Houses built with earth bricks and olive residue can take up to three times longer to heat, utilize leftovers from the olive oil industry, and bring energy savings.

Written by Flavia Marinho

Published on 30/05/2026 at 15:02

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Bricks made with olive pomace delay heat entry, increase thermal comfort, and transform olive oil production waste into sustainable building material

What remains after the olive oil can become a wall against heat, offering a practical solution for houses in hot regions. The addition of olive pomace in earthen bricks increases the thermal delay, causing the walls to take longer to heat up. This technique combines comfort, energy savings, and the use of waste that was previously discarded.

Besides reducing the internal heat, the use of bricks with olive residue is part of a circular economy logic, where by-products of the food industry gain new utility, avoiding waste and environmental impact. The result is a more sustainable and efficient construction, especially in hot and dry climates.

What is olive pomace

The olive pomace is the residue left after the extraction of olive oil, consisting of pulp, crushed pit, and fruit fibers. This material is abundant in producing regions and, without reuse, represents an environmental challenge due to the volume generated and odors released.

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How it enters the earthen bricks

The production involves mixing raw soil with up to forty percent olive pomace before molding and drying the blocks. This composition creates small internal voids, which act as natural insulation, increasing the time it takes for the wall to heat up.

The information was published by Construction and Building Materials, a scientific journal specializing in construction materials, which detailed the thermal performance of bricks with residue. The study shows that walls with olive pomace can be up to three times slower in transmitting heat, ensuring more comfort inside residences.

Why Thermal Lag Matters in Hot Houses

Thermal lag determines how long it takes for a wall to transmit heat from outside to inside. In houses with high sun exposure, bricks with plant fibers keep the indoor environment cooler during critical hours of the day, reducing the use of fans or air conditioning.

O atraso térmico determina quanto tempo uma parede leva para transmitir calor de fora para dentro. — **Thermal lag** determines how long it takes for a wall to transmit heat from outside to inside.

This effect increases daily comfort and reduces electricity consumption. For residents of hot regions, thermal gain means less spending on cooling and greater energy efficiency.

Limits of Humidity, Resistance, and Standards

Despite the thermal advantages, bricks with high bagasse content may have lower mechanical resistance than traditional blocks. Technical standards require minimum parameters of durability and stability to ensure safety.

tijolos com alto teor de bagaço podem apresentar resistência mecânica menor que blocos tradicionais. — Bricks with high bagasse content may have **lower mechanical resistance** than traditional blocks.

Moisture problems can also occur if the block is not well protected from water. The information was published by Construction and Building Materials, a scientific journal specializing in construction materials, reinforcing that it is possible to balance thermal efficiency and safety with proper planning.

The use of earth bricks with olive residue represents a practical and sustainable solution, integrating comfort, economy, and reuse of agricultural waste.

Do you believe that houses built with food waste can become standard in hot regions of Brazil? Share your opinion in the comments.

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Houses built with earth bricks and olive residue can take up to three times longer to heat, utilize leftovers from the olive oil industry, and bring energy savings.

Bricks made with olive pomace delay heat entry, increase thermal comfort, and transform olive oil production waste into sustainable building material

What is olive pomace

How it enters the earthen bricks

Why Thermal Lag Matters in Hot Houses

Limits of Humidity, Resistance, and Standards

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Houses built with earth bricks and olive residue can take up to three times longer to heat, utilize leftovers from the olive oil industry, and bring energy savings.

Bricks made with olive pomace delay heat entry, increase thermal comfort, and transform olive oil production waste into sustainable building material

What is olive pomace

How it enters the earthen bricks

Why Thermal Lag Matters in Hot Houses

Limits of Humidity, Resistance, and Standards

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

They planted a sea of eucalyptus to produce cellulose, but the monoculture turned into a green desert, dried up springs and rivers, and pushed families out of regions in Minas Gerais and Bahia.

Júlia Pimentel, an 11-year-old from Minas Gerais, independently invented a new formula to calculate the square root using simple addition and multiplication, and her method was published in one of the most important mathematical scientific journals in Brazil.

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