Ongoing projects
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Quality criterion recycled asphalt
The use of reclaimed asphalt (RA) as recycled asphalt to form fresh asphalt mix is a strategy that has the potential to conserve natural resources while saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the project is to develop the basis for a quality criterion recycling asphalt in the context of hot mix production. The basics are intended to quantify changes in energy, cost, pollutant, and GHG emission flows through different proportions of RA by mass flow analysis. The consideration is limited to the production stage. Changes in the durability (lifetime) of different variants are only taken into account within the scope of a sensitivity analysis in the context of this project. Subsequently, best bidder criteria for tenders can be derived from the results of the project.
Project partners:
E226-02 - Research Unit Waste and Resource Management
E230-03 - Research Unit Highway Engineering
Funding agency:
VIBÖ-Vereinigung Industrieller Bauunternehmungen Österreichs
ASFINAG Bau Management GmbH
Analyzation, Digitalization and Sustainable Management of Anthropogenic Resources within the City (M-DAB)
Current knowledge about quantities and qualities of bound resources or waste materials is insufficient. 70% (about 44 million tons) of Austria’s annual waste volume originates from the building industry. In this research project we investigate how digital technologies can support the determination of existing and future material resources in the construction industry qualitatively and quantitatively. As a result, higher transparency of follow-up costs in waste removal and material recovery arises. The results of the research project can be used to determine material resources and disposal costs in terms of time and space. Within planning scenarios, it will be simulated how resources can be used in a more sustainable way, how a better recycling balance can be achieved and how the future built environment can be made resource-efficient in terms of economic and environmental aspects. A planning tool is developed, which visually prepares the automated calculation and simulation results. Furthermore, a process is designed, which enables a practical input/collection of component- and building-specific raw material resources. Practically this is realized by an extension of the BIM interface IFC. The process designed in the project leads to a constant increase of the level of detail in the database and enables automated simulation and thus precise forecasts over the entire lifecycle process of the building stock.
Project partners:
TU Wien - Institute of Spatial Planning – Research Unit Local Planning (TU-IFOER) – Projektleitung
TU Wien - Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management - Research Unit Waste and Resource Management (TU-IWR)
SIDE - Studio for Information Design (SIDE)
Mathias Mitteregger (MM)
Funding agency:
Austria Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
Project Information:
Waste prevention in the construction sector through reuse of construction components - legal and technical actual state analysis (Lex ReUse)
Reuse in construction is an essential tool for waste prevention due to the large quantities of waste generated in that sector. In many studies, reuse was examined solely under the angle of waste legislation. The present project takes the next logical step, analyzing further legal issues along the product life cycle and verifying their compliance with the objectives of waste prevention and circular economy. The aim of the project is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the existing legal situation in the sense of waste prevention and reuse in the sense of an actual analysis along the entire life cycle of construction products. Based on this, a stakeholder process with relevant representatives will be initiated in order to determine the requirements in the field of reuse. It is expected to have a positive effect on waste prevention in the construction sector. Hence, legal certainty is equally relevant for the contracting authority and the contractor for a broad economic implementation.
Project partners:
Niederhuber & Partner Rechtsanwälte GmbH
Funding agency:
Projectdescription:
Building local capacities on solid waste management in Imvepi settlement
The research work supports the activities of the Austrian Red Cross (ARC) and the Ugandan Red Cross (URC) in the Imvepi refugee camp in the West-Nile Region of Northern Uganda, which hosts around 55.000 refugees. The camp has been set-up after the outbreak of a civil war in the country of South Sudan 2015 and the thereby caused inflow of refugees from the country to Uganda. The project is carried out in the frame of the project called “Improved living conditions of refugees and host communities in Imvepi settlement with regard to health, economic integration and environmental resilience” which is funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). The aim of the project is to support the establishment of a community-based waste collection system, and a human and solid waste management center (WMC) in the Imvepi settlement. TU Wien activities will support the work of the ARC and a local consultancy. TU Wien will accompany the planning and construction phase and will particularly focus on reviewing the implemented waste management measures (operation phase) in order to facilitate a long-term waste management planning.
Project partners:
Founding agency:
Research project in the frame of the project „LIFT – Living Conditions in Imvepi Fostered Together“ of the Austrian Red Cross (ARC)
Transformation of Cities into a Low Carbon Future and its Impact on Urban Metabolism, Environment, and Society (TransLoC)
Radical transformations of the anthropogenic metabolism in the past were mainly driven by severe challenges existing. The measures in response to these often created new problems when implemented at full scale. An example is the Neolithic Revolution that aimed to reduce food shortage but also created deforestation. A radical transformation of today is towards a low-carbon city by up-scaling of existing local scale measures (e.g. low energy buildings) at city level to mitigate CO2 emissions. This up-scaling, however, will result in a number of implications, as the transformation requires raw materials, causes novel emissions and wastes, and influences the whole society. The proposed project analyzes the changes induced by the transformation to a low-carbon city, focusing on energy generation and consumption, CO2 emissions, materials flows, and employment in the sectors of transport and buildings, applied to the case study of Vienna. Low-carbon city scenarios derived from CO2 emission reduction targets are analyzed for their energy flows, embodied energy, material flows and stocks and thereby induced environmental impacts to air, water, and soil. The result is an integrated energy-material-environmental-impacts-model that also determines the option to substitute primary raw materials by waste recycling. By determining the impact of scenarios on the quality of work in the green job market, a holistic analysis of the low-carbon city transformation in Vienna is provided.
