May 30, 2023 What If... We Could Fire Carbon-Neutral Bricks By 2026? Would that be too good to be true? We don’t think so! At StoneCycling we aim to have a fully functional brick factory that can produce 25+ million bricks made from at least 80% waste, fired carbon neutral by using hydrogen as fuel in 2026. The Challenge of Producing Bricks. There is a reason bricks have been around for centuries: their superior technical and aesthetic qualities don’t easily match with other cladding materials. Look at all the remarkable brick buildings still standing proudly in historic cities like Amsterdam, New York or London! Yet, there’s a big problem with the typical production process. Traditional bricks were (and still are in some factories) fired with coal as fuel. Modern factories use natural gas to fuel the kilns. Both methods see carbon dioxide released into the air when burning these fossil fuels. At the same time, the global waste pile is growing. Planet Earth is running out of raw materials, yet we keep sourcing them. Over the years, we focused heavily on upcycling as much waste as possible and decreasing the need for scarce raw materials with our WasteBasedBricks. We have improved our recipes, pushing the limits of what’s possible. We have changed WHAT bricks are made of. What if we now change HOW bricks are made? Brick, Reinvented. Using a ceramic production method, we currently fire the WasteBasedBricks to relatively high temperatures to sinter the ingredients together. This process makes them durable, with a unique, warm and nuanced look and feel. We offset the carbon footprint of this process, but this is only a short-term solution. We see it as our mission to preserve brick as an iconic building material for the future. But only when produced without further depleting scarce raw materials and emitting tons of CO2 into the air. At the Factory. Since 2018 we exclusively work with our production partner Zilverschoon Randwijk, a highly specialised brick factory with extensive knowledge of brickmaking. Our collaboration has evolved into a committed partnership with an exceptionally ambitious plan: we aim to have a fully functional brick factory that can produce 25 million+ bricks made from at least 80% waste, fired carbon neutral by using hydrogen as fuel in 2026. Preparations are in full swing. We have developed a range of 80% waste-based recipes that meet industry standards. We’re currently running active experiments with firing bricks using hydrogen as fuel. The plan for upscaling this technology is ready. We are committed to this. And we are not the only ones. Every day we work with leading architects, real estate developers, and construction companies that want change. All the projects that we are involved with are proof of this. These projects are helping us take this next step. The more successful we all become, the more eager others will get to follow us. And that’s how change happens. Derck Zilverschoon (l) Craftsmanship + New Technologies Meet Derck, owner of our production partner Zilverschoon Randwijk. Derck basically grew up in the yards of his father’s brick factory. In 2012 he took over the company, steering it in a new direction. His heart goes out to architectural heritage. One of Randwijk’s focus areas is renovation and restoration. Re-creating bricks used in a historical building 200 years ago is his speciality. It means re-creating recipes, production techniques and firing curves to create the perfect matching brick. This approach is surprisingly similar when developing WasteBasedBricks. Here is where the old and the new match. Derck on our partnership: “Mixing the craftsmanship of traditional brick making with new recipes and cutting edge technologies is my professional mission.” Follow us on Linkedin For weekly updates on our progress, make sure to follow our Linkedin account. click here
The Challenge of Producing Bricks. There is a reason bricks have been around for centuries: their superior technical and aesthetic qualities don’t easily match with other cladding materials. Look at all the remarkable brick buildings still standing proudly in historic cities like Amsterdam, New York or London! Yet, there’s a big problem with the typical production process. Traditional bricks were (and still are in some factories) fired with coal as fuel. Modern factories use natural gas to fuel the kilns. Both methods see carbon dioxide released into the air when burning these fossil fuels. At the same time, the global waste pile is growing. Planet Earth is running out of raw materials, yet we keep sourcing them. Over the years, we focused heavily on upcycling as much waste as possible and decreasing the need for scarce raw materials with our WasteBasedBricks. We have improved our recipes, pushing the limits of what’s possible. We have changed WHAT bricks are made of. What if we now change HOW bricks are made? Brick, Reinvented. Using a ceramic production method, we currently fire the WasteBasedBricks to relatively high temperatures to sinter the ingredients together. This process makes them durable, with a unique, warm and nuanced look and feel. We offset the carbon footprint of this process, but this is only a short-term solution. We see it as our mission to preserve brick as an iconic building material for the future. But only when produced without further depleting scarce raw materials and emitting tons of CO2 into the air. At the Factory. Since 2018 we exclusively work with our production partner Zilverschoon Randwijk, a highly specialised brick factory with extensive knowledge of brickmaking. Our collaboration has evolved into a committed partnership with an exceptionally ambitious plan: we aim to have a fully functional brick factory that can produce 25 million+ bricks made from at least 80% waste, fired carbon neutral by using hydrogen as fuel in 2026. Preparations are in full swing. We have developed a range of 80% waste-based recipes that meet industry standards. We’re currently running active experiments with firing bricks using hydrogen as fuel. The plan for upscaling this technology is ready. We are committed to this. And we are not the only ones. Every day we work with leading architects, real estate developers, and construction companies that want change. All the projects that we are involved with are proof of this. These projects are helping us take this next step. The more successful we all become, the more eager others will get to follow us. And that’s how change happens. Derck Zilverschoon (l) Craftsmanship + New Technologies Meet Derck, owner of our production partner Zilverschoon Randwijk. Derck basically grew up in the yards of his father’s brick factory. In 2012 he took over the company, steering it in a new direction. His heart goes out to architectural heritage. One of Randwijk’s focus areas is renovation and restoration. Re-creating bricks used in a historical building 200 years ago is his speciality. It means re-creating recipes, production techniques and firing curves to create the perfect matching brick. This approach is surprisingly similar when developing WasteBasedBricks. Here is where the old and the new match. Derck on our partnership: “Mixing the craftsmanship of traditional brick making with new recipes and cutting edge technologies is my professional mission.” Follow us on Linkedin For weekly updates on our progress, make sure to follow our Linkedin account. click here