floor ceiling wall

Value 20.5 1.38 5.5 3

Fig. 3. Air flow rate variation in the relative humidity sensitive ventilation system. (W m
2 K
1)
1646 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653

Fig. 4. Three test locations in France and Italy.

Table 5 which allows keeping indoor relative humidity higher than other
Climate data for the three test locations in France and Italy. cases insuring better indoor relative humidity levels (a difference of
City Nancy Carpentras Perugia 4% relative humidity is noted between the HC case and the HCB
Average maximum temperature in summer ( C) 24 30.5 28.7
one).
Average minimum temperature in summer ( C) 12.8 15.4 14.5
Average maximum temperature in winter ( C) 6.3 12.2 10.6 4.3. Heating and cooling energy consumption
Average minimum temperature in winter ( C)
0.4 1.6 1.5

Regarding the indoor relative humidity, the numerical profiles
are depicted for the three considered façades in Fig. 9 during the
same week of December as in the previous section. There is more
pronounced discrepancy between these profiles and the other
depicted above for the constant air flow rate ventilation mode. As it
can be seen, the hemp-concrete shows the highest indoor relative
humidity level which requires the highest air flow rate (33e48 m3/
h) (see Fig. 10). This is due to its high moisture buffering capacity
The yearly heating and cooling needs for each façade are
calculated and presented in Table 6 and Fig. 11f or the constant flow
rate ventilation mode and in Table 7 and Fig. 12 for relative hu-
midity sensitive air flow rate. Based upon the findings one can see
that, for Nancy city (located in the North of France with semi-
continental weather) the main energy demand comes from the
heating phase, whereas for Carpentras and Perugia cities the
cooling energy demand is higher than the heating one, mainly
because their locations in the related regions. In addition, it can be
noticed that the heating energy demands decrease sharply in the

Fig. 5. Indoor relative humidity variation during one week of December in Nancy using constant flow rate ventilation mode.
 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653 1647

Fig. 6. Indoor temperature variation of the PI controller during one week in Nancy using constant flow rate ventilation mode.

Fig. 7. Indoor and outdoor surface temperature variation during a day in Carpentras using constant flow rate ventilation mode for HC façade.

Fig. 8. Air flow rate variation in Carpentras during winter (a) and summer months (b) for humidity sensitive flow rate mode.

case of humidity sensitive flow rate ventilation with a slight in-
crease in the cooling energy demands independently of the
considered façades. For Nancy, heating demand decreases about
28% whereas for Carpentras it decreases 56% and for Perugia 61%.
Concerning the cooling demand, it can be seen an average in-
crease about 10% in Nancy, 8.5% in Carpentras and 7.5% in Perugia.
These growth are similar for the three façades except for the HCB in
Carpentras where cooling needs growth reaches 18.5% due to the
indoor high relative humidity.
In the light of this, it appears that cooling is not needed for
Nancy and, so, other passive means are recommendable like day
window opening for natural ventilation in summer.
4.4. Electrical energy consumption
At the aim of converting the heating and cooling needs into
energy consumption, it was assumed that the air conditioning
system at the service of the office is equipped with fan-coils and
1648 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653

Fig. 9. Indoor relative humidity variation during one week of December in Nancy using humidity sensitive flow rate ventilation mode.

Fig. 10. Air flow rate variation during one week of December in Nancy using humidity sensitive flow rate ventilation mode.

Table 6
Detailed annual heating and cooling thermal-energy consumption (kWh) for the three building façades (constant air ventilation rate).

