Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Pilot and industrial scale tests of high-performance permeable bricks

producing from ceramic waste
Zhiqiang Yang a, Zhiqin Qiang a, Min Guo a, Guilan Yi b, Yonglin Shi b, Fangqin Cheng c,
Mei Zhang a, c, *
a
School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China
b
The Technology Center of Taiyuan Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd., Taiyuan, 030003, China
c
Shanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of High Value-added Utilization of Coal-related Wastes in Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Pilot and industrial scale tests for the preparation of permeable bricks were carried out in a refractory
Received 19 September 2019 plant. The permeable bricks were firstly prepared using 82 wt% ceramic waste large aggregate by pilot
Received in revised form test. The permeability, flexural strength and apparent porosity of the obtained permeable bricks can
3 January 2020
reach 3.2
102 cm/s, 6.8 MPa and 28%, respectively, and the relationships between these properties
Accepted 15 January 2020
Available online 16 January 2020
were studied. Moreover, industrial scale test was performed based on the best conditions of the pilot test,
and 100 permeable bricks having a size of 140 mm
280 mm
80 mm were successfully produced
Handling editor: Giovanni Baiocchi using 600 kg of raw materials. The produced permeable brick has a high permeability of 3.0
102 cm/s,
flexural strength of 6.3 MPa, as well as a relatively high apparent porosity of 26%, which exceed Chinese
Keywords: national standard GB/T 25993-2010. It has been found that a large number of through holes are ho-
Pilot test mogeneously distributed within the permeable brick, which ensures the high permeability. Meanwhile,
Industrial scale test the binders make the aggregates interconnect with each other, guaranteeing sufficient mechanical
Permeable brick strength. In addition, the energy consumption for whole producing process of permeable bricks is
Ceramic waste
relatively low, about 1.4 MJ/kg. Hence, it is completely feasible to achieve industrial production of
Permeability
permeable bricks with good performance by using solid waste, which not only contributes to the con-
struction of the sponge city, but also meets the requirements of cleaner production and brings obvious
ecological and economic benefits.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The overall scale of China’s ceramic industry is constantly
expanding, and the output of ceramics has always occupied the first
place in the world (Yanjing et al., 2018). The annual output of
ceramic waste, which is generated by the process of production,
transportation and utilization of ceramic, will be about ten million
tons. The common treatment of these solid waste is landfill, by
which ceramic waste cannot be degraded easily and occupies a
large amount of cultivated land, causing serious ecological envi-
ronment pollution (Dang et al., 2017). Similarly, the problem of the
disposal and utilization of ceramic waste is a global problem. Some
scholars have studied the use of ceramic waste, such as making
* Corresponding author. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
E-mail address: zhangmei@ustb.edu.cn (M. Zhang).
glaze, ceramsite, cement and construction material (Jia Jiahao et al.,
2019; Xu et al., 2016), but the utilization rate is lower.
“Sponge City” (Sun et al., 2018) mainly refers to the city’s
response to sudden floods and heavy rains, the ground can seep and
absorb water like a sponge, effectively preventing urban floods,
alleviating water shortages, and facilitating urban stormwater
management (Sparkman et al., 2017). In order to meet the re-
quirements of and building a sponge city, many scholars began to
study the water-permeable paving materials that can replace the
closed pavement and square (Wang et al., 2018). The permeable
brick has a large number of through holes, showing highly
permeable, which can reduce surface runoff, regulate urban
climate, alleviate heat island effect, absorb noise and facilitate pe-
destrians to walk (Dreelin et al., 2006; Li et al., 2013; Martin et al.,
2014; Santamouris, 2013; Sumanasooriya and Neithalath, 2011).
Due to these unique advantages of permeable bricks, it has been
widely used in many countries such as Germany, Japan and France

