The embodied energy is the total energy that must be consumed to create 1 kg of usable material measured in MJ/kg or an entire product life cycle . Scientists have not yet agreed to absolute universal values because there are many variables to take into account. The processing energy and the end-of-life potential must also taken into account.
In order to be ale to reduce drastically the embodied energy is important to identify the phase of product life that causes greatest concern: production, manufacture, use or disposal. Papercrete panel is material intensive and depend less on energy.
Papercrete embodied energy
Calculating embodied energy is really complicated process. I experimentally predicted it using concrete as reference.
Papercrete has similar life cycle with concrete with difference the substance of some amount of cement with paper. In terms of embodied energy this has both pros and cons. Recycled paper has more embodied energy from cement which mean the input energy in more. From the other hand the CO2 emissions during the process are reduced. Precasting the panels increase the total embodied energy.
The total embodied energy must be similar to concrete.
Papercrete Embodied energy= 2 .0 MJ/kg (per weight) or 4700 MJ/m3 (per volume)
The lifecycle of papercrete includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition.