Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

The objective of this study is to assess the environmental effect of the reclaimed land drainage method using oyster shell through the Life cycle CO₂ assessment, and to evaluate the applicability in South Korea. In this Study, the life cycle CO₂ emissions of oyster shell (OS) and crushed stone (CS, as avoided product) were assessed and compared. The Life Cycle Assessment method was used for quantitative evaluation of direct or indirect environmental effects of OS recycling. CO₂ was selected as the evaluation target material, and the scope of assessment includes the acquisition of materials, processing, transportation, construction phases. Compared to using CS, 77.0% of CO₂ emissions in acquisition and processing, 47.0% in transportation and 6.5% in construction phase were reduced, respectively by using of OS. The maximum transportation distance of OS was estimated according to transportation distance of CS. OS has environmental advantages than CS within about 26 - 101 km from the source. OS was found to be applicable to reclaimed lands up to 810 ha, 3,910 ha from Tongyeong and Yeosu, respectively. In addition, the amount of OS that could be used as drainage material for reclaimed land was much higher than annual OS production of South Korea. Therefore, it is considered that OS is sufficient to be used as drainage material for reclaimed land in South Korea.