Fired clay bricks using agricultural biomass wastes: Study and characterization

• Wheat straw, sunflower seed cake and olive stone flour have been incorporated into clay matrix.
• The influence of the grinding and incorporation rate of the additives have been studied.
• Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the fired brick have been affected.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of the incorporation of renewable pore-forming agents on the properties of fired bricks. Different additives have been studied (wheat straw, sunflower seed cake and olive stone flour) at different grinding and incorporation rate.Physical properties such as linear shrinkage, loss on ignition, bulk porosity, water absorption and bulk density have been measured. Mechanical and thermal performances have also been characterized. The incorporation of 4 wt.% of sunflower seed cake, with the lowest grinding, leads to the best compromise between mechanical and thermal results compared to the reference brick.