Today, cement is the most important building material worldwide. However, cement production is responsible for approx. eight percent of the global, anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality of the cement industry by 2050, supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are used in cement production to reduce the clinker factor and thus less cement is required. However, the availability of common SCMs such as blast furnace slag and fly ash will decrease significantly in the future. Consequently, SCMs are of interest, which will be sufficiently available in the future and can be manufactured in a more environmentally friendly way. For this reason, research has focused on brick powder (BP) in recent years. BPs occur as the main component in construction waste in the form of bricks, as well as unused bricks from brick production or construction sites that cannot be used for their intended purpose due to poor manufacturing quality or incorrect handling. The availability of brick material is extensive and may become important for the future of cement. Whether BPs would be fundamentally suitable as an SCM and the impact of the degree of contamination on its reactivity was investigated by Juliana Grosser in this study. She performed R3 tests to estimate the reactivity of the materials, determined the compressive strength of mortar containing BP and examined the heat flow and released heat by using isothermal heat flow calorimetry.
Juliana Grosser works as a student assistant for Prof. Alisa Machner at the Professorship for Mineral Construction Materials, Department of Materials Engineering of TUM School of Engineering and Design (ED).