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120167
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167
(Chandrappa and Biligiri, 2016; Scholz and Grabowiecki, 2007).
“Cleaner production” refers to practical production methods
and measures that can meet people’s needs and rationally use re-
sources and energy, and protect the environment (Hens et al., 2018;
Severo et al., 2015, 2018). In order to save the natural resources,
protect the environment and achieve sustainable development,
many industrial solid wastes are widely used in the production of
permeable bricks, such as slag (Gencel et al., 2013; Yongqing et al.,
2015), fly ash (Ilker et al., 2017; Kockal and Ozturan, 2011; Sarker
and McBeath, 2015), municipal waste incineration bottom ash
(Wu et al., 2016), water treatment sludge (Xie et al., 2012) and
tailings (Sutcu et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2017). However, most of these
solid wastes are powders, which need to be further processed to
form granular aggregates to be applied, and the process is
cumbersome and consumes a lot of energy. Ceramic waste is well
suited as an aggregate for the production of permeable bricks due
to its large quantity and considerable strength. Zhu et al. showed
that a production of permeable bricks from tailings, coal gangue
and waste ceramics with a permeability of about 0.03 cm/s and a
compressive strength of more than 30 MPa (Zhu et al., 2017). The
permeable bricks with high permeability (about 0.15 cm/s) and
considerable compressive strength (about 33 MPa) have been
prepared from dredged mud, waste glass and waste porcelain
(Zhou, 2018). Some scholars further studied the relationship be-
tween density, permeability and porosity, and found that high
porosity bricks represented good water permeability, whereas the
strength was reduced (Aoki et al., 2012; S Mohammed et al., 2018).
However, almost all of these studies have stopped at the laboratory
stage and didn’t carry out in the actual industrial production.
Because of the huge gap between bench-scale laboratory test and
industrial scale test, bench test results cannot completely suitable
to direct the actual industrial production. For example, pressure
performed in laboratories can only reach tens of tons, while it
ranges from a few hundred to several thousand tons in the plant.
The laboratory uses separate mixing, single production, while the
brick factory performs centralized mixing and continuous pro-
duction, making it difficult to fully consider many of the factors that
appear in pilot test and resulting in inevitable errors. In addition,
the optimum process parameters obtained in the laboratory may
vary depending on the scale of the experiment and the external
conditions of the equipment (Oti et al., 2009). Therefore, in order to
meet the huge demands of the permeable bricks in the future, pilot
and industrial scale test are carried out, which is of great
significance.
In order to better achieve cleaner production and meet the
needs of the sponge city for permeable bricks, and apply the results
obtained in the laboratory research to actual production, pilot and
industrial scale test on the preparation of permeable bricks were
carried out in this work. Ceramic waste and sodium silicate were
used as aggregate and high temperature binder, respectively, and a
small amount of cement, fly ash and clay were added to increase
the plastic forming of the bricks. The affect factors such as the press
times, the large aggregate ratio, the amount of sodium silicate
addition, the bearing area and the sintering temperature on the
flexural strength and permeability of permeable brick were studied
systematically. Also, the relationships between the bulk density,
flexural strength, permeability, apparent porosity were discussed.
2. Experimental
2.1. Raw materials
The main raw materials were ceramic waste (obtained from a
ceramic factory), which was used as the aggregate of permeable
bricks, and sodium silicate with a modulus of 1.5 and a concentration
of 1.26 g/ml, PO52.5 cement, fly ash and clay were used as binders.
First, the ceramic waste was crushed in a jaw crusher, and then a
vibrating sieve was used to screen out particles of 0.88e2.36 mm and
2.36e4 mm as small aggregate and large aggregate, respectively. The
specific gravities of ceramic aggregates fluctuate within a range of
approximately 2.0e3.0 g/cm3 because of the different sources of
ceramic waste are used. Besides, the particle size distribution curves
of large aggregate and small aggregate are shown in Fig. 1. It can be
seen from the distribution curve of small aggregate that the particle
size distribution is relatively even, among which the particle size of
0.88e1.70 mm accounts for about 50%. From the distribution curve
of large aggregate, it can be seen that the aggregate with particle size
of 2.36e2.80 mm accounts for about 20%, and the aggregate of
3.35e4.00 mm accounts for about 40%.
The chemical compositions (wt.%) of ceramic waste, fly ashes
and clay were detected by X-ray fluorescence (XRF-1800, Japan)
with working voltage of 40 kV and working current of 200 mA.
According to the results of XRF analysis, as shown in Table 1, these
raw materials mostly consist of SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO. The clay
selected in this study contains higher SiO2 and Al2O3, which can
improve the plasticity of the permeable brick during press forming
(Sarkar and Mallick, 2018), and is beneficial to form high-strength
mullite after sintering, enhancing the mechanical strength of the
permeable brick.
2.2. Sample preparation
In the laboratory experiments, the effects of aggregate grading,
sodium silicate addition, molding pressure and sintering temper-
ature on the flexural strength and permeability coefficient of
permeable bricks have been studied. The permeable bricks were
successfully prepared and the optimal parameters were obtained
(84 wt% aggregate (wt.%0.88~2.36 mm: wt.%2.36~4 mm ¼ 1: 2), 10 wt%
sodium silicate, 3 wt% cement, 2 wt% fly ash and 1 wt% clay). On the
basis of which the pilot and industrial scale tests were carried out in
a refractory plant.
In the pilot stage, several major influencing factors by control-
ling single factor variables were studied, and the design scheme as
shown in Table 2, there are a total of 11 combinations. This is based
on the results of the optimal parameters obtained under laboratory
test, the actual conditions of the industry.
The process of preparing permeable bricks was shown in Fig. 2.
The 3 kg of raw material was weighed in accordance with Table 2
Fig. 1. Particle size distribution curves of small aggregate and large aggregate.
 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167 3

