Spent grain for bricks?

Clay bricks are often impregnated with polystyrene as a way to enhance their heat-trapping abilities. However, EU restrictions on carbon emissions have made it expensive to incorporate polystyrene and other synthetic materials into bricks for this purpose.

A team of researchers in Portugal have shown that brewery spent grains can be mixed into clay bricks to enhance their ability to trap heat, without compromising strength. Using a clay paste containing 5 percent spent grains, the research team was able to create bricks just as strong as the conventional type, while reducing the amount of heat they lost by 28 percent.

Spent grains for the process should be easily available as commercial breweries produce large quantities which are often used as animal feed but sometimes go to landfill.

The research was conducted by Eduardo Ferraz, João Coroado, José Gamelas, Joaquim Silva, Fernando Rocha and Ana Velosa and was published in the journal “American Society of Civil Engineers”.

Read More: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000729