Photo: Pernille Erland Jensen

Mining waste to be utilized in building materials

Construction materials Waste management Raw materials and raw materials exploitation
DTU is a partner in a new EU project aimed at recycling of mining waste in building materials.

Critical raw materials are often used for small—but crucial—elements in our everyday lives.

The group of critical raw materials includes lithium, which is used in batteries in smartphones, tablets, and the like. However, the extraction of critical raw materials is both difficult and detrimental to the environment. There is therefore a need to find alternatives to these critical raw materials and to find new and better methods of extracting the materials.

‘e.THROUGH – Thinking rough towards sustainability” is a new research project under the EU focusing on the latter.

The research group ZeroWaste Byg at DTU Civil Engineering participates in the project, in which—together with the other partners—the research group will focus on the extraction of critical raw materials from mining waste and concurrently work to upgrade the particulate matter to good raw materials which can be used in the production of building materials.

"My expectation is that the network and knowledge we build up through the project will have positive effects on other areas in the development of new sustainable building materials. "

Mining waste can be used in building materials
The object of the project is to ensure that mining operations in nature and from secondary resources are carried out in the most environmentally-friendly and sustainable way possible. This includes not allowing mining waste to accumulate in nature—as is currently the case in many parts of the world—with resulting large negative environmental impacts.

The mining waste must instead be utilized—for example in building materials—and this is an area in which DTU Civil Engineering has extensive experience.

“This project fits perfectly with our research into the use of secondary resources in concrete and bricks. My expectation is that the network and knowledge we build up through the project will have positive effects on other areas in the development of new sustainable building materials,” says Professor Lisbeth M. Ottosen from DTU Civil Engineering.

New labs on the way
A large part of the project work will be conducted in DTU Civil Engineering’s two new laboratory facilities, which will ready in May. One contains equipment that will improve the possibilities of research into Arctic technology and the development of sustainable building materials.

e.THROUGH

The EU project e.THROUGH has received funding under the scheme ‘Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange’. This means that internationally acclaimed researchers and their PhD students will visit DTU Civil Engineering on research stays and that researchers from DTU Civil Engineering will go on research stays abroad.


In the project, university partners from Portugal, Spain, Denmark, and the United States collaborate with enterprises from Spain and Italy which are engaged in sustainable mining operations.