Table 1
Chemical compositions of ceramic waste, fly ash and clay (wt.%).

Raw materials SiO2 Al2O3 CaO MgO K2O Na2O Fe2O3

Ceramic waste 62.41 13.37 10.83 6.65 2.57 1.51 1.43

Fly ash 50.92 37.31 3.13 0.51 0.88 0.17 4.14
Clay 55.80 33.6 0.70 0.30 1.76 0.22 5.22

and then mixed evenly. The addition of binders such as sodium

silicate, clay, and cement makes the mixture plastic. Subsequently,
the mixture was pressed into brick (140 mm
140 mm
80 mm)
by a friction press, and the obtained bricks were packed into a
drying kiln and dried at 105  C for 12 h. Whereafter, the dried bricks
were placed in a tunnel kiln and the temperature was raised to the
range of 1100  Ce1200  C for 1 h at a heating rate of 5  C/min, and
then, the bricks were cooled to room temperature naturally. The
friction press used in the experiment was model J53-1000 with a
nominal pressure of 10000 kN, which could be controlled by the
speed of the pressing rather than controlling the pressure. In view
of the bearing pressure loading on the brick is so large, the mini-
mum pressed speed of 50 mm/s was selected, and its effect on the
performance of the brick was adjusted by the press times (refers to
the number of times that the friction press moldings the bricks) and
bearing area, respectively. Three different steel molds were used to
change the bearing area, namely, 140 mm
140 mm
80 mm,
140 mm
210 mm
80 mm, 140 mm
280 mm
80 mm. 12 Fig. 2. Flow diagram of preparation of permeable brick.

permeable bricks in one batch were prepared for performance test.

The optimal parameters were obtained after pilot test, 100
Jeol) equipped with the acceleration voltage is 15 kV. The perme-
permeable bricks were subsequently produced for the industrial
able bricks were evenly cut into 9 blocks as shown in Fig. 3, from
scale test. First, a total of 600 kg of raw materials were placed in a
which the No.1, No.2 and No.3 samples were separately performed
large mixer, and fully stirred for approximately 10 min. Then, a 6 kg
SEM observation, they may present the microstructure of whole
mixture was put in the mold of 140 mm
280 mm
80 mm for
brick as well.
pressing 1 time, and dried at 105  C for 12 h. Afterward, the dried
The permeability of permeable brick (cut into a cylinder of ɸ
bricks were placed in a tunnel kiln and the temperature was raised
75 mm
80 mm) was tested by Chinese national standard GB/T
to 1150  C for 1 h at a heating rate of 5  C/min, and then, the bricks
25993-2010. The compressive strength and flexural strength
were naturally cooled to room temperature. 10 out of 100 perme-
(National Development, 2005) of the samples were tested by
able bricks were randomly selected for testing. The Chinese na-
applying a universal testing machine, which is the WDW-200D
tional standard GB/T 25993-2010 requires that the permeability
microcomputer controlled electronic universal testing machine
and flexural strength of the permeable paving slabs are not less
produced by Jinan Assay Group Co. Ltd, with a descending speed of
than 2.0
102 cm/s and 4.5 MPa, respectively (State
0.5 mm/s. Apparent porosity and bulk density were measured in
Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and
the light of the Chinese national standard GB/T 2997-2000 (State
Quarantine, 2011).
General Administration, 2003).

