Design and material selection for lowering the environmental impact of Dutch office buildings: Investigating the impact of clients' initial and future requirements on the final design and material composition of a building's load bearing structure

In order to help the building and construction sector move towards a Circular Economy and lower its environmental impact, a better founded choice regarding the design and selection of building materials for a building’s load bearing structure is required. By investigating different design strategies that focus on optimizing various aspects of...

Passive scrap singulation for demand-driven sorting

Aluminium is a vital component of the world's economy, thanks to its versatile applications. However, the environmental impacts of primary production result in a growing desire and societal pressure to develop more efficient recycling techniques. Secondary aluminium is produced at 5% of the energy consumption used to produce primary aluminium....

The Circular Procurement Tool: Procurement method to stimulate circular facade systems in mid-rise residential buildings in the Netherlands

The ambition of the Netherlands is to have a fully circular economy by 2050.<br/>One of the steps to achieve this ambition is that in 2030 the tenders should have<br/>circular ambitions at all governmental levels. However, at the moment, there are<br/>insufficient tools for the municipality to make the practical implications of these<br/...

The impact of recycled cement paste in the development of sustainable mortar

Nowadays environmental issues like the depletion of the natural resources and the pollution of the environment have led many researchers to make new projects about the reuse of waste from construction and demolition again in concrete industry. Among available solutions are the partial replacement of cement with recycled ultrafine particles (RUP)...

Ammonia recovery from calciner off-gas: The effect of reclaiming ammonia by direct injection into the plant system

Ammonia has been recognized as an effective leaching agent in hydro-metallurgical processes for the recovery of metals\cite{AmmLeach2013}. These processes result in ammonia-metal crystals, whereby in the last step, water and ammonia are removed from the crystals by a calcination process. In the past, the vaporized ammonia is considered a waste...

Evaluating the electrochemical properties and behaviour of copper/cobalt minerals: Using Cyclic Voltammetry and Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance techniques

Mining projects around the world face a significant challenge to reduce their footprint and be more environmentally friendly. Research has shown that mineral processing is of major influence, due to the use of heavy chemicals that are both expensive and polluting. Currently, electrowinning (the electrodeposition of metals) is only used in the...