Smart2ReDuCe is a project we are working on at our Technological Centre to contribute to the Circular Economy and the decarbonisation of the sector, converting waste into new sustainable materials for construction.

The construction and operation of buildings accounts for almost 40% of the depletion of natural resources and generates 25% of the world’s waste. Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) has become one of the main sources of municipal waste and usually represents between 10% and 30% of the total waste deposited in landfills. Therefore, in addition to reducing the generation of waste, it is important to facilitate its reuse and, to do so, current recycling processes need to be improved.

In order to find solutions, our Smart2ReDuCe project arose, in which we are developing new artificial vision and advanced photonic technologies to achieve better separation of CDW waste at the plant. The main objective is to convert waste into new sustainable materials for construction , something that will be assessed with recycled aggregates through research in materials and 3D printing technology.

CETIM at Smart2ReDuCe

From CETIM’s Sustainable Construction Materials line, we condition construction and demolition waste as recycled aggregate and optimise mortar and concrete formulations based on this aggregate. Specifically, these materials are processed for 3D printing of various construction elements.

Likewise, in our Digital Industry area, we analyse different material identification technologies based on artificial vision, in the non-visible spectrum and photonic techniques, to improve the waste separation process with the aim of facilitating its subsequent recycling and reuse.

Demo Day: Digitisation in the circular economy

A few weeks ago, the Smart2ReDuCe project and the progress made to date were presented at the Demo Day on ‘Digitalisation in the circular economy: RCD and technological advances in environmental projects’ held in Ferrol. The event was organised by Viratec, the Galician cluster of Environmental Solutions and Circular Economy that leads the project.

Our colleague from Sustainable Construction Materials, M. Alberto Miguéns, together with our colleague in charge of Digital Industry, Elena Hidalgo, participated in the conference explaining the work that we have developed from CETIM and that we have just discussed.

The entire Smart2ReDuCe consortium also took part in the meeting: RECINOR, as experts in waste recovery and circular economy; GESTÁN, specialists in development and implementation of environmental solutions; INOVA, technological consultancy in innovation, digitalisation and sustainability; ITG, Technological Centre of Galicia; HIMIKODE, specialists in design and development of technological solutions; CLUSTER DA MADEIRA, which acts as an agent for the dynamisation of the wood sector by supporting the projects of all its associates; and MEDRAR, an AGROTECH consultancy firm specialising in the provision of R&D&I services in the agri-food sector in the context of sustainability and digitalisation.

Smart2ReDuCe is an industrial research project in digital technologies directly linked to Industry 4.0 that seeks to improve the competitiveness of the CDW recycling sector, especially of the SMEs involved as drivers of the need. Thanks to the development of a collaborative platform based on advanced digitalisation tools using neural networks, we will achieve a CDW value chain with a lower carbon footprint. And, above all, we will make progress in the field of digitisation aimed at separating and validating aggregates as a concrete formula and 3D printing tests.

 

The SMART2REDUCE project receives funding from the 2023 call of the support programme for Innovative Business Groups (AEI) of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.