2.3. Characterizations
3. Results and discussion
The crystalline phase of ceramic waste and permeable bricks
were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD, D/max-2500 diffractom- 3.1. Pilot test
eter, Japan, Rigaku).
The microstructure in the different parts of the permeable brick The properties of permeable brick depending on different
was observed by Scanning electron microscope (FESEM, JSM-6701F, experimental parameters, namely, press times, large aggregate

Table 2
Experimental parameters during the permeable brick production.

Number Press times (times) Small aggregate: large aggregate(wt.%) Sodium silicate (wt.%) Bearing area (cm2) Sintering temperature( C) Total weight (kg)

#1 1 28: 56 10 196 1100 3

#2 2 28: 56 10 196 1100 3
#3 3 28: 56 10 196 1100 3
#4 1 21: 63 10 196 1100 3
#5 1 0: 84 10 196 1100 3
#6 1 0: 82 12 196 1100 3
#7 1 0: 79 15 196 1100 3
#8 1 0: 82 12 294 1100 4.5
#9 1 0: 82 12 392 1100 6
#10 1 0: 82 12 392 1150 6
#11 1 0: 82 12 392 1200 6
4 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of SEM samples for prepared permeable bricks.

content, sodium silicate content, bearing area and sintering tem- 0) were studied, keeping the same mass of total aggregate 84 wt%.
perature were investigated in detail. It can be seen from Fig. 5 that permeability and apparent
porosity of permeable bricks growths obviously as the large
3.1.1. Effect of press times aggregate content increases, increasing by 133.3% and 43.7%,
The effect of different press times (1, 2 and 3 time) on the respectively, whereas the bulk density and flexural strength are
permeable brick was detected under the condition of that waste reduced by 3.7% and 19.0%. When the large aggregate content is
ceramic aggregate of 84 wt% (wt%0.88~2.36 mm: wt%2.36~4 mm ¼ 1: 2), 84 wt%, the permeability is 2.1
102 cm/s and the flexural strength
sodium silicate of 10 wt%, bearing area of 196 cm2 and sintering is 3.4 MPa. The increase of aggregate’s particle size improves the
temperature of 1100  C. internal porosity of the permeable bricks, and significantly en-
Fig. 4 shows the bulk density and flexural strength have good hances the water permeability coefficient and apparent porosity
consistency. With the increase of press times, the bulk density and (Jian-Feng et al., 2009). Therefore, the large aggregate content of
flexural strength of the permeable bricks increase significantly, but 84 wt% were selected.
the permeability shows a tendency of first dropping sharply and
then decreasing slowly, moreover, the apparent porosity also pre-
sent an obvious decreasing trend. When the press time changes
from 1 to 3 times, the bulk density increased by 3.7% from 1.90 g/
cm3 to 1.97 g/cm3, and the flexural strength of permeable bricks
increases by 85.7% from 4.2 MPa to 7.8 MPa, on the contrary, the
permeability decreases from 0.9
102 cm/s to almost zero, and the
apparent porosity is reduced by 50% to a minimum of 8%. Because
with the increase of press times, the external pressure makes the
aggregate tighter and squeezes the gap into smaller ones, resulting
in the lower permeability (Zhu et al., 2017). For the comprehensive
consideration, it is better to choose press 1 time.

3.1.2. Effect of large aggregate content

In this experiment, two kinds of waste ceramics with particle size
(0.88e2.36 mm and 2.36e4 mm) were selected as aggregates,
moreover, the influence of different proportions of large aggregate
Fig. 5. Effect of large aggregate content on the flexural strength and permeability of
and small aggregate (wt%2.36~4 mm: wt%0.88~2.36 mm ¼ 2: 1, 3: 1 and 1: bricks.

