Innovative process turns stone rubble into brick

Innovation in construction

How can you make a beautiful, environmentally friendly and affordable brick from brick rubble? With that challenge, 3 regional partners set to work. And with success. Their innovative baking process will do its part to reduce the mountain of construction waste. 

More energy-efficient process
To produce a traditional clay brick, you need a lot of material and energy. You can also make bricks from cement, but that also has a significant environmental impact. The ideal raw material for a circular brick? That turned out to be the huge mountain of unusable brick rubble. But ... the Belgian not only has a brick in his stomach, he prefers a real, “hand-formed” brick. Making those from brick rubble is quite a challenge.

Brick from stone rubble
Researchers and business people took up the gauntlet and worked together to develop the idea in the provincially supported innovation project DWELL:
● Demolition and demolition company ABR-De Meuter supplied the brick rubble and ground it into powder. 
● 3 researchers from KU Leuven are developing a new type of glue that holds the bricks together. They also studied how to give the bricks the same color and rough texture as ceramic bricks.  
● The third partner, Facadeclick, is providing a smart, circular system in which the bricks click together like Lego bricks. 

Interim results show that the production of the circular brick is more environmentally friendly in terms of raw materials, energy and CO2. Moreover, the possibility of regional production can be an important asset. In short, the future of the circular brick looks bright.