A startup company called Kenoteq has launched a sustainable building brick that generates less than 10 percent of the carbon emissions released during the manufacture of regular bricks. Created by professor Gabriela Medero at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, the K-Briq is 90 percent made from construction waste materials.
Since the waste materials found at different construction or demolition sites will vary, the K-Briq can’t be manufactured on-site. Instead, the source materials come from collection points like recycling centers and a strict recipe-of-sorts is followed. In order to meet regulations for use in load-bearing situations and fire resistance, the K-Briq has had to pass numerous building standards. “We’ve been performing durability tests for many years. We’ve simulated the most extreme circumstances by repeatedly boiling and freezing them and created the harshest conditions over varying time periods,” Medero says.
In addition to saving energy in the manufacturing process by not using any heat, Kenoteq reduces carbon emissions by producing the bricks locally to Scotland, thus removing the need to import anything from anywhere else in Europe. Bricks used in buildings in Scotland often come from Belgium, Spain, Portugal or the Ukraine.
Source: Forbes
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