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The manufacture of bricks for building purposes consumes large quantities of virgin materials, such as clay. On the other hand, the ornamental stone processing industry produces a huge amount of stone cutting sludge in its process. Therefore, this study presents the development of ceramic materials for the manufacture of bricks with stone cutting sludges, more specifically from granite. For this purpose, the physical properties of the stone cutting sludge and the chemical composition were mainly analyzed. Subsequently, different groups of ceramic samples were conformed and sintered with various combinations of clay and of stone cutting sludges. The conformed samples were evaluated with different physical tests and with the compressive strength test. The addition of stone cutting sludges to the ceramics reflected the creation of a material with lower density and higher porosity. The compressive strength of the different groups reflected a maximum allowable percentage of stone cutting sludges incorporation of 70%. Therefore, ceramic materials were developed with stone cutting sludges, developing a sustainable, lighter material with acceptable mechanical and physical characteristics. Avoiding the deposition of a polluting waste in a landfill and at the same time avoiding the extraction of new virgin materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scarcity of raw materials, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of waste disposal in landfills are leading to the development of more sustainable building materials. Based on these lines, this work studies the incorporation of biomass bottom ashes into ceramic materials for brick manufacture, in order to reuse this currently unused waste and reduce clay extraction operations. To this end, different groups of samples were made with different combinations of clay and biomass bottom ashes, from 100% clay to 100% biomass bottom ashes. These samples were shaped, sintered and subjected to the usual physical tests in ceramics. In turn, the mechanical resistance, color and leaching of the contaminating elements present were studied. The physical and mechanical tests showed that the results of all the families were adequate, achieving compressive strengths of over 20 MPa and leaching of the contaminating elements acceptable by the regulations. Therefore, a sustainable range of ceramics was developed, with specific properties (porosity, density, resistance and color), with a waste that is currently unused and sustainable with the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]