Contribution of Patent Information for Obtaining Mortars with Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) as Recycled Aggregate

Abstract

Civil construction is one of the most important sectors for economic and social development, alternatively, it is a generator of waste that is commonly discarded in an irregular manner causing negative environmental impacts. Seeking knowledge in databases for innovation has become a common practice in most organizations in the development of new products, due to the evolution of information technology. Patent data shows changes in the structure and development of a country's creative activities in technologies, industry, and companies. Analyzing the competitiveness between inventors and companies is feasible as patents contain descriptions of inventions and their functionalities. This study aims to collect patent information on mortars using construction and demolition waste (CDW) as an alternative raw material. We performed the research in an exploratory way with the purpose of defining more viable technological routes, determining the types of materials to be used, and the minimum and maximum percentages of substitution of the natural aggregate for the recycled aggregate. We used the patent databases Google Patents, European Patent Office (EPO) through Epacenet, and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) available on Patentscope. As a result, 70 patent application records were identified according to the search descriptors, with Brazil as the country with the highest number of registrations. A survey of the number of patents deposited, published, office, and/or country was performed following the International Patent Classification. The results have the potential to contribute to the design of improvement strategies when using construction and demolition residues in mortars.