Recycling of an industrial sludge and marine clay as light-weight aggregates.

The geographical limitations of Singapore, its restricted natural resources and voluminous municipal and industrial waste streams, make environmental management a major challenge for the island state. In an attempt to find ways to reduce importation of raw materials and the waste sent to landfill, light weight aggregates were produced from marine clay and a CaF(2)-rich semiconductor industry sludge. Aggregates were produced in a bench-scale rotary kiln with three clay/sludge loadings (90/10, 70/30 and 50/50%). All three mixtures showed good bloating behavior during firing and the ceramic pellets (1-1.5cm diameter) had densities well below that required for light-weight aggregates. In the initial tests, the pore sizes of the aggregates were in general too large resulting in high water absorption. Comparisons between the composition of the two waste products and the aggregates showed a significant loss of fluorine (40-60%) during processing; a problem which may require flue gas treatment. Leach testing showed that the formed aggregates would not pose a human or environmental hazard in terms of fluorine mobilization.

The production of synthetic aggregate from a quarry waste using an innovative style rotary kiln.

The large volumes of wastes generated by industrialised society has led to efforts to find practical uses for these wastes, whilst also offsetting the consumption of natural resources. This paper describes the use of an innovative rotary kiln to produce synthetic aggregates from a variety of waste streams. The main waste used was a quarry fines which was blended with either paper sludge, clay, or a dredged harbour sediment. The different combinations were extruded and fired in the kiln to produce a material suitable for natural aggregate replacement. Two of the synthetic aggregates produced were tested by incorporation in to concrete as coarse aggregate replacement. The concrete 28-day compressive strengths achieved were above 40 N mm(-2) and compared favourably with control concretes made with natural aggregates and a commercially available lightweight aggregate (Lytag). Leaching tests have also been carried out to assess the potential environmental impact of utilisation. Although not finalised, these tests have also given favourable results.

Leaching behaviour of synthetic aggregates.

In the framework of EU project "Utilising innovative kiln technology to recycle waste into synthetic aggregate" (BRST-CT98-5234), the leaching behaviour of synthetic aggregates has been studied to assess its environmental compatibility in the various stages of its use. Since the conditions are very different for the different uses, the assessment calls for a variety of different leaching conditions. The pH dependence test is used to cover important differences in pH environment to which the materials are exposed to as well as for an assessment of the buffering capacity of the material. Synthetic aggregate features a low buffer capacity, which makes it sensitive to externally imposed pH conditions. Utilisation and storage exposed to acidic conditions needs to be avoided. The results of the pH dependence test and column leaching test are mutually consistent. The CEN TC 154 method appears to provide systematically low values due to the arbitrary selection of test conditions. Synthetic aggregate studied to date will not adversely affect the concrete in its service life. The main issue for aggregate use is the recycling and the "end of life" condition, when the material becomes construction debris. Not metals, but oxyanions, such as Cr VI and Mo are most relevant under these conditions. A concise test has been applied to assess crucial aspects of leaching for different production mixes.

Synthetic aggregates from combustion ashes using an innovative rotary kiln.

This paper describes the use of a number of different combustion ashes to manufacture synthetic aggregates using an innovative rotary 'Trefoil' kiln. Three types of combustion ash were used, namely: incinerated sewage sludge ash (ISSA); municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash (MSWIBA-- referred to here as BA); and pulverised fuel ash (Pfa). The fine waste ash fractions listed above were combined with a binder to create a plastic mix that was capable of being formed into 'green pellets'. These pellets were then fired in a Trefoil kiln to sinter the ashes into hard fused aggregates that were then tested for use as a replacement for the natural coarse aggregate in concrete. Results up to 28 days showed that these synthetic aggregates were capable of producing concretes with compressive strengths ranging from 33 to 51 MPa, equivalent to between 73 and 112% of that of the control concrete made with natural aggregates.