Pirrouet CO2-negative brick

Sustainable Revolution in Building Materials

Limburg brick producer Vandersanden developed the first CO2-negative facing brick. The bricks are composed of 80% waste streams from the steel industry and no CO2 is released during production. Even more, to harden the bricks, Vandersanden uses CO2 from other companies.
Normally, bricks are fired in tunnel kilns that run on natural gas and emit CO2. This makes it a polluting process that uses exhaustible resources. Vandersanden, on the other hand, puts the facing bricks in a climate chamber in which CO2 is sprayed. That carbon dioxide then binds to calcium in the bricks, making them hard. Thanks to the innovative production process, which also runs on green energy, the company can keep about 60 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere for every ton of bricks produced.
The bricks themselves are composed of carbinox and stinox, residual streams from construction that would otherwise end up in the waste. In addition, only water, sand and possibly dye are added. As a result, the brick consists of 80% recycled material. The first bricks will be used starting in early 2024 and will be available in nine different colors.