Skip to main content

Sustainable bricks from KENOTEQ

UK firm KENOTEQ is offering a sustainable construction product in the shape of an unfired brick that is made from waste materials. Construction and demolition waste make up around 90% of the materials used in the firm’s novel K-Briq.
August 19, 2021 Read time: 1 min
A novel brick is now offered that is made from waste materials

The company is a clean-tech spin-out from Heriot-Watt University and is looking to commercialise production of its brick. The aim is to supply more than two million bricks/year.

The K-Briq is made from over 90% recycled demolition and construction waste materials. It has just 10% of the CO2 emissions of a traditional fired brick for its production and requires less than 10% of the energy in its manufacture.

The firm says that the production of this type of brick reduces the need to send waste materials from construction and demolition to landfill. In addition, production also slashes energy use, both in manufacturing and also in use as it has double the insulation properties of existing bricks and blocks. By using recycled pigments, it can be made in a range of colours providing flexibility to architects and design planners.

The K-Briq was conceived by Professor Gabriela Medero from Heriot-Watt University following more than a decade of research and development into creating innovative, low-carbon products from recycled construction waste. Professor Medero is co-founder and technical director of KENOTEQ, which launched in January 2020.

Related Content

  • HyperTunnel and U Birmingham to cooperate
    December 30, 2022
    HyperTunnel, based in the UK, said its new construction methods will reduce carbon footprints by building tunnels more than 10 times faster and at half the cost of conventional methods.
  • Rubber tyre re-use
    June 18, 2012
    Re-using crumb rubber in asphalt offers numerous benefits – Mike Woof In the US, the use of crumb rubber from old car and truck tyres in asphalt mixes has been tried over a number of years. The technology has improved considerably too, with this approach now offering much longer lasting performance. Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is one of the latest states to adopt this approach and has amended its road construction specifications to include recycled tyre rubber as an alternative to conventi
  • Black is green: the bitumen sector rises to the mobility challenge
    April 14, 2020
    Asphalt may be black most of the time, but the bitumen sector is green and getting greener, says Siobhan McKelvey, head of Eurobitume.
  • ACO completes site expansion
    October 2, 2023
    ACO has completed its site expansion.