Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for building applications: A review

• Review study of past works regarding the LCA of PCMs used as building materials.
• Considering the whole life performance, PCMs are more environmental- friendly than their reference cases.
• Inconsistency of previous PCM LCA studies due to different goal, scope and boundary conditions.
• Necessity for introducing a common framework for implementing LCA studies concerning building materials sustainability.

The environmental impact of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) incorporated in building envelopes is an extensively studied area of research, typically assessed by employing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The aim of this paper is to conduct a literature review on the LCAs for PCM- incorporating structures, in order to present the current state of the art, the research challenges, and what is to be looked forward in the near future. A brief recap on the development of PCMs and the fundamentals of their operation in buildings is presented. The principles of LCA, according to the International Standards, and the suitability of its application on PCMs are also discussed. This study presents some significant findings regarding the application of LCA to PCM- incorporated building systems. In particular it has been shown that there is consistency among the findings of the studies, however the findings were found to depend on the goal and scope definition of each LCA. Additionally, taking into consideration all the life- cycle phases of PCM- incorporated building constructions, they were found to be more environmental- friendly compared to other conventional thermal insulating materials.