The building materials industry is a large consumer of primary raw materials, water and energy. On the other hand, there are many alternative raw materials that can substitute primary raw materials. An important source is construction and demolition waste. Utilizing these C&D streams saves resources and prevents landfill. This project aims to treat and valorize various C&D waste streams in new ingredients and/or new building materials. Examples are concrete, masonry, mineral wool, glass, plastics, and wood. All these streams need mechanical/physical/thermal/chemical treatments such as crushing, shredding, milling, washing, classification etc. These unit operations are accompanied by innovative characterization and modeling techniques. The post-doc will focus on the recycling of concrete (part of the Horizon 2020 EU project 'CIRCULess', in collaboration with several industries and universities in Europe), and but will also be responsible for all other recycling activities (of the other building materials (other ongoing projects in group).
The
Building Materials group group contains 25 PhDs, 2 postdocs, 2 assistant professors, 1 associate professor and 2 full professors. The BM group works on new, sustainable building materials containing or synthesized from secondary raw materials with good chemical, physical and aesthetic properties and added functionalities. Examples are natural fibers, fly ashes, nano-silica, aerogels, slags or recycled aggregates. Functionalities, including fire resistance, air purification, self-cleaning, high performance, hydrophobicity, are investigated and developed for these building materials. Moreover, durability and sustainability, such as the degradation of, or leaching from, building materials when exposed to aggressive service environments, is studied. The investigations are carried out based on experimental observations and modeling.
The research group possesses a well-equipped, state-of-the-art building material laboratory for physical/chemical/mechanical/environmental treatment, and testing, as well as a recycling lab with crushers, shredder, mills, sieves etc., and has access to the structural design laboratory at the same department, and shares facilities with the sister Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. The group has close contacts with the building material industry and frequently cooperating with other researchers, both domestic and international.