
V. International Conference Progress of Recycling in the Built Environment (V. PRE)
10. October - 12. October

Background
Recycling materials has a long tradition in human history. In the Palaeolithic, for example, the reuse of discarded stone artefacts was probably a common strategy to obtain raw materials. Later, “scrap metal” was an important material source for remanufacturing. Recycling was also the order of the day in the Dark Ages. Collecting and recycling materials such as scrap metal, rags, clothing, paper, bones, and ashes have been a common practice. In the recent past, technological progress and the initially almost unlimited transport possibilities brought recycling to a virtual standstill. Now, it has become interesting again. There are signs of a shortage of resources for primary and secondary construction raw materials such as sand, gypsum, and fly ash – which can become a driving force for recycling. At the same time, landfill sites are becoming more and more rare. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go in building materials research before a balance is reached between new developments in building materials, studies on performance during the service life, and devealopments of recycling solutions. The often-made assessment of “recyclable” for a new product stands on the shoulders of clay and is not always technologically proven. This conference can contribute to changing this, by improving the knowledge of construction and demolition waste as difficult raw materials and by leveraging their impacts when used within sophisticated product developments and processing technologies. New ideas like saving on energy consumption and reducing CO2 emissions through new recycling solutions are welcome.
This V. PRE Conference in 2023 is part of a series of conferences started in 2009 by the RILEM Committee TC-217 “Progress of Recycling in the Built Environment.” This year the conference is organized by the Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research – IAB gGmbH. The institute has more than 30 years of experience in developing new products, technologies, and processes from natural materials as well as from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW). The institute has a broad set of laboratory equipment and experimental facilities, especially for the research on recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste.
The conference aims to debate and disseminate recent developments in the characterization, processing, and application of recovered materials from CDW to strengthen their production, foster confidence in their use, and, consequently, stimulate their demand. With this purpose, it is foreseen an increasing participation of all stakeholders while raising awareness about the great relevance of CDW recycling.
This conference will include high-level scientific sessions, with Keynote Lectures given by well-known international experts, sessions with selected papers, and discussions on the most urgent issues related to CDW recycling. An excursion on the third day of the event to the recycling technology centre of the IAB Weimar and a subsequent tour of the Haus am Horn – the first Bauhaus show house – will round off the conference programme.
It is expected that this Conference will contribute to improving resource efficiency in the construction sector, by providing interesting clues to closing the loop for materials and preserving natural resources as well as energy.
Themes
- New and enhanced processing techniques for CDW
- Innovative solutions for products based on CDW
- Performance and durability of products with/from recycled material
- Contributions of CDW recycling against the shortage of raw materials
- Contributions of recycling against CO2 emission
- Quality and confidence
- Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle Costs
- Case studies
Important Deadlines
- Abstracts submission 30/04/2023*
- Abstracts approval 10/05/2023*
- Papers submission 31/07/2023*
- Papers approval 31/08/2023*
- Papers review submission 20/09/2023*
- Final papers approval 30/09/2023*
- Event 10/10 to 12/10/2023
* submission deadline extended
Program*
LECTURES | |
08:30 am | Registration + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
09:30 am | Welcome |
