CO2 negative facing bricks: Development and construction of a test installation for Vandersanden.

Our customer Vandersanden is introducing a revolutionary technique for making facing bricks that absorb instead of emitting CO2.

Customer request

Our customer Vandersanden introduces a revolutionary production technique for facing bricks based on Carbinox, a material supplied by Orbix and Carbstone technology, also by Orbix, to permanently store CO2 inside the product instead of emitting CO2 during the production of the facing bricks.

All of our joint efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, through solar panels, electric cars and more efficient industrial installations, will not suffice to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Instead, CCU = "Carbon Capture and Utilization" or permanent storage of CO2 in large quantities will be necessary in order to achieve this goal.

With this revolutionary technique, Vandersanden plans to build factories to produce 200,000 tons of Carbo facing bricks annually, thus storing 20,000 tons of CO2 instead of emitting 30,000 tons !

CEE significantly contributed to the project through its process engineering expertise and the development and construction of the first hardening area on a laboratory scale.

Approach

The curing or hardening of the CO2-absorbing facing bricks was modeled and tested in the CEE Lab to attain an optimal specification for the test installation. The material must absorb CO2 under controlled conditions: temperature, moisture, air flow, time. Realizing this in a homogeneous and repetitive manner is the best way to guarantee consistent and qualitative products.

Based on the resulting parameters, the basic and detailed engineering of the curing room on an industrial TEST scale was realized. The prefabrication took place in the CEE workshops in Herentals. This TEST curing room was assembled and put into service at Vandersanden in Lanklaar in August 2020.

Result

The installation contains all necessary elements and features:

800 stones or 1500 strips can be treated at the same time
Humidification, heating, additive dosing, air rolling
Measurement of the process parameters
PLC control of valves, power controllers and motors to accurately realize the desired conditions depending on the time
Registration of parameters and graphical visualization, accessible from the company's own network
Necessary safety features (pressures, temperatures, gas concentrations, LOTO)

This TEST curing room enables Vandersanden to develop the new product range in all facets and characteristics, according to composition, shape, color and technical requirements for building materials. Optimizing CO2 and energy consumption of the curing process is also part of the objectives.

CEE will continue to contribute to the realization of the industrial production process.