Own Contributions for Producing Porous Building Materials Under Economic and Environmentally Friendly Conditions: A Review

The paper reviews the main modern techniques for producing porous building materials exhibited in the literature and the contribution of the Romanian authors’ team of the current paper to their experimental development. The review refers to important methods applied in recent decades in the world that have greatly influenced the adoption of more cost-effective and much more environmentally friendly procedures. Innovative techniques were applied in cellular glass production by high temperature sintering-foaming, the most important being microwave use for high-energy efficient heating processes. Also, other technological improvements were tested. Cold preparing cellular glass by using aluminum powder as pore-providing agent and Ca(OH)2 activating solution were successfully applied especially in energy terms. Recent innovative method of producing geopolymer concrete from alumina-silicate waste was also in authors’ research attention. Other innovative techniques such as CO2 capture/storage in concrete, ''one-part'' mixing in concrete making, and conversing inert waste into pozzolanic glass were tested with authors’ contributions.