Technological Trends in the Use of Natural Marble Residue in the Cement Portland Production from Prospecting in Patent Documents

The civil construction industry affects the environment mainly due to the high generation of waste and extraction of natural raw materials. However, this industry is also responsible for absorbing a large part of the waste, not only generated by itself, but also those generated in other production cycles. These residues are often reused as an alternative raw material, after some treatment. The use of ornamental stone cutting waste has already been studied by many authors, and it is a technically viable alternative in cement matrix products for civil construction. Thus, this technological prospection work analyzed the technological trends regarding the use of marble waste in cement production, based on the registration of patents in recent years. For this, a search was carried out in the Brazilian Nacional Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) and Dewert Innovation Index (DII) databases, in April 2021, with no period limitation. The main documents were found in the DII database, and the results showed that among the countries that filed a patent on this subject, China is the country with the highest number of filings, with the majority of these filings occurring between 2014 and 2020, suggesting a reflection of the current interest in ways to give an adequate destination to ornamental stone waste.