Title: Recycling of lead crystal glass sludge to produce foam glