Belgian ceramics and brick manufacturer with industrial expertise in waste heat recovery and mining waste valorization for sustainable building materials.
Wienerberger NV is the Belgian subsidiary of one of Europe's largest clay-based building materials manufacturers, producing bricks, ceramic blocks, and roofing tiles at industrial scale. Their H2020 participation reflects two pressing operational challenges for ceramic manufacturers: recovering the large amounts of waste heat generated by industrial drying kilns, and sourcing sustainable secondary raw materials — including mining tailings — for use in ceramic and inorganic polymer products. In research consortia they act as an industrial end-user and validation partner, contributing real manufacturing process constraints and scale-up expertise rather than basic research capability.
Participated as third party in DryFiciency (2016–2021), which developed industrial heat pump systems using HFO-1336mzz-z and R718 refrigerants for high-temperature waste heat recovery directly applicable to brick and ceramic kiln drying.
Both DryFiciency and SULTAN intersect with core ceramic manufacturing — thermal drying in the former, and sourcing secondary minerals, inorganic polymers, and SCMs as ceramic inputs in the latter.
As a full participant in SULTAN (2018–2022), Wienerberger engaged with hydrometallurgy, biometallurgy, and solvometallurgy routes for reprocessing sulfidic mining tailings into mineral inputs usable in ceramics.
SULTAN keywords include SCMs and inorganic polymers, indicating Wienerberger's interest in incorporating processed mining waste as low-carbon binders or fillers in next-generation building products.
In their early H2020 phase (2016–2018), Wienerberger's focus was firmly on internal energy efficiency — specifically high-temperature industrial heat pumps, mechanical vapour recompression, and next-generation refrigerants for drying operations in their own manufacturing plants. By 2018–2022 the focus shifted upstream toward raw material sustainability: mining waste valorization, geometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and the chemistry of ceramics derived from secondary mineral streams. This trajectory tracks a broader industry transition from operational energy savings toward circular economy and sustainable sourcing of mineral inputs.
Wienerberger appears to be moving from internal energy efficiency improvements toward sustainable and circular raw material sourcing, making them a relevant industrial partner for projects on secondary minerals, low-carbon ceramics, or construction material circularity.
Wienerberger has not led any H2020 projects as coordinator, preferring to join large consortia as an industrial partner or third party — a pattern typical of manufacturers who want access to research outputs without bearing full project management responsibility. Their engagement across two separate projects with 34 distinct partners in 10 countries suggests broad participation across the European research network rather than concentration on a fixed circle of repeat partners. Working with them likely means gaining access to industrial validation capacity and end-user process knowledge in exchange for sharing research results.
Wienerberger NV has engaged with 34 unique consortium partners across 10 countries through just two projects, indicating active participation in large, multinational European consortia spanning research institutions, universities, and industrial partners in energy and raw materials processing. Their network is broad rather than deep, reflecting a strategy of maximising research exposure across diverse teams.
Wienerberger NV is one of the few large industrial building materials manufacturers in Belgium with direct H2020 participation, giving it credibility as a real industrial end-user in EU research consortia — not a proxy or consultancy. Unlike universities or research institutes, they bring operational brick kilns, large-scale drying processes, and commercial-grade ceramics manufacturing as genuine test environments. For consortium builders, this means access to real industrial validation conditions and a credible route to market demonstration that strengthens proposal competitiveness.
