Which standards do Pirrouet® bricks meet?

We provide a water-resistant and scratch-resistant coating on the visible sides of the bricks for sustainably attractive facades without plaster.

Pirrouet® is made from steel slag or residual products from the steel industry: minerals such as calcium and magnesium oxide. These are poured liberally into liquid steel to remove contaminants (metallic fraction) from the steel in order to obtain pure steel. The metallic fraction is then separated from the mineral fraction and used again in the steel factory. The mineral fraction is the residual product that we use to produce our Pirrouet® carbon negative bricks.

During the production of Pirrouet®, CO2 forms a chemical bond with materials containing calcium hydroxide. The result is carbonation. This bond creates limestone-like bricks. The binding of CO2 is therefore permanent and not temporary.

We want to extend the sustainable character of this revolutionary product across the board, so we only colour the top layer (approx. 1 cm). We fully colour the corner bricks – which make up approximately 25% of our production – which means they can be used above windows, for Brazilian bonds, etc.

Our Pirrouet® bricks come with a 10-year warranty.

Depending on the size you choose, you will need the following quantities per m2:

LF50-S (240x72x50): 64 /m2 DF-S (215x72x65): 58/m2 XXL44-S (440x72x44): 42/m2 The above quantities are guideline values and assume the bricks are laid with a joint of 12 mm. If the bricks are glued, you will usually need more bricks per m2.

Processing instructions are available on request.

Pirrouet® bricks have a very high dimensional stability and are therefore perfect for circular processing. A dry stacking system is currently under development. The mortar industry is also working on a special lime mortar, which will make it possible to recover the Pirrouet® bricks. Please contact us for more information.

As this is a completely new product and technology, we are currently working on achieving the KIWA innovation certificate. This certificate will also serve as the basis for an EPD certificate proving sustainability in figures.

The amount of CO2 that we store permanently does not seem huge, but the production of these bricks has very little impact because we dry the bricks rather than fire them. We therefore achieve a permanently CO2-negative product. We will produce 20 million bricks annually. This means we are going to capture and permanently store approximately 2,500 tonnes of CO2, which has a big impact overall. Please also note that wooden facade products release the CO2 again at the end of their service life. This is not the case with our Pirrouet® bricks.

We are currently investigating whether CO2-negative bricks can also be produced as pavers. These require different properties from facing bricks in terms of breaking load, frost/thaw resistance, salt resistance and trip/slip resistance. In addition to developing potentially new, innovative pavers such as CO2-negative paving stones, we are fully committed to producing more sustainable pavers, through dematerialisation and the future use of green hydrogen gas.Brick paving is made from local river clay, a renewable resource which increases natural biodiversity and flood safety when extracted. The lifetime of pavers is an average of 135 years and the reuse rate is almost 90%(!). Because of all this, pavers fit perfectly within the circular economy. Pavers also have a unique aesthetic; they are colourfast and create an unbeatable atmosphere in outdoor spaces. Pavers have been the most circular product for public paving for centuries!