The development of sustainable materials is a research area of significant importance considering the positive impacts from an economic, social, and environmental point of view. In this sense, the construction industry has a high contribution to the demand for materials derived from highly polluting and energy-consuming processes. Among these materials, ceramics and cement stand out, as a consequence of the thermal treatments involved during their production at temperatures exceeding 1000 ºC.

 

Similarly, these industrial sectors are also recognized for their ability to valorize and reuse various types of waste within production processes, and therefore there is a continuous evaluation of new alternative sources. This project aims to evaluate and enable the reuse of industrial waste in the production of traditional ceramic materials. It will study how waste can affect the performance of ceramic elements from a technical point of view (mechanical resistance, dimensional homogeneity, aesthetics, and durability in laboratory-scale specimens), as well as production parameters (extrudability and process efficiency). Therefore, the integration between the effects on the final product and the impact on production processes enhances the real inclusion and utilization of this waste in a ceramic industry.

 

It is important to highlight that life cycle analyses within the ceramic industry show that high-temperature heat treatments are responsible for a high percentage of the negative impact in all categories studied. Therefore, why not develop ceramic materials free from the calcination process? Thus, this proposal also aims to develop and evaluate chemically bonded ceramics (or more commonly known as geopolymers) produced under near-ambient conditions (maximum temperature of 80 ºC) to obtain a material that can be used as a ceramic matrix in a product applied in civil construction.