リサイクルからリサーキュレーションへ－土の水熱固化体・ソイルセラミックスa)の開発－

抄録

The global environment is now exerting great influence on our life. It is not an overstatement to say that there would be no meaning in developing new materials unless due consideration is given to the load they exert on the global environment. We have been studying a new manufacturing system which is based on both mankind and earth in the coming unavoidable recirculation based society. One of the solutions is to develop the closed manufacturing system which creates the material where input (fossil energy and natural materials) and output (exhaust gases and waste materials) will be reduced to their utmost limits. In this report, as one of the examples of developing the material considered for both mankind and earth, details of the development and its actual results on the application of hydrothermally solidified soil (Earth Ceramics) to a house floor are discussed. This was developed from the research on the closed manufacturing system. Originally, soil has high abilities such as controlling humidity, preserving heat and so on. It is possible to solidify soil by adding slight amount of Ca(OH)2, mixing, forming and then processing under saturated steam pressure at lower than 200 °C where the original ability of soil is maintained. The solidified material has similar strength to that of ordinary cement and its energy consumption for solidification is almost 1/5 to 1/7 of ceramic manufacturing in general. This solidified material has high humidity controlling ability and relatively high heat capacity and it is possible to control a room climate in a sophisticated way without using fossil energy. After one year application to a house, it was clarified that the application of Earth Ceramics can reduce energy in everyday life almost by 25 %.