Ideas from BUT
FROM BUT

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29 May 2025

Greener brickmaking: New technologies from FCE BUT reduce carbon footprint

The project, led by Jiří Zach, focuses on the development of new brick elements that reduce CO2 emissions. | Autor: Václav Koníček

The topic of sustainable brickmaking is being addressed by a project led by Jiří Zach from the Institute of Technology of Building Materials and Components at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Brno University of Technology. In cooperation with an industrial partner, he is developing new masonry elements that will be more environmentally friendly. The first products and new technologies have already undergone semi-industrial testing and should be launched on the market next year.

Like any industrial production, traditional brickmaking has a significant environmental impact, particularly in terms of CO2 emissions. Although, according to Jiří Zach from FCE BUT, the issue of CO2 in brickmaking is not yet as pressing as in the cement industry, for example, it is beginning to receive a lot of attention. "At present, CO2 emissions are primarily significant for manufacturers from a cost perspective, if they have to pay for CO2 emissions. However, in the future, in connection with the new European EPBD directive, it will be necessary to balance CO2 emissions per square meter for every building, similar to what is currently done in the field of energy and energy efficiency of buildings," he points out.

This is one of the reasons why Wienerberger is collaborating with Jiří Zach's team on a project focusing on the environmental impact of brick manufacturing. "Our project focuses on the development of new masonry elements with a lower environmental impact, particularly in terms of CO2 emissions," confirms Zach.

Traditional brick manufacturing does not produce as much CO2 as the cement industry, but it still represents a significant environmental burden. | Author: Václav Koníček

To achieve their goal, the researchers chose several approaches that they had already proven to be effective in the past. "However, none of them is effective enough on its own to significantly reduce the carbon footprint without affecting the final properties of the products," notes Jiří Zach. The innovativeness of their solution lies precisely in the combination of different approaches and the use of so-called environmentally friendly technologies. "Our aim was to optimize products and reduce their weight, i.e., dematerialization. So we tried to come up with a product that would achieve comparable properties to those before dematerialization with less material," explains Zach.

Subsequently, the project also sought to reduce CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process itself. "We opted to optimize the composition of the raw material mixture, replace some imported raw materials with local ones, and directly reduce CO2 emissions during the firing of the products," explains Jiří Zach.

As this is applied research and cooperation with an industrial partner, the project outputs should appear on the market in the future. "The results will only be put into practice after the research is completed, but it is definitely expected that they will be applied. That is, after all, the main reason why the entire research is being carried out," notes Jiří Zach, adding that this is not the first collaboration with Wienerberger that has yielded practical results. "We have already completed several joint projects and a number of new products that have been put into production. For example, T-shaped blocks filled with mineral wool or hydrophobic blocks for plinth masonry," Zach lists.

Jiří Zach collaborated on the project with colleagues from FCE BUT and Wienerberger. | Author: Václav Koníček

The project should be completed this year. Researchers have already completed the first semi-operational tests and the first products, on which they have verified most of the technology developed. "In the course of the project, we encountered a number of problems and challenges that forced us to expand some areas of the planned work beyond what we had anticipated when designing the project. However, this is common in research. On the contrary, in other areas where we anticipated problems, we achieved relatively good results without the need for significant modifications to some technologies. We expect to successfully complete all planned work this year and start manufacturing innovative products with lower CO2 emissions next year," concludes Jiří Zach.

Themes

Faculty of Civil Engineering sustainability cooperation