Ulrich Palzer | Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research (IAB) Katja Böhler | Thuringian Ministry for Economy, Science and Digital Society Peter Kleine | Lord Mayor of Weimar |
|
10:15 am | Keynote |
Progresses and challenges in recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste Anette Müller | Weimar – Institute of Applied Construction Research (IAB) / Germany |
|
10:45 am | Coffee break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
Session 1: New and enhanced techniques for CDW treatment | |
11:15 am | Advanced dataset acquisition for improved Construction and Demolition Waste classification using machine learning Tomáš Zbíral, Matěj Hužvár, Stanislav Vítek, Václav Nežerka | Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) / Czech Republic |
11:30 am | Determination of material parameters using multispectral sensoring Ina Reichert, Jurij Walz, Elske Linß, Patrick Hunhold | Materials Research and Testing Institute Weimar (MFPA) / Germany |
11:45 am | Estimation model of attached mortar paste volume on the surface of recycled aggregates combining Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction and image analysis Andrea Bisciotti, Giuseppe Cruciani | University of Ferrara / Italy |
12:00 pm | Characterisation of pozzolanic activity of masonry rubble by spectrophotometry Alexander Winkel | Brick and Tile Research Institute Essen e.V. (IZF) / Germany Katrin Severins | VDZ Technology gGmbH / Germany |
12:15 pm | Discussion |
12:30 pm | Lunch break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
01:30 pm | Circular concrete: selective recycling technologies Nicolas Pato, Jan Skocek, Maciej Zajac | Heidelberg Materials AG / Germany |
01:45 pm | Pure brick sand from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) through magnetic sorting Annett Lipowsky, Jenny Götz, Jan Rybizki, Anette Müller | Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research (IAB) / Germany |
02:00 pm | Use of limestone filler to promote separability between cement paste and natural aggregate: a circular economy strategy for concrete Tatiane Hentges, Sérgio Angulo | University of São Paulo (USP) / Brazil Luis Tavares | Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) / Brazil |
02:15 pm | Discussion |
02:30 pm | Keynote |
Development of calcium carbonate concrete for permanent resource recycling and carbon neutrality Takafumi Noguchi | The University of Tokyo / Japan |
|
03:00 pm | Coffee break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
Session 2: Raw material shortage | |
03:30 pm | New sources for secondary gypsum Karin Weimann | Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) / Germany Patrick Farago | Central German Environment and Waste Disposal GmbH (MUEG) / Germany Felix Mayer | Institute for Applied Ecology e.V. / Germany |
03:45 pm | Research approaches for the recycling of calcium sulfate flowing screeds Andreas Hecker, Alexander Schnell, Horst-Michael Ludwig | Bauhaus-University Weimar / Germany |
04:00 pm | Construction and Demolition Waste as fine aggregate in mortar matrices: a review Ana Antunes | CERIS, University of Lisbon (ULisboa) / Portugal Hugo Costa, Ricardo Carmo, Eduardo Júlio | CERIS, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC) / Portugal |
04:15 pm | The effect on the durability properties of concrete of partial replacement of natural fine aggregates with recycled concrete fine aggregates Neema Kahabi, Mark Alexander, Hans Beushausen | University of Cape Town / South Africa |
04:30 pm | Optimizing self-compacting mortar mixes with recycled wash-sludge fines Yury Villagran-Zaccardi, Arne Peys | Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) / Belgium |
04:45 pm | Discussion |
05:00 pm | End of the lecture programme of day 1 |
07:00 pm | Get-together evening event |
LECTURES | |
09:00 am | Keynote |
Application of CO2 mineralization in cementitious materials for valorisation and recycling enhancement Maciej Zajac | Heidelberg Materials AG / Germany |
|
09:30 am | Coffee break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
Session 3: Thermal recycling of CDW | |
10:00 am | Comparative study of lightweight expanded aggregates made from masonry rubble or clay Katrin Rübner | Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) / Germany Alexander Schnell | Bauhaus University Weimar / Germany Anette Müller | Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research (IAB) / Germany |
