Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Oct 08, 2021 Use of Greenlandic resources for the production of bricks Belmonte, Louise Josefine Publication date: 2015 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link back to DTU Orbit Citation (APA): Belmonte, L. J. (2015). Use of Greenlandic resources for the production of bricks. Technical University of Denmark, Department of Civil Engineering. B Y G D T U. Rapport No. R-351 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Louise Josefine Belmonte Belmonte Josefine Louise The housing situation in Greenland is critical. In 2012, approximately 20 % of the housing was dilapidated, and due to an increasing population in the larger towns, there is currently an urgent need for the construction of new homes. Today, ma- terials used in the Greenlandic construction industry are mostly imported, and due to high import costs, it is therefore important to investigate the potential for local construction material production. The aim of this PhD-study was to identify and test suitable raw materials for a local production of clay-based bricks. Use of Greenlandic resources for the production of bricks Use of Greenlandic resources for the production of bricks of the production for resources Greenlandic Use of Louise Josefine Belmonte PhD Thesis Department of Civil Engineering 2015 DTU Civil Engineering Report R-351 DTU Civil Engineering Technical University of Denmark Brovej, Bygning 118 2800 Kongens Lyngby www.byg.dtu.dk ISBN 9788778774446 ISSN 1601-2917 Title: Use of Greenlandic resources for the production of bricks PhD thesis © Louise Josefine Belmonte, 2014 Publisher: DTU Civil Engineering Building 118, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark Preface This PhD thesis contains the results of my research, which was conducted at the Arctic Technology Centre, Department of Civil engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The PhD study was co-funded by the Government of Greenland, The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation and DTU Civil Engineering. The main supervisor was Lisbeth M. Ottosen (Associated Professor, DTU Civil Engineering) and co-supervisors were Gunvor M. Kirkelund (Researcher, DTU Civil Engineering), Pernille E. Jensen (Associate Professor, DTU Civil Engineering) and Arne Villumsen (former head of the Arctic Technology Centre, DTU Civil Engineering). 2 Acknowledgements First of all, I wish to thank my supervisors and past and present colleagues at the Artic Technology Centre and DTU Civil Engineering, who have inspired, motivated, helped and assisted me during my PhD project. In addition, I wish to thank Niels Foged and Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen for their collaboration and co-supervision. I wish to thank (in alphabetical order) Søren Agergaard, Lars Kokholm Andersen, Ida Bertelsen, Louise Birkemose, Wan Chen, Hector Osvaldo Ampuero Diaz, Niels Foged, Louise Gammeltoft, Malene Grønvold, Kurt Kielsgaard Hansen, Sabrina Hvid, Michael Johansen, Vita Larsen, Per Leth, Klaus Myndal, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Tobias Orlander, Line Lindhardt Pedersen, Christian Rasmussen, Ebba Cederberg Schnell, Carolyn Skouenby and Robert Svan for assistance and help during my experimental work at DTU. John C. Bailey, University of Copenhagen, is thanked for his help and assistance with XRF analyses. Andreas Vestbø, Danish Technological institute, is thanked for collaboration. In August 2010 I visited the Nalunaq gold mine in southern Greenland run by AngelMining. I wish to thank Tim Daffern, Richard LaPrairie and especially Kurt Christensen for giving me the opportunity to visit and experience an operating mine. Furthermore, Kurt Christensen is thanked for helping with the collection and shipping of the tailing sample. In August 2011 I had the pleasure of visiting the brickworks Petersen Tegl A/S, Denmark. I am very grateful to Erich Mick, Kim Reinecker and Christian Petersen for their helpfulness and support throughout my stay. Furthermore, Erich Mick is thanked for helping with transport logistics and for prompt reply to questions during the continuation of my studies. Tanbreez Mining Greenland A/S is thanked for providing tailings samples from the Tanbreez project in South Greenland. Minik Lange Pedersen is thanked for his help with the Greenlandic abstract At last but by no means least, a very grateful thank you to my wonderful and understanding husband, children and family – without your love and support none of this would have been possible! 3 Abstract The housing situation in Greenland is critical. In 2012, approximately 20 % of the housing was dilapidated, and due to an increasing population in the larger towns, there is currently an urgent need for the construction of new homes. Today, materials used in the Greenlandic construction industry are mostly imported, and due to high import costs, it is therefore important to investigate the potential for local construction material production. The aim of this PhD-study was to identify and test suitable raw materials for such local production. Clay-based bricks were chosen due to several reasons: • Bricks, in general, are durable and fire-resistant materials, which possess good thermal and acoustic properties. In the harsh Arctic to sub-arctic climate of Greenland, which places high demands on construction materials, especially the thermal properties and durability of bricks are desirable characteristics. • Bricks are heterogeneous materials, which can accommodate materials of wide ranging compositions without losing their technical properties. For this reason, the ceramic industry has been identified as one of the major recipients for waste in the future. Wastes of different types are becoming an increasing environmental and logistical problem worldwide, and their recycling has therefore received much attention. The protection of the vulnerable Arctic nature is a great concern and waste management by ceramic incorporation should therefore be investigated. • Historically, masonry constructions (including bricks) were dismissed in Greenland in the early 1950’s, due to low frost resistance of the mortar. Although this dismissal might have been technically warranted at the time, the ceramic industry has since experienced extensive development, and today clay-based brick constructions can therefore be designed to withstand the Arctic climate conditions. • In 2006, the Arctic Technology Centre, DTU Civil Engineering in collaboration with the Danish brickworks Petersen Tegl conducted a large scale brick pilot-production from Greenlandic glaciogene marine clay from an occurrence near the town of Kangerlussuaq. The bricks were used for the construction of a house in Sisimiut, Greenland and it was established that the Kangerlussuaq occurrence was suitable as raw material for bricks. Large occurrences of fine-grained glaciogene marine sediments are, however, found throughout Greenland and the knowledge gaps identified and covered by this study are therefore: • to establish the characteristics, similarities and variations of Greenlandic marine sediment occurrences in general, in respect to potential use as brick clays. • to describe how the variations in the sediments influence the properties of produced bricks. • to investigate the link between raw material characteristics, processing details and resulting technical characteristics of bricks produced from a representative sediment occurrence. 4 Furthermore, in relation to the potential for incorporating waste in the produced bricks, the following knowledge gap was identified and covered: • to identify and conduct initial testing on waste types, which could be of interest in Greenlandic brick production. The waste types investigated in this study were municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ashes and tailings from the mining industry. The major conclusions obtained from this study were: • The Greenlandic marine sediments have very similar grain size distributions, mineralogy and major element chemistry. Furthermore, these properties are comparable to those of North American and North Scandinavian marine clays. • Bricks with acceptable properties of e.g. compression strength, open porosity and water absorption can be produced from the sediments. However, the properties largely depend on the processing of the sediment, e.g. firing procedure and initial treatments. • Addition of waste materials, such as the investigated bottom ash and mine tailings, generally improve the technical properties of the bricks, e.g. lowers the open porosity and increases the density. However, increased leaching of heavy metals was observed after firing, which could pose an environmental concern and requires further investigation. 5 Sammenfatning Boligsituationen i Grønland er kritisk. I 2012 blev cirka 20% af de grønlandske lejligheder og huse erklæret saneringsmodne, og da befolkningen samtidig er stigende