Abstract
The main target of SEEDS is to recover selected industrial sediments currently classified and treated as waste and re-use them into the production cycle of construction materials for building and infrastructure. More in detail, the idea is to use waste sediments as “reagents” in partial replacement of virgin raw materials to produce geopolymers and alkali-activated materials (AAMs), improving the eco-sustainability of the building materials production chain, but without compromising (indeed possibly increasing) the performance of the final products. Furthermore, the project will be integrated with parallel toxicity and carcinogenic studies, by effect-directed analysis (EDA) approach. The project is in line with the objectives of the Italian “Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza (PNRR)”, in particular with the missions “Green revolution and ecological transition” and “Infrastructures for a sustainable mobility”. To this aim, a multidisciplinary method is proposed encompassing mineralogical, materials science, engineering and toxicological knowledge to gain eco-sustainable building materials with suitable characteristics for each specific application. Firstly, mineralogical knowledge on the selected sediments is necessary to develop suitable mixtures to produce the target materials; after, as these materials must satisfy the mechanical properties disciplined by specific standards, engineering knowledge is required. In fact, the use of sediments in the geopolymer matrix undoubtedly will lead to the modification of some properties of the consolidated material (e.g., strength, durability, technical performance, etc.); nevertheless, these modifications could be linked to mineralogical composition, which in turn can be properly modulated in mixture design. It should also be stressed that the materials produced will be carefully characterized considering not only their chemical and physical properties, but also their safeness to assess the absence of risks for both human health and the environment, a step which is mandatory to plan technology transfer. The SEEDS project aims at obtaining laboratory validation of the sediment-based products (Technology readiness level, TRL, of 4), with possible extension to preliminary industrial evaluations (TRL 5). Thus, SEEDS is not a mere methodological approach to a looming problem, but it is a new way of rethinking our waste.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Giovanni Valdrè
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Chimica, Ambientale e dei Materiali
Coordinator:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Total Eu Contribution: Euro (EUR) 211.601,00
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 69.862,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
28/09/2023
End Date:
27/02/2026