10:15 am | Lightweight aggregates made from Construction and Demolition Waste – application in lightweight concrete and mortars Julia Seher, Katrin Rübner, Constanze Müller | Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) / Germany Falk Martin | Concrete and Natural Stone Babelsberg GmbH (BNB) / Germany Nicole Pniok, Bianca Dreisow | Opus Monument Care GmbH / Germany |
10:30 am | Durability properties of concrete made of alkali-activated lightweight aggregates from Construction Demolition Waste Isabelle Wichmann, Dietmar Stephan | Technical University Berlin / Germany |
10:45 am | Thermally reactivated recycled cement and its hydration ability Neshable Noel, Tommy Mielke, Gustave Semugaza, Doru C. Lupascu | University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) / Germany |
11:00 am | Discussion |
Session 4: Reduction of CO2 emissions | |
11:15 am | Permanent storage of CO2 in demolition concrete through mineralization Luis Schaub | neustark AG / Switzerland |
11:30 am | CDW as sources of CO2 absorption Catarina Brazão Farinha, Cinthia Pederneiras, David Bastos, Ricardo Gomes | c5Lab - Sustainable Construction Materials Association / Portugal Rosário Veiga, António Santos Silva | National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) / Portugal |
11:45 am | Towards Zero-Emission circular concrete Peter Stemmermann, Krassimir Garbev, Angela Ullrich, Günter Beuchle | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) / Germany |
12:00 pm | Discussion |
12:15 pm | Lunch break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
Session 5: Mortar and concrete products | |
01:15 pm | Hydration kinetics of cement-lime binders with Construction and Demolition Waste fines for masonry applications Vadim Grigorjev, Juan Manuel Etcheverry, Nele De Belie | Ghent University / Belgium Miguel Azenha | University of Minho / Portugal |
01:30 pm | Evaluation of the use of Recycled Concrete Powder (RCP) in the workability and compressive strength of Portland cement pastes Joaquin Humberto Aquino Rocha, Romildo Dias Toledo Filho | Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) / Brazil |
01:45 pm | Optimization of mixture design of 3D printable concrete produced with recycled aggregates from 3D printed concrete waste Pawel Sikora, Szymon Skibicki, Karol Federowicz, Marcin Hoffmann, Daniel Sibera, Krzysztof Cendrowski, Mateusz Techman | West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (ZUT) / Poland João Nuno Pacheco | CERIS, c5Lab - Sustainable Construction Materials Association / Portugal |
02:00 pm | Ecological Concrete Mix Design by using fine and coarse recycled, carbonated aggregate and a low clinker cement in infrastructure application Paul Dengler, Mujeebul Rahman Latifi, Rüdiger Kern, Harald Weigand | THM University of Applied Sciences Gießen / Germany |
02:15 pm | Discussion |
02:30 pm | Evaluation of durability and mechanical performance of recycled aggregate concrete from electric erc furnace slag concrete Pablo Tamayo, Carlos Thomas | University of Cantabria (UC) / Spain |
02:45 pm | Performance of concrete made with washed fine recycled aggregates and their washing water Eduardo Murinelo, Francisco Pires, Maria Idália Gomes, Luis Evangelista | Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon (IPL) / Portugal |
03:00 pm | The combined roles of cement type and recycled concrete aggregate on the formation of the interfacial transition zone Bruno Fernandes, Sreejith Krishnan, Alice Macente, Leon Black, Susan A. Bernal | University of Leeds / United Kingdom Yury Villagran-Zaccardi | Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) / Belgium National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET La Plata) / Argentina |
03:15 pm | Discussion |
03:30 pm | Coffee break + visit of the trade & poster exhibition |
04:00 pm | Keynote |
Overcoming technical and regulatory barriers to a better circular economy in the construction industry Luc Courard | University of Liège / Belgium |
|
Session 6: Case studies | |
