Abstract
The environmental consequences due to the construction and installation of energy conversion systems that exploit the marine waves have not been taken into high consideration so far. The reasons are related to the fact that these devices are still under development and not many systems have been built. However, with the growth in the number of projects and tests at sea, potential environmental impacts should be considered as well. This work has the purpose of framing the Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC) system, implemented and tested in the port of Naples (Italy), with a view to identifying design, construction and maintenance strategies to improve its sustainability performances. Among the priority aspects there is certainly the intention to provide forecasts and promote initiatives and processes, in terms of eco-design, aimed at ensuring that the design and construction activities target the entire life cycle of the device, reducing or eliminating resources, materials and production processes with potential negative effects in economic and environmental terms. In this regard, to select affordable and environmentally friendly construction products for the OBREC prototype, an application was created using the BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) software. Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory, the instrument measures the environmental performance of construction products using the LCA approach specified in the ISO 14040 series of standards. Five different types of concrete were considered (including a classic Portland cement, a classic Portland limestone cement and three concretes with recycled aggregate in percentages of 20, 35 and 50% respectively). The results show that Portland ordinary cement is the best environmentally friendly solution if the supply source is the same distance away. In fact, for cements with coarse aggregates partly deriving from recycling, gradually increasing acidification phenomena occur, thus making their selections uncertain and risky.