Towards hypocarbonic economy .Development of non-fired building materials based on wastes

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

The manufacture of ceramic materials is energy intensive, consumes large amounts of primary raw materials, and produces considerable amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG). Bricks and roof-tiles are the ceramic products with the highest GHG emissions.

The traditional ceramic process for manufacturing bricks involves a firing stage (conducted at temperaturas above 1 000 C). A process tested at laboratory scale, called the Alkaline Activation Process (AAP), substitutes the firing stage with a curing stage carried-out at low temperature (<150 C). It also allows the recycling of a wide variety of industrial wastes. AAP is based on the dissolution of amorphous silicates and aluminosilicates by an alkaline solution, followed by the polymerisation of the resulting monomers to provide hardness and strength in the material.

OBJECTIVES

The LIFE HYPOBRICK project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing waste-based building products using an extremely low CO2 emission process, called the alkaline-activation process (AAP). The project will focus on manufacturing bricks made from the new waste-based material in southern and northern European countries (Spain and Germany), in which the wastes available and the constructive requirements are quite different and cover the trends existing in a significant number of European countries.

To achieve its aim, the project will:

formulate waste-based mixtures and produce new materials for manufacturing bricks using the AAP that meet all the technical and environmental requirements for international standards and for the market;

define the operating variables of all the process stages involved in the AAP;

modify the industrial facilities to allow the manufacturing of the new building material;

solve the potential production problems that may arise during the pilot and industrial trials in order to obtain building products free of defects and with the required properties;

obtain a cost-effective and economically-viable building material with an innovative process that favours its commercialisation; and

make an agreement with another manufacturing company (outside of the project consortium) to replicate and transfer the results before the end of the project.

RESULTS

Expected results: To produce 1 000 ton of bricks, the pilot trials will involve the use of 300 ton of wastes of different types and 150 ton of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) water glass, while the industrial trials will use 700 ton of wastes of different types and 350 ton of NaOH-water glass.

The expected results are the following:

reduction of GHG emissions: 184 ton CO2 (92% reduction);

reduction of acid gases emissions: 4.1 kg HF, 39.6 kg SOx, 12.7 kg HCl (100% reduction);

reduction of Total Organic Compounds (TOC): 34.5 kg (100% reduction);

reduction of Particulate Matter (PM): 17.6 kg (100% reduction);

reduction of primary raw materialsinput (clay, flux, quartz): 1 000 ton;

waste recycling (1 000 ton): - glass from Cathodic Ray Tubes (CRTWG): 200 ton, - fly ash from coal power plants (FA): 280 ton, - plastic from Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE): 20 ton, - scrap from brick production: 40 ton, - mineral fraction of Construction & Demolition Waste (CDW): 60 ton; and - thermal energy reduction (that accounts for 90% of the energy input): 2 070 GJ (90% reduction).

This will contribute to the implementation of the EU Energy Roadmap 2050, which aims at reducing in 2050 the GHG emissions by 80% to 95% (from 1990 levels), in particular in energy-intensive sectors such as ceramics.