04:30 pm | Construction and Demolition Waste recycling in Brazil: evolution and challenges Sérgio Angulo, Lidiane Oliveira, Leonardo Machado | University of São Paulo (USP) / Brazil Levi Torres | Brazilian Association for Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling (ABRECON) / Brazil |
04:45 pm | Review of recycled aggregate processing and treatment techniques in the South African context Areej Gamieldien, Hans Beushausen, Mark Alexander | University of Cape Town / South Africa |
05:00 pm | Discussion |
05:15 pm | End of the lecture programme of day 2 |
EXCURSION | |
09:30 am | Bus transfer to IAB Weimar |
Departure from the Leonardo Hotel to IAB Weimar | |
10:00 am | Tour of the IAB's pilot plants and laboratories including recycling pilot plant |
12:00 pm | Lunch break + scientific exchange |
01:30 pm | Bus transfer to Haus am Horn |
Departure from IAB Weimar to the Haus am Horn | |
02:00 pm | Tour Haus am Horn |
Tour of the first Bauhaus show house | |
04:30 pm | Individual park walk + city centre visit |
Way back to the Leonardo Hotel |
Registration
Registration form participants Registration form exhibitors
Organisation Committee
Honorary Chairs:
Prof. Enric Vázquez Ramonich (UPC – Spain)
Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Palzer (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Chairs:
Prof. Anette Müller (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Prof. Carina Ulsen (USP-Brazil)
Dr. Isabel Martins (LNEC, Portugal)
Dr. Yury Villagrán Zaccardi (VITO – Belgium)
Members:
Dipl.-Ing. Mirko Landmann (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Dr.-Ing. Barbara Leydolph (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Prof. Sérgio Cirelli Angulo (USP – Brazil)
Prof. Vanderley Moacyr John (USP – Brazil)
Scientific Committee
Co-Chairs:
Prof. Sergio Cirelli Angulo (USP – Brazil)
Dipl.-Ing. Mirko Landmann (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Members:
Dr. Ana Cristina Freire (LNEC – Portugal)
Prof. Anette Müller (IAB Weimar gGmbH – Germany)
Dr. António Roque (LNEC – Portugal)
Prof. Enric Vázquez Ramonich (UPC – Spain)
Prof. Carina Ulsen (USP – Brazil)
Dr. Yury Villagrán Zaccardi (VITO – Belgium)
Dr. Isabel Martins (LNEC – Portugal)
Dr. Maria do Rosário Veiga (LNEC – Portugal)
Dr. Manuel Gomes Vieira (LNEC – Portugal)
Prof. Jorge De Brito (IST – Portugal)
Prof. Sérgio Cirelli Angulo (USP – Brazil)
Prof. Vanderley Moacyr John (USP – Brazil)
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dietmar Stephan (TU Berlin – Germany)
Prof. Dr. Adriane Ruff (Hochschule Nordhausen – Germany)
Prof. Luc Courard (University of Liège – Belgium)
Prof. Jiabin Li (KULeuven – Belgium)
Prof. Jean-Michel Torrenti (University Gustave Eiffel – France)
Dr. Claudio Zega (LEMIT – Argentina)
Prof. Francesca Tittarelli (Marche Polytechnic University – Italy)
Prof. Zengfeng Zhao (Tongji University – China)
Prof. Tung-Chai Ling (Hunan University – China)
Prof. Jianzhuang Xiao (Tongji University – China)
Dr. Maria Eva Sosa (National University of Technology – Argentina)
Prof. Miren Etxeberría (BarcelonaTech – Spain)
Prof. Carlos Thomas (University of Cantabria – Spain)
Prof. César Medina (University of Extremadura – Spain)
Prof. Francesco di Maio (Delft University of Technology – Netherlands)
Prof. Takafumi Noguchi (The University of Tokyo – Japan)
Dr. Julien Hubert (University of Liège – Belgium)
Ir. Jeroen Vrijders (Buildwise – Belgium)
About the Venue and Organiser
The event will take place in Weimar (Germany), at the Leonardo Hotel and at the IAB Weimar gGmbH. A simultaneous transmission as a videoconference is not planned.
Institutional: Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research
For more than 30 years, the IAB – Institut für Angewandte Bauforschung Weimar gGmbH (Weimar Institute of Applied Construction Research – a non-profit organisation) – has been demonstrating its high-profile expertise and strong ability to innovate. With more than 100 employees, we support our customers and partners by conducting research and development and providing services that cater to practical requirements in the industry. To retain your competitive edge in the long term, we can join forces with you to develop new products, technologies, and processes. Get first-hand information about our range of services and our interdisciplinary approach – and benefit from our scientific expertise and hands-on experience.