Development of acid resistant bricks using waste materials

Abstract

The disposal of industrial wastes comprises one of the major worldwide environmental problems as these wastes render the environment unfriendly. The growing demand for waste utilization has made solid wastes like materials from granite processing industry, and blast furnace slag to be absorbed into the ceramic composition of bricks. The possibility of reduction of the production costs provides a strong logic for use of this waste. Blast furnace slag is a non-metallic by-product from ironand steel industry which is generated during the conversion ofiron ore or scarp iron to steel, along with coke for fuel. Presence of hazardous elements such as Pb, Cd, Ni and Cr are common in some steel slags which make the slag environmentally harmful. In this work, attempt has been made to develop Acid Resistant Bricks from waste materials i.e. granite saw dust derived during cutting and grinding of granite blocks and blast furnace slag along with clay. The different body formulations have been made in order to study the effect of these three raw materials on the fired properties of the acid resistant bricks. The body made with the variation of raw materials have been fired at three different temperatures and their behaviours with respect to Apparent Porosity, Water Absorption, Bulk Density and Firing Volume Changes as a function of both temperature and granite:slag ratio was studied. It has been observed that the vitrification of the body increased with the increase in granite content. This increase is attributed to the increase in Feldpar content which accompanies the increase of granite.