Indian students turn PPE waste into eco-friendly bricks without cement

A crew of engineering students has devised a technique to turn hospital private protecting gear (PPE) waste, which usually swells-up landfills, into bricks which might be stronger and don’t use any cement.

Not solely do these “poly bricks” have a three-time increased compressive energy as in comparison with the widespread purple bricks, they’re much lighter and could be produced in a far shorter time.

Since the curing time to achieve ISO requirements is lower than 24 hours, the bricks are prepared faster and cheaper than widespread purple or concrete hole bricks and meet the water absorption specs.

The crew from the civil engineering division of Sona College — Aravind Kumar from ultimate yr, Kamalesh J B and Dharani Raj U, each from third yr, and Adhavan P and Harshini E Okay, each from second yr — discovered this resolution whereas taking part in a nation-wide competitors.

“The expertise is now accessible to hospital chains and different organisations eager about expertise switch to assist deal with PPE waste and likewise scale back toxic emissions,” Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman, Sona Group of training establishments, informed IANS.

The poly brick making course of begins by sterilisingPPE kits with ultraviolet (UV) rays, subjecting it to warmth at 160 levels centigrade, including sand aggregates and casting the polypropylene mass into bricks.

The poly bricks are eco-friendly as they don’t use any cement or water within the course of and trigger minimal in course of emissions because the PPE plastic waste is subjected to lower than 200 levels centigrade.

The WHO just lately stated the usage of PPE kits used throughout the Covid-19 pandemic was added burden placing on the atmosphere, resulting from their single-use nature.

According to the tutorial establishment, these eco-friendly bricks can be utilized as common bricks for partitions as additionally as paver blocks as an alternative of purple bricks — within the course of decreasing plastic waste in addition to air pollution triggered throughout cement manufacturing.

The poly bricks have good cement adhesion and could be plastered with cement.

Dr N Karuppasamy, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Sona College of Technology who mentored the crew stated {that a} patent utility has been filed for this expertise.

The civil engineering division has additionally patented a expertise to make use of plastic waste in brick manufacturing that replaces virtually 70 per cent of sand with plastic.

(With inputs from IANS)