Fig. 4. Effect of press times on the flexural strength and permeability of bricks.
 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167 5

3.1.3. Effect of sodium silicate content

The influence of different sodium silicate content (10 wt%, 12 wt
% and 15 wt%) on the permeability and flexural strength of
permeable bricks was investigated.
As shown as Fig. 6, the bulk density and flexural strength of
brick increases with the increasing of sodium silicate content.
When the amount of sodium silicate is in the range of 10 wt% to
15 wt%, there is a good correlation between apparent porosity
and permeability, both of which show a significant decline, but
the flexural strength increases by 35.3% and reaches the
maximum value of 4.6 MPa. When the amount of sodium silicate
addition is 10 wt%, the water permeability coefficient of the
permeable brick achieves the maximum value of 2.1
102 cm/s.
It is because that the molten sodium silicate will bond aggregate
particles at the sintering temperature, improving the strength of
brick. Nevertheless, permeability will be reduced by too much Fig. 7. Effect of bearing areas on the flexural strength and permeability of bricks.
sodium silicate (Kockal and Ozturan, 2011). In order to balance
the relationship between strength and permeability, the addition
amount of sodium silicate was selected as 12 wt% in subsequent 3.1.5. Effect of sintering temperature
experiments. Through sintering, the strength of the permeable brick can be
effectively improved. The effects of different sintering tempera-
tures (1100  C, 1150  C and 1200  C) on the performance of the
3.1.4. Effect of bearing area
permeable brick were investigated.
The bearing area of the permeable brick is closely related to the
As shown in Fig. 8, the bulk density and flexural strength of the
molding pressure, and subsequently affects the bulk density and
ceramic permeable brick enhances with the increase of the sin-
apparent porosity. When the molding pressure is fixed, the larger
tering temperature. When the sintering temperature rises from
the bearing area, the smaller the pressure loading on the permeable
1100  C to 1200  C, the flexural strength of the permeable brick
brick. Hence, the effect of different bearing areas (196 cm2, 294 cm2
increases by 131.3%, reaching 7.6 MPa. In contrast, the apparent
and 392 cm2) on the performance of the permeable bricks was
porosity and permeability of the permeable brick decrease as sin-
studied. Along with increasing the bearing area, the dimention of
tering temperature increases. When the sintering temperature is
the permeable bricks also changes, namely,
1100  C, the permeability reaches the highest value of
140 mm
140 mm
80 mm, 140 mm
210 mm
80 mm and
3.7
102 cm/s. In order to ensure the comprehensive performance
140 mm
280 mm
80 mm, respectively.
of the prepared permeable brick, the sintering temperature is
It can be seen from Fig. 7 that when the bearing area is
selected as 1150  C, herein the bulk density, permeability, flexural
196 cm2, the flexural strength is up to 4.3 MPa and the water
strength and apparent porosity are 1.78 g/cm3, 3.2
102 cm/s,
permeability coefficient is only 1.9
102 cm/s. With the increase
6.8 MPa and 28%, respectively.
of the bearing area, the bulk density and flexural strength of the
In summary, under the optimal process parameters for the
permeable bricks are decreased, and the permeability and
preparation of permeable brick, namely, pressing 1 time, the con-
apparent porosity gradually increase. When the bearing area is
tent of large aggregate of 82 wt%, the content of sodium silicate of
enlarged to 392 cm2, the permeability and apparent porosity
12 wt%, the bearing area of 392 cm2, and the sintering temperature
increase by 94.7% and 50%, namely, as high as 3.7
102 cm/s and
of 1150  C, the bulk density, permeability, flexural strength and
33%, respectively. Because the pressure per unit area is reduced
apparent porosity of the produced permeable brick are 1.78 g/cm3,
for increasing the bearing area, large pores have been formed
3.2
102 cm/s, 6.8 MPa and 28%, respectively, which has already
among the aggregates, thereby improving the permeability and
meted the request of the Chinese national standard GB/T 25993-
apparent porosity (Xie et al., 2012). Considering comprehensively,
2010 for the permeable bricks.
the selected bearing area is 392 cm2, ensuring to obtain the
better performance.
3.2. Industrial scale test

