Comparison of Environmental Loads of Fibers Used in the Manufacture of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) and Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) Mixes Using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
, Gonzalo Valdes-Vidal 1, Alejandra Calabi-Floody 1, Constanza Avendaño-Vera 2 and Camila MartÃnez-Toledo 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This study investigates the effect of fibers on the environmental loads of LCA on HMA. It’s a very interesting topic, while the present of workload and data analysis need to be improved.
1. This paper focuses on the effect of environmental loads of fibers and does not detail the effect of mix grading on LCA. However, the justifications for not taking service life into account are given. It is hoped that the authors can provide a logical analysis and explanation of the factors that are not considered.
2. Avoid using the same keywords more than once and add new ones to cover the entire content.
3. Section 1, please describe how this manuscript innovates and why it requires research.
4. Line 97, ISO 14,043 needs to be rewritten.
5. Section 2.1 please add details of each scenario and system boundaries.
6. Section 2.2 please add raw materials, transport, and production process data.
7. Figure 1 needs to be clearer.
8. Line 127-131, Line 132-138, and figure 2 please cite relevant references.
9. Line 175, needs to be rewritten.
10. Figure 8, requires care with formatting and typography.
11. Figures 4-13, please display the data in the figure.
12. The data in Figures 4-13 duplicate the data in Table 2.
13. Line 237-247, the text needs to add figure number (Figure 9, Figure 10).
14. Section 4, please cite the necessary relevant literatures to support your conclusions.
15. This study needs to add comparative discussion with the current literature findings.
Author Response
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments, which have helped to significantly improve our article. Please find below a detailed outline of the improvements we have made to the manuscript based on each of the reviewers’ very helpful comments.
We hope that the revisions in the manuscript and our accompanying responses (in blue) will be sufficient to deem our manuscript suitable for publication.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
1. I suggest to include a correlation study for for the two types HMMA and SMA for the studied variable to have the weight of each variable.
2. The discussion paragraph includes observation, it needs more deep discussions and percentages of the differences between the using of HMMA and SMA depending upon the results obtained.
Author Response
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments, which have helped to significantly improve our article. Please find below a detailed outline of the improvements we have made to the manuscript based on each of the reviewers’ very helpful comments.
We hope that the revisions in the manuscript and our accompanying responses (in blue) will be sufficient to deem our manuscript suitable for publication.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper at this stage is more of a case study rather than a scientific work. Kindly explain in detail the novelty with respect to the methodology. Section 2 can be shortened. The paper is weak as it does not compare the strength and economic aspects. What are the uncertainties in Table 2 results? Figures 4-13 are repeated and convey the same message as Table 2. Figure 1 not clear.
Author Response
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their constructive comments, which have helped to significantly improve our article. Please find below a detailed outline of the improvements we have made to the manuscript based on each of the reviewers’ very helpful comments.
We hope that the revisions in the manuscript and our accompanying responses (in blue) will be sufficient to deem our manuscript suitable for publication.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The questions and suggestions for the previous version were reviseed.
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors have addressed the comments