City HC façade HCB façade R-PET façade

Heating energy Cooling energy Heating energy Cooling energy Heating energy Cooling energy

kWh

Nancy, Fr 1031.3 123.7 1069 123 1028.5 118

Carpentras, Fr 180.6 493.3 192 493 183.6 477
Perugia, It 234.3 536.5 247.5 542 237 526.5

with a high-efficiency heat pump as power unit. The seasonal value
of the heat pump COP was set equal to 3 (Ghoubali et al., 2014).
Assuming fan power to be 0.25 W/m3/h, electrical energy con-
sumption for free cooling is around 30 kWh (ALDES). The annual
electrical energy consumption for the aforementioned cities using
the two air ventilation systems are shown in Tables 8 and 9. There is
an evidence that the lowest values of overall electricity consump-
tion were recorded in Carpentras, thanks to the three façades'
thermal behaviour being the best in winter and rather acceptable in
summer (compared to the other two cities). Additionally, it can be
clearly seen that using a humidity sensitive air ventilation rate
decreases the annual energy consumption about 24% for Nancy, 7%
for Carpentras and 11.6% for Perugia when Hemp concrete façade is
used. The same observations are applied for the other façades.
Moreover, the usage of R-PET mats allows for very good thermal
behaviours for the related façade, so contributing to make the latter
the less electricity demanding one, with the lowest consumption
rate recorded in Carpentras when using the humidity sensitive flow
rate ventilation.
5. Carbon footprint assessment
5.1. Methodology
CF is a single-issue impact assessment method used to evaluate
the pressure of human activities on the environment. CF represents
the quantification of the environmental consequences of a given
activity, process or product in terms of equivalent carbon dioxide
(CO2eq) emissions (Wiedmann and Minx, 2008). For the purpose of
this study, amongst the various CF quantification methodologies,
the one based on activity data and appropriate emission/removal
factors was adopted. The assessment was performed using the PRe 
Consultants SimaPro 8.0 software (SimaPro, 2015) and the life cycle
emission factors of the associated Ecoinvent database (Ecoinvent,
 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653 1649

Table 9
Total electrical energy consumption (kWh y
1) for the three building façades
considered (humidity sensitive flow rate ventilation).

HC HCB R-PET

Nancy, Fr 281.0 285.0 276.3

Carpentras, Fr 234.8 252.3 229
Perugia, It 253.5 256.0 248.3

the IPCC 2013 GWP 100a method (IPCC, 2013) included in SimaPro
8 and considering the total amount of direct and indirect GHG
emissions, refer to the electricity available at the low voltage level
in each country, and include:

- the electricity inputs produced in the country and from imports

Fig. 11. Heating and cooling needs for the three façades using a constant air flow rate
transformed to low voltage;
ventilation. - the transmission network;

Table 7
Detailed annual heating and cooling thermal-energy consumption (kWh) for the three building façades (humidity sensitive flow rate ventilation).

City HC façade HCB façade R-PET façade

Heating energy Cooling energy Heating energy Cooling energy Heating energy Cooling energy

kWh

Nancy, Fr 753 134.5 765 136 739 130.5

Carpentras, Fr 79.5 535 82 585 79.5 517.5
Perugia, It 89.5 581 96 582 91 564

- the losses during transmission;

- the SF6 direct emissions to air (from the insulation gas in the
medium voltage level switchgear).

The aforementioned GHG emissions were calculated following

eq. (7) as reported below:
X
EFi ¼ GWPj $ej;i (18)
j

where:

 ej,i ¼ emission (in mass unit) of the j-th GHG associated to the i-
th process;
 GWPj ¼ Global Warming Potential of the j-th GHG (Table 10
reports the GWP of four relevant GHGs for a time horizon of
100 years, which is recommended for CF assessment).
Fig. 12. Heating and cooling needs for the three façades using a relative humidity
sensitive ventilation.

5.2. Results
Table 8
Total electrical energy consumption (kWh y
1) for the three building façades
considered (constant air ventilation rate). For a greater understanding of the results presented in this
section, it is underscored that the emission factors used for the
HC HCB R-PET
assessment resulted equal to 0.120 kgCO2eq.kWh
1 for France and
Nancy, Fr 373.8 386.3 372.8 to 0.649 kgCO2eq.kWh
1 for Italy. In France, in fact, a significant
Carpentras, Fr 254.6 258.3 250.2
share of gross energy consumed is derived from nuclear power,
Perugia, It 286.9 293.2 284.5
which is characterised by lower GHG emissions than fossil fuels-
fired power plants that, instead, have a considerable share in the
energy mix of Italy.
As shown in Tables 11 and 12, the CF values do not reflect the
2015). Therefore, the CF related to the energy consumption is trend of the total electrical energy consumption. In fact, in agree-
computed based upon the data reported in Tables 8 and 9, ment with all commented above, the differences in the energy
considering the emission factors related to the energy country mix country mix have a great influence on the results, making Perugia
of France and Italy. That emission factors, evaluated according to the worst location between the three locations considered, though
1650 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653

Table 10 sensitive flow rate ventilation system enables reduction of the

Global Warming Potential of relevant GHGs (IPCC, 2013). electricity consumptions associated with the three façades,
GHG Formula GWP (kgCO2eq/kgGHG) compared to the constant air ventilation system. As a result, the
Carbon dioxide CO2 1
system has a positive effect upon the CF results, and can be
Methane CH4 28 considered as the most preferable option amongst the two for each
Nitrous oxide N2O 265 city considered and wall investigated.
Sulphur hexafluoride SF6 23,500 For greater rank of details, Fig. 13 was reported to show the
breakdown of the total CF for each case study considered in the
research, thus highlighting the contribution of the different GHGs.
It is worth noting that the four main GHGs mentioned in Table 12
Table 11
represent together almost the entire CF associated with each
Carbon Footprint (kgCO2eq kWh
1 y
1) of the three studied building façades
(constant air ventilation rate). studied façade. In particular, regarding Nancy and Carpentras they
account approximately for the 99% of the CF (exactly, 99.07%),
HC HCB R-PET
whilst regarding Perugia their share on the total value is equal to
Nancy, Fr 44.86 46.36 44.74 99.82%, both in the constant flow rate and humidity sensitive flow
Carpentras, Fr 30.55 31.00 30.03 rate ventilation modes.
Perugia, It 186.07 190.16 184.52
Furthermore, from the results obtained it should be observed
that the R-PET façade is the best performing one amongst the three
façades considered in all the scenarios simulated, with CF values
Table 12
very close to the ones of the HC façade and sensibly lower than the
Carbon Footprint (kgCO2eq kWh
1 y
1) of the three studied building façades (hu-
midity sensitive flow rate ventilation). ones of the HCB façade.
However, it should be observed that, though the use of a
HC HCB R-PET
building is accepted as one of the most impacting phases in its life
Nancy, Fr 33.72 34.20 33.16 cycle, significant contributions come also from the phases of con-
Carpentras, Fr 28.18 30.28 27.48
struction (including the raw material preparation) and end-of-life.
Perugia, It 164.41 166.03 161.04
Those contributions mainly relate to the demand of materials, fuels
and energy, the emissions in air, water and soil, as well as to the
subsequent environmental impacts, and so need to be assessed and
reduced by making improvements. For this purpose, a full Life Cycle
the related values recorded for the total electrical energy con-
Assessment (LCA) is expected to be carried out by the authors as an
sumption are comparable with the ones of Carpentras and appre-
integrative, enriching part of the research mentioned in the intro-
ciably lower than the ones calculated for Nancy.
ductory section. The study will be conducted according to the LCA
Also, from Tables 9 and 10 there is evidence that the humidity-
framework reported within the international Standards 14040 and

Fig. 13. Contribution of the different GHGs to the total CF.