3.2.1. Permeable brick performance of industrial scale test

Fig. 6. Effect of sodium silicate content on the flexural strength and permeability of
bricks.
The industrial scale test of permeable bricks was carried out
after successful preparation of permeable bricks from pilot test.
According to the optimal process parameter, 100 permeable bricks
were produced by industrial scale test, from which randomly
selected 10 permeable bricks for testing.
As shown in Table 3, the permeable bricks produced by the in-
dustrial scale test present better performance, wherein the
permeability, the flexural strength and the apparent porosity of the
produced permeable brick are separately 3.0
102 cm/s, 6.3 MPa
and 26%, which are basically consistent with the results of the pilot
test. Compared with the results of other’s permeable bricks as
shown in Table 3, the permeability and flexural strength of the
permeable brick produced in this work are very close to that of
others. In addition, it is well known that there is a huge gap be-
tween bench-scale test and industrial scale test. Hence, the pro-
ducing of the permeable bricks with better performance, using 84%
6 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167

Fig. 8. Effect of sintering temperature on the flexural strength and permeability of bricks.

Table 3
The test results of permeable brick performance.

Main raw materials Permeability(cm/ Flexural Bulk density (g/ Apparent porosity Test scale
s) strength(MPa) cm3) (%)

Gangue, discarded ceramics and fly ash(Zhang et al., 2011) 1.64
102 e 1.48 23 Bench scale
Waste ceramic and binder(Jian-Feng et al., 2009) 3.12
102 7.8 e 20 Bench scale
Waste ceramic and binder(Zhou, 2007) 2.3
102 7.3 1.35 e Bench scale
Waste ceramic and binder(This work) 3.0
102±0.001 6.3 ± 0.18 1.78 ± 0.02 26 ± 0.02 Pilot and industrial
scale
Chinese national standard GB/T 25993-2010 2.0
102 3 e e e

waste ceramics, of the produced will indeed guide industrial
production.
3.2.2. Characterization
The picture of permeable bricks before and after sintering are
shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the macroscopic structure of
permeable brick before sintering is very similar to that after sin-
tering. Therefore, the chemical composition and microstructure of
permeable brick are subsequently analyzed.
The phase composition of ceramic waste and the permeable
brick were determined by XRD, and the result was shown in Fig. 10.
It can be seen that the phase composition of ceramic waste was
mainly quartz (SiO2) and a small amount of gismondine (CaAl2-
Si2O8$4H2O). Besides, the phase composition of the permeable
brick was mainly quartz (SiO2), a small amount of gismondine
(CaAl2Si2O8$4H2O), plagioclase ((Na, Ca) Al (Si, Al)3O8) and mullite
(Al4.59Si1.41O9.7).
Compared to the XRD results of ceramic waste, new phases
plagioclase and mullite appear after sintering, which may be due to
the reaction of binders such as sodium silicate and clay, as shown in
Eqns. (1) and (2).
Na2 SiO3 þ Al2 O3 þ 5SiO2 /2NaAlSi3 O8 (1)
CaAl2 Si2 O8 þ NaAlSi3 O8 /ðNa; CaÞ Al ðSi; AlÞ3 O8 (2)
The sodium silicate, albite and anorthite (melting points of
1089  C,1100  C and 1130  C, respectively) melted and reacted

Fig. 9. Picture of the permeable bricks before and after sintering.

