In line with the group’s circular economy policies, we have entered a new project called Tecnocir (2022-2025), “Research and technological development for a circular construction industry”, backed by the CDTI.
Tecnocir was born out of the necessity to reduce CO2 emissions, the high use of raw materials to obtain aggregates and the generation of large volumes of waste from demolitions in construction.
We will pursue two business lines through Sacyr Circular: one with slag and ash from incinerators, and another one with the generation of usable and marketable byproducts from demolition waste.
We work with our partners Urdecon and Terratest in the two research lines that Sacyr Circular is actively involved in, while the rest of the areas included in this project have the support from Hulleras del Norte, Arposa60, Drace Geocisa, Becsa and Rockwool Peninsular.
“We want to process and use up slag and fly ash to create artificial zeolites and as filler in bitumens to apply on roads”, says Álvaro Bujanda, Operations technical monitoring manager at Sacyr Circular.
Birdseye view of the incinerator, Mataró (Barcelona).
Moreover, slag could also be used as a material to produce concrete or as an additive in bitumens.
Another potential application of this project is the use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste (CDW) to produce usable construction byproducts.
“We purify the mixtures from pollutants, and we create two types of aggregate: one that contains concrete waste only and another with mixed waste (broken bricks, gypsum, etc). We process aggregates and use it to make road slab or even to make pilons (large concrete cylinders used in the deep foundations of buildings)”, explains Bujanda.
Valoriza has two CDW facilities, one in Vitoria (Sacyr Circular) and another one in Alcalá de Henares (Sacyr Green) that supply the aggregate for this project. Slag and ash will come from the incinerator at the urban solid waste management plant in Mataró, Barcelona.
