Sustainable zeolitic tuff incorporating tea waste fired ceramic bricks: Development and investigation

The present research examines the development of new porous ceramic bricks from Hungarian zeolitic tuff and tea waste as building materials. Recycling waste materials as a pore-forming agent in brick-making is a promising solution to environmental and economic challenges. Several zeolitic tuff/tea waste admixtures were milled in the planetary ball milling to produce homogenous powders. The substitution ratios were maintained as 0 %, 2 %, 4 %, 6 %, 8 %, 10 %, and 12 % by wt of zeolitic tuff. The ceramic disks were produced from the prepared mixtures via dry pressing and sintering at various temperatures (950–1250 °C) for consolidation. The produced bricks were investigated based on bulk density, apparent porosity, water absorption, volume shrinkage, thermal conductivity and compressive strength, as well as mineralogical, chemical, and morphological studies. The mineralogical determination confirms the existence of clinoptilolite, montmorillonite, cristobalite and illite as major phases in zeolite tuff. The experimental results reveal that the addition of tea waste produces hybrid bricks with better thermal insulation (0.17–0.504 W/m K), lighter weight (1.37–1.81 g/cm³), and lower compressive strength (5.52–34.4 MPa). However, the compressive strength value still lies within the range required by the standards. The production of burned bricks containing up to 10 wt% tea waste is viable without causing major changes in their technical characteristics. Developing new porous bricks using waste materials can help expand the application of sustainable and cost-effective insulation bricks in the construction industry.