Medium-fired CEB
This is a rather speculative idea but if workable, could potentially have very high impact. The idea is to fire a CEB, thereby potentially achieving some of the properties of a fired brick (water resistance, stability, etc.) but at lower temperatures. Proper fired bricks require temperatures of about 900-1000°C. They therefore have high embodied energy, even when an efficient system such as the VSBK is used. Now if a CEB is used instead of an uncompressed (i.e. “green”) brick, how would that affect the properties? And could a lower temperature achieve some of the same properties of a high-fired brick? Temperatures of about 500-600°C are available as “waste heat” from some thermal biomass uses, such as the biochar production.
A brief background search did not reveal whether this had been attempted. If possible, a system similar to the VSBK could be devised but would only have conduct the heat, and not require active firing. This would make things much simpler.
Outlines a Research Project
- needed: CEBs (should not contain any organic matter!)
- “bake” at different temperatures, with different time courses (length of firing).
- evaluate properties of bricks (strenght, durability, etc.)
- publish findings