Recycling of shell by-products as an aggregate for artificial reefs

摘要

Once the meat of a shell fish has been removed, the remaining shell represents 90 % of the weight of the original product and becomes a waste material. The RECIF (Reutilisation de coproduits coquilliers marins en recif artificiels ) EU INTERREG IV A and ERDF co-funded project aims to re-use shell material from the fishing industry as an aggregate in the construction of artificial reefs. The project focuses on 1) the re-use of shellfish waste; reducing waste stored on land and virgin aggregate consumption 2) the development of an innovative marine aggregate 3) advancing understanding of the marine ecosystem at artificial reef immersion sites. During the project the University of Exeter, ESITC and University of Caen will characterise reef building materials before and after immersion in sea water using QEMSCAN, XRD, SEM and by the basic properties of concrete aggregates. Preliminary project results presented in this paper will focus on characterisation of the raw materials used in the construction of the artificial reef.