 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167
Fig. 10. X-ray diffraction pattern of the permeable brick and ceramic waste,
respectively.
during sintering. Insufficient liquid phase will result in the lower
flexural strength but higher water permeability, while excessive
liquid phase will have the opposite effect (Scholz and Grabowiecki,
2007). The permeable bricks produced in this study obtained good
water permeability and mechanical strength, reflecting the for-
mation of a suitable liquid phase during the sintering process.
The permeable brick was cut according to the design shown in
Fig. 3, and its microstructure was observed by SEM, as shown in
Fig. 11. The internal structure of the permeable brick is relatively
uniform through the overall observation, as can be seen from Fig. 11
(a), (b) and (c). A large number of pores were homogenously
distributed in the permeable brick, indicating a high water
permeability. It can be seen that the aggregates, as circle by red
solid lines, are very dense.
The results of the elemental composition of points S1, S2 and S3
were analyzed by the EDS energy spectrum, as shown in Table 4. It
can be inferred that both S1 and S3 were including phases of
Fig. 11. (a), (b), (c) Macroscopic images of the permeable brick and the insert illustration of the position of the observed sample; (d), (e), (f) The SEM images of the microstructure of
permeable brick.
7
plagioclase and dicalcium silicate, corresponding to the XRD result
of permeable brick and proving they are binders. Similarly, it is
speculated that the point S2 was mainly the quartz and anorthite
phases, which corresponds to the ceramic waste. At the same time,
it was verified that the white and loose phases in the figure are
binder, while the gray and dense phases are aggregate. The ag-
gregates were connected to each other by binders, ensuring the
mechanical strength of the permeable brick.
The through hole is circled by a blue dashed line in Fig. 11 (e),
allowing the rainwater on the road surface to infiltrate into the un-
derground, and the water permeability increases obviously with the
increasing of the through hole. As shown in Fig. 11 (f), there are still
some semi-open pores surrounded by blue dashed lines inside the
permeable brick, which can store a part of rainwater. After the rain
stops, this part of rainwater will slowly evaporate, reducing the
temperature of the road surface and playing a role in regulating the
urban microclimate (Dreelin et al., 2006). Therefore, permeable bricks
are critical to the construction and development of “Sponge City”.
3.2.3. Energy consumption
The energy consumed in the production of permeable bricks
mainly includes four processes of mixing, pressing, drying and
sintering, and the total energy consumption is calculated according
to the production of 10000 permeable bricks per batch. Firstly, 60
tons of raw materials are stirred in a mixer (JS1000, rated power at
37 kW), the mixer takes 10 min to mix 1 ton of raw material each
time, which requires the total time for mixing of 10 h. Then, the
friction press (J53-1000, rated power at 75 kW) can model two
permeable bricks per minute, and the pressing 10,000 bricks take
83.3 h. Next, the bricks are dried for 12 h by a drying kiln (LW-
20KWCGA, rated power at 20 kW). The specific heat capacity of the
permeable brick is 850 J/(kg$ C), and the permeable bricks are
heated up to 1150  C during the sintering process. The energy
consumption of mixing, pressing, drying and sintering process was
severally calculated by Eqns. (3)e(7).
1kW , h ¼ 3:6 MJ (3)
Q m ¼ P1
t1
3:6 (4)
8 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167
Table 4
The EDS energy spectrum results.
Element(Weight%) O Na Al
S1 33.04 4.38 8.71
S2 58.36 e 7.51
S3 46.76 1.41 2.55
Q p ¼ P2
t2
3:6
Q d ¼ P3
t3
3:6
Q S ¼ Cbrick
DT
m
Where Qm, Qp, Qd and Qs are the energy consumption for the
mixing, pressing, drying and sintering process of permeable brick,
respectively, (MJ); P1, P2 and P3 are the rated power of the mixer,
friction press and drying kiln, respectively, (kW); t1, t2 and t3 are the
time spent mixing, pressing and drying, respectively, (h); Cbrick is
the specific heat capacity of permeable brick, J/(kg$ C); DT repre-
sents the change in temperature, ( C); m is the total weight of
permeable brick, (kg). After calculation, the results of Qm, Qp, Qd
and Qs are 1332 MJ, 22491 MJ, 864 MJ and 58650 MJ, respectively.
Etotle ¼ Q m þ Q p þ Q d þ Q s
As calculated by Eqn. (8), the total energy consumption Etotal for
producing 10000 permeable bricks is 83337 MJ, thus the energy
consumption per unit weight of permeable bricks is about 1.4 MJ/
kg. It has been reported that the energy consumption only for brick
sintering process is in the range of 1.4e2.4 MJ/kg (Prasertsan et al.,
2007), while the total energy consumption in this study is about
