Development of porous fired clay bricks with bio-based additives: Study of the environmental impacts by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Cécile Bories (1, 2) , Emeline Vedrenne (1) , Anne Paulhe-Massol (2) , Gérard Vilarem (1) , Caroline Sablayrolles (1)

1 CAI - Chimie Agro-Industrielle
2 Arterris Innovation

The incorporation of bio-based pore-forming agents, from either agricultural (wheat straw – WS and olive stone flour – OSF) or chemical (glycerol carbonate – GC and dimethyl carbonate – DMC) origins, into clay formulations, has been investigated. Fire clay porous tablets have been manufactured at laboratory scale and characterized through physical, mechanical and thermal properties. An increase of 7.2% of the porosity correlated to a decrease of 7.0% of the thermal conductivity was measured for the best samples. The environmental impacts of these formulations have also been examined through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using the ReCiPe v1.10 method. It was noticed that the incorporation of pore-forming agents led a decrease of about 15–20% of all the studied impact categories. The advantage of the use of bio-based additives in clay bricks was then confirmed from both performance (lighter material with a better thermal insulation) and environmental points of view.

Mots clés: Environmental impacts; Thermal resistance; Building materials; Waste material; Porosity

Domaines: Eco-conception; Matériaux

Cécile Bories, Emeline Vedrenne, Anne Paulhe-Massol, Gérard Vilarem, Caroline Sablayrolles. Development of porous fired clay bricks with bio-based additives: Study of the environmental impacts by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Construction and Building Materials, 2016, 125, pp.1142-1151. ⟨10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.08.042⟩. ⟨hal-02150125⟩