Project partners:
Österreichisches Institut für Raumplanung (OIR GmbH)
Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS)
TU Wien, Energy Economics Group (EEG)
Funding agency:
Vienna Science and Technology Fund
Project Information from the Funding Agency
Publications:
J. Lederer, A. Gassner, F. Keringer, U. Mollay, C. Schremmer, J. Fellner: “Material Flows and Stocks in the Urban Building Sector: A Case Study from Vienna for the Years 1990–2015”; Sustainability 12 (2020), 12, 300.
Events:
Seminar series, TU Wien, 2019: Smart paths towards a Smart City: spatial, material, energetic and social developments towards a low carbon city 2050.
Presentations:
J. Lederer: „Smart paths towards a Smart City: spatial, material, energetic and social developments towards a low carbon city 2050”.
J. Lederer: „Buildings in Vienna from a material perspective.“ TU Wien, 25.11.2019, Vienna, Austria.
Projectdescription:
Capacity building on the water-energy-food security Nexus through research and training in Kenya and Uganda (CapNex)
Population and economic growth in the Kenya-Uganda border region has led to an increasing pressure on natural resources, affecting the future provision of water, energy, and food. The CapNex project aims to illustrate challenges and pathways for a sustainable use of these resources to provide water, energy, and food, and to build up capacities at university and non-university level. To do so, four interrelated case studies are designed, focusing on 1) the current and future water quantity available, 2) erosion and how it affects the surface water quality, 3) the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) in agriculture, and 4) the cascade utilization of cattle manure by vermicomposting in the area. The relations between the topics covered in the case studies will be illustrated by a number of examples and methods (e.g. sediments in rivers from eroded soils affecting water supply; reduction of erosion and increase of food production by SWC and vermicomposting). These practical examples will help to illustrate the nature of the so-called water-energy-food-security nexus in order to build up capacities at university and non-university level. For the latter, non-university stakeholders are asked to participate and interact with university students in the research. In total, seven PhD and six Master students will be trained in the project.
Process-Design für BIM basierten, materiellen Gebäudepass (BIMaterial)
BIMaterial entwickelt die Methodik für die digitale Gebäudemodellierung zwecks Schaffung einer materiellen Datenbasis und die Erstellung des Rückbaukonzepts mittels BIM in der Entwurfsphase (Optimierung der Planung) zusammen mit Rule Sets (Abfrageparameter) für die MGP-Analyse des BIM Models sowie ein Pflichtenheft für eine BIM-basierte MGP App.
Global material flows and demand-supply forecasting for mineral strategies (MinFuture)
Global demand for minerals is growing rapidly, driven by rapid population growth, urbanisation and an increasingly diverse range of technical applications. Global material supply chains linking the extraction, transport and processing stages of raw materials have become increasingly complex and today involve multiple players and product components. An interactive platform that provides transparency about existing approaches and information gaps concerning global material flows is needed to understand these global supply chains; developing this capability is critical for maintaining competitiveness in the European economy. Against this backdrop, the proposed MinFuture project aims to identify, integrate, and develop expertise for global material flow analysis and scenario modelling.
COST Action “Mining the European Anthroposphere” (MINEA)
MINEA ist ein pan-Europäisches Expertennetzwerk zur Klassifizierung von Sekundärrohstoffvorkommen.
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Mining the urban building stock (MUBS)
MUBS beschäftigt sich mit der Prognose von Baurestmassenströmen in Wien.
Establishing the Scientific base for a Landfill Research and Training Centre in Indonesia (ESTReC)
Objective is to establish a knowledge base in Indonesia required for sound sanitary landfill operation and maintenance in tropical climates. In a first step laboratory experiments are carried out in Banda Aceh. 1. Landfill simulation reactors are filled with fresh and aged municipal solid waste. Different process conditions are investigated (e.g. simulation of rain). 2. Different composts are investigated for their potential to be used as biocover on landfills to oxidize harmful methane emissions.
Towards a metric for the resource effectiveness of circular economy strategies (VITO)
The goal of the research project is the further development of the method of Statistical Entropy Analysis for the application on the level of materials, parts and products. The method should enable the evaluation of circular economy processes, i.e. repair, remanufacture and recycling, from the perspective of resource effectiveness and will be applied on the automotive sector.