 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653 1651

14044 (ISO, 2006a, b) and so will be articulated in the phases of:
goal and scope definition; inventory analysis; impact assessment;
and interpretation.
Finally, the study will be aimed at identifying the envelope so-
lution, amongst those investigated, that performs best in its life
cycle from an energy and environmental point-of-view, and so that
can be considered as suitable for construction of sustainable
buildings.
6. Conclusion
In this paper, a numerical study of the hygrothermal behaviour
of three different walls was performed via the simulation tool
SPARK. Three façades including hemp-concrete (HC), hemp con-
crete with a brick layer (HCB) and Recycled PolyEthylene Tere-
phthalate (R-PET) were tested for three cities (Nancy, Carpentras in
France and Perugia in Italy) with constant and relative humidity
sensitive air flow rates. A south-facing façade of a virtual reference
office is considered to test the three wall compositions and, for each
case, heating and cooling demands were computed and used to
calculate the annual electrical energy consumption and the Carbon
Footprint. In this way, it is given evidence of the results related to
the use the three sustainable materials as insulating layers in
buildings façades, in terms of indoor air quality, energy consump-
tion and environmental gains. Our results suggest that relative
humidity sensitive ventilation reduces electrical energy consump-
tion when compared to the constant air flow rate one. For Nancy
city electrical consumption is reduced about 24% whereas for Car-
pentras and Perugia cities the reduction is about 7% and 11.6%
respectively. Besides the thermal behaviour of the HC façade is
close to that of the R-PET one for cold climates and its energy
performance slightly decreases when summers get warmer as in
Carpentras and Perugia because of the low thermal inertia of the
hemp concrete.
Also, as regards the CF assessment, it resulted that Carpentras is
the city that performs best for all the three façades tested,
depending not only upon the local climate conditions but also the
electricity emission factor which is almost 5.5 higher in Italy than in
France.
The less electricity consuming and GHG emitting façade is the
one equipped with the R-PET layer, thereby remarking upon the
eco-friendliness of recycled materials and, so, the importance and
the need of utilising them for construction of high energy efficiency
and low environmental impact buildings.
The study circulates information and data upon the yearly en-
ergy and environmental performance of unconventional wall-
compositions usable in office buildings under Mediterranean and
semi-continental climatic conditions. So, the authors believe that
its findings may contribute to enriching the specialised literatures
and databases currently available at the global scale. Furthermore,
the study could support the international debate upon the envi-
ronmental benefits resulting from the application in buildings of
materials produced from either natural resources or post-consumer
waste. With regard to this specific aspect, in agreement with Ingrao
et al. (2014), the study allowed to document that natural materials
are not always 100% environmentally sustainable compared to the
recycled ones that, so, could be used as valid alternatives.
Finally, the study is the preliminary part of a research designed to
perform life-cycle energy and environmental evaluations at the en-
velope scale, to improve the energy efficiency and the environmental
sustainability of buildings, thereby contributing to the imple-
mentation of equitable, sustainable, post fossil-carbon societies.
Nomenclature

Symbol Definition Unit

W Moisture content by mass kg/kg

C Specific heat J kg
1 K
1
C0 Specific heat of dry material J kg
1 K
1
Cl Specific heat of water J kg
1 K
1
DT Mass transport coefficient associated to a temperature gradient m2 s
1 K
1
DT,v Vapour transport coefficient associated to a temperature gradient m2 s
1 K
1
Dq Mass transport coefficient associated to a moisture content gradient m2 s
1
Dq v Vapour transport coefficient associated to a moisture content gradient m2 s
1
hM Mass transfer convection coefficient kg m
2 s
1
hT Heat transfer convection coefficient W K
1 m
2
I room's thermal inertia
Lv Heat of vaporization J kg
1
Rv Constant of water vapour J kg
1 K
1
T Temperature K
Ta Indoor air temperature K
Tm mean radiant temperature of the walls K
T0 operative temperature K
Τ Time s
Q Moisture content m3 m
3
L Thermal conductivity W m
1 K
1
r0 Mass density of dry material kg m
3
rl Mass density of water kg m
3
rv Mass density of vapour water kg m
3
ri Air density kg m
3
4 Relative humidity %
F time shift h
F Heat flux W
Qm Air flow rate kg s
1
Fsource Heat source power W
J capillary pressure Pa
Е Wall emissivity (long wave)
s0 Stephan-Boltzmann constant W m
2 T
4
1652 C. Maalouf et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 170 (2018) 1640e1653
Acronyms
CF Carbon Footprint CF
CoDyBa Comportment Dynamique des B^ atiments
COP Coefficient of performance
GHGs Greenhouse Gases
HC Hemp concrete
HCB Hemp concrete associated with brick
R-PET Recycled PolyEthylene Terephthalate
SPARK Simulation Problem Analysis and Research Kernel
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