Ninety-nine bottles of beer in the wall

default-hero-image

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Federico_Lisa-02.jpg” caption=”Lisa Federico examines a brick to be tested in McMaster’s Applied Dynamics Laboratory. Photo credit: Graham Jansz”]Every year Hamilton generates approximately 275,000 tonnes of waste material. Of this, around 100,000 tonnes – the equivalent of nearly 90,000 Honda Civics – ends up in landfills. Although significant improvements have been made to landfill design, some environmental risks persist. Also, landfills are an unsustainable disposal method as they have a limited lifespan – the fill gets full. Consequently, it is crucial that as much waste as possible be diverted from landfills.

McMaster University's Lisa Federico, a master of applied sciences student in the Department of Civil Engineering, is focusing her research on a unique method of diverting waste. She says, “Basically, what I'm doing is putting waste additives into clay brick. The potential benefits are to save on the fuel costs, to reduce the amount of raw materials used and to divert waste from landfills.”

Supervised by professors Samir Chidiac and Robert Drysdale, Federico is specifically studying the implications of adding waste glass to normal bricks. Although glass is generally recyclable, she notes, “Clear glass tends to be the easiest to recycle, but that still leaves amber and green glass. They are not as easily recyclable because of the colour in them, so a high percentage of waste glass actually ends up going to landfills. According to The Ministry of the Environment, waste glass makes up about five per cent of residential waste in Ontario.”

Federico is working in partnership with Brampton Brick. Through this arrangement she is able to use the plant's facilities for mixing and firing her prototype bricks. These bricks are then tested using the advanced facilities at McMaster's Applied Dynamics Laboratory. Federico is testing the strength of the bricks, the amount of water they absorb and their ability to withstand freeze-thaw cycles – a major concern in Canada.

Federico plans to expand her work, which is currently funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the McMaster University Centre for Effective Design of Structures and Materials and Manufacturing Ontario, through the use of a scanning electron microscope. This will allow her to study the detailed microscopic structure of these innovative bricks.

Federico is already sharing her research with others, and she is very active outside of the lab. This summer she participated in two conferences. Recently, she won the prize for “Best Paper” at the First Canadian Conference on the Effective Design of Structures. Federico has also been actively involved in training the next generation of engineers as a teaching assistant for a fourth-year civil engineering course titled “Environmental Impact and Sustainability.”

Federico notes that although she is primarily interested in the material properties of the bricks, her work is very much “an environmental sustainability project.” Federico observes that she was always an “environmental kind of kid,” and her research provides her with the ability to merge her environmental concerns with her love of math, science and engineering.

One of the major environmental benefits of Federico's work is the potential to prolong the lifespan of landfills. Federico notes, “The life of a landfill is limited. If we can take out five per cent of the volume of waste that we're putting into landfills, that will help.” In Hamilton, for example, diverting five per cent of the landfill waste would keep approximately five million kilograms of trash out of the ground.

Federico is also aiming to extend the environmental applications of her work beyond landfill preservation. By exploring the chemical components of the glass, she is designing her bricks in a manner that has the potential to reduce the firing temperature necessary to produce them. Typically bricks are fired in massive kilns that burn a fossil fuel. Federico hopes that her bricks will decrease the amount of fuel that is used and decrease the production of greenhouse gases in the firing process.

Furthermore, Federico hopes that her bricks will be more durable than normal bricks and therefore be more sustainable. This has the potential of keeping even more waste out of landfills. It will also decrease the amount of shale that is used for the production of bricks. Federico notes, “There's tons of shale, but it's not renewable. If we could lower [its use], it would be great.”

Unlike many Asian and European countries, Canada has an adequate supply of raw materials and the ability to dispose of deteriorating bricks. Given this luxury, we have fallen behind many nations in the field of sustainable 'green building.' Federico notes, “We could wait for there to be a problem, or we could be more proactive about it. This is a way that we could be more proactive if some of the industry will adopt these practices.”

Federico is excited by the progress that she has been making in her design of environmentally friendly bricks and she is striving to answer the remaining questions necessary to integrate this technology. She notes, “More research is needed. Brick manufacturers would need to know that these bricks comply with standards and we need to look more closely at the long-term behavior of the bricks. My role is to make it as easy as possible for (the manufacturers) – I'm trying to make it that much more appealing. Of course, cost always comes into the picture, so one of the things I'd like to do is a cost analysis so that people know what they're getting into.”

Because Federico works closely with a brick company, she is able to design her bricks to be easily made by existing production facilities. She says, “If a company wanted to put this into use in the future, I think they could do it without having to make a major investment – a few adjustments, but no major changes to its facilities.”

As Federico's research progresses, the potential benefits for the environment, the brick industry and the individual will expand. In the near future a new house may be built with bricks that cost less, last longer and are more environmentally friendly to produce – and since up to 20 per cent of Federico's bricks are glass, there could be far more than ninety-nine bottles of beer in your wall.

(The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) program was launched in 1999 at 10 universities across Canada. Through SPARK, students with an aptitude for communications are recruited, trained and paid to write stories based on the NSERC supported research at participating universities.)