ZOAK: Circular Vowels

Start up TileSystems has developed the ZOAK clinker (Very Open Waste Ceramics) together with a number of partners. This clinker ensures that rainwater is retained where it falls and is discharged directly to the ground.
Public squares and streets will not be inconvenienced by the excess rainwater as a result of extreme downpours. The ZOAK vowel has a positive effect on the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI). Tests by the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences show that the retained rainwater evaporates due to heat and cools the clinker. The ZOAK clinker  was declared a sewerage innovation of 2020 during the RIONEDdag.
The ZOAK clinker is made from ceramic (residual) waste. It is a clinker with an open structure that is wear-resistant, colourfast and harder than concrete. Due to the open structure, the ZOAK clinker is permeable to water and at the same time also acts as a sponge. Part of the rainwater is buffered in the clinker (sponge) and part is released to the subsoil. The water permeability of the clinker helps against drying and subsidence of the soil and stimulates the growth of plants and trees. Street eddies and rainwater sewers are also less burdened.
Various tests by the Technical Centre for the Ceramic Industry Foundation (TCKI) and KIWA have now shown that the system allows water to pass through optimally. The ZOAK clinker has also passed various tests for European standards, and has since been applied in practice, such as a pilot set-up on the WaterStraat of TU Delft and a Fieldlab in Grubbenvorst (Limburg).

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