1.4 MJ/kg. Hence, the total energy consumption of industrially
permeable bricks in this work is relative lower.
In general, the permeability and flexural strength of the
permeable brick prepared by industrial scale test are 3.0
102 cm/s
and 6.3 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the permeable bricks have a
bulk density of 1.78 g/cm3 and a relatively high apparent porosity of
26%. The properties of the permeable brick produced by industrial
scale test are basically consistent with the pilot test results, and its
performance also met the Chinese national standard GB/T 25993-
2010, which proves the feasibility of mass production of permeable
bricks. The energy consumption is relatively low of 1.4 MJ/kg in the
production process. The study basically achieved the use of solid
waste, in which the proportion of ceramic waste used reached 82%,
which not only consumes solid waste, but also produces the
permeable bricks with the superior performance.
The permeable bricks prepared in this study can be used in
walkways, park squares, parking lots and so on. In the future work,
the functional study of permeable bricks will be carried out to form
a filter membrane on the surface of permeable brick, adsorbing the
heavy metals in the sewage, and the surface layer of the permeable
brick should be reasonably designed to prevent dust from blocking
the pores and thus deteriorating the permeable effect, and the
shape and color of the brick maybe be designed from an aesthetic
perspective.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, the feasibility of using ceramic waste as aggregate
and sodium silicate, cement, fly ash and clay as binder for pilot and
industrial scale tests of permeable bricks producing were studied
by means of bulk density, permeability, flexural strength and
apparent porosity test, as well as SEM observation.
Si K Ca Phase
27.33 2.08 20.31 (Na, Ca)Al(Si, Al)3O8, NaAlSi3O8, Ca2SiO4
18.82 e 15.31 SiO2, CaAl2Si2O8
25.36 1.43 22.25 (Na, Ca)Al(Si, Al)3O8, Ca2SiO4
The influences of press times, large aggregate content, sodium
(5) silicate content, bearing area and sintering temperature on prop-
erties of permeable brick were roundly investigated through pilot
(6) test. The press times and the particle size of aggregate have a great
influence on the permeability of permeable brick, whereas the ef-
(7) fect of sodium silicate content and sintering temperature present
great influence on the flexural strength of permeable brick. Under
optimal process conditions (the press 1 time, 82 wt% large aggre-
gate, 12 wt% sodium silicate, the bearing area is 392 cm2, and the
sintering temperature is 1150  C), the permeable brick prepared by
the pilot test has a bulk density of 1.78 g/cm3, permeability of
3.2
102 cm/s, flexural strength of 6.8 MPa and apparent porosity
of 28%, respectively.
The permeability and flexural strength of the permeable brick
prepared by industrial scale test are 3.0
102 cm/s and 6.3 MPa,
respectively. The binder melts and reacts at high temperature,
forming a new phase plagioclase to build a good bond between the
(8) aggregates, thus improving the mechanical strength of the
permeable brick. Through SEM observation, there are a large
number of through holes and semi-open pores in the permeable
brick, making the permeable bricks behave larger apparent
porosity and water permeability. The energy consumption for
whole producing process of permeable bricks is relatively low,
about 1.4 MJ/kg.
Hence, permeable bricks were successfully prepared from
ceramic wastes, which not only utilized solid wastes and reduced
environmental pollution, but also made important contributions to
groundwater protection, urban flood prevention and urban heat
island mitigation. Saving natural resources, using solid waste, low
energy consumption, and production environment-friendly prod-
ucts are in line with the concept of cleaner production. At the same
time, this work can also provide a good reference for the industrial
production of permeable bricks.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zhiqiang Yang: Methodology, Writing - original draft, Writing -
review & editing. Zhiqin Qiang: Writing - original draft. Min Guo:
Supervision. Guilan Yi: Supervision, Validation. Yonglin Shi: Re-
sources, Validation. Fangqin Cheng: Investigation. Mei Zhang:
Conceptualization, Project administration, Writing - review &
editing.
Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51972019), the Shanxi Joint Key Project of
Natural Science Foundation of China (U1810205), and the Shanxi
Science and Technology Supporting Program (MC2016-03) are duly
acknowledged for their financial support.
 Z. Yang et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 254 (2020) 120167 9

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