Retrofit ambientale di edifici esistenti: valutazione dell’impatto di fluorocarburi residui mediante analisi di sensitività e incertezza = Environmental Retrofit of Existing Buildings: Assessment of the Impact of Residual Fluorocarbons through Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis

Fluorocarbons are an important class of greenhouse gases, currently responsible for a non-negligible share of global emissions. Despite the bans, CFC/HFC banks are expected to continue generating emissions during the present century, since they are still contained in thermal insulation foams and HVAC systems of buildings. The correct disposal of these banks can limit or eliminate their environmental impacts, then their removal and treatment can constitute a potential environmental retrofit solution for buildings. However, there are no studies in the literature that tried to quantify the environmental saving that can be achieved in this case. In this framework, this paper investigates the possibility of considering the removal of these banks as a profitable environmental retrofit solution for buildings. A recently developed framework for incorporating the environmental impact of fluorocarbon-related emissions in the Life Cycle Assessment of buildings is used and applied for the first time to a real case study, also extending it to include all the sources of uncertainties in the calculation process. The results evidenced that, in terms of Global Warming Potential and for the selected case study, the annual expected impact of CFC release can be, on average, up to 54% of the impact due to annual energy consumption for heating. The highest share of this quantity is due to the annual operational leakage (72%) and to a minor extent to the annual amortization of the emission due to seismic events (28%). In terms of Ozone Depletion Potential, the environmental benefit is more trivial since the environmental impact of energy consumption is quite null. Then, according to this study, the removal of CFC/HFC banks can be considered a potentially profitable environmental retrofit solution for buildings. Future studies will evaluate its technical and economic feasibility, also comparing it with more common environmental retrofit strategies (e.g. energy efficiency measures).