Sustainable Ceramics: approaches on Recycling Surpluses and Wastes from Brick Production

Master thesis

The construction sector is, due to the sheer size of buildings as its final roducts, one of the largest emmiters of waste in the European Union. For much of this, the demolition of buildings is to be held accountable, but also during production of building components a significant quantity of surpluses and waste appears. While novel approaches attempt to recylcle shredded ceramics into new bricks, other leftovers still remain unused. The purpose of the study is to first explore the different kinds of wastes and surpluses, that occur during brick production. Also, their yearly occurence needs to be quantified. In a second step, different strategies need to be formulated to up-, down- or recycle these leftovers. Further, depending on the formulated strategies, experiments have to be carried out als a proof-of-concept for some of the strategies. Last, predictions have to be calculated on how much economic and environmental impact the up-, re- or downcycling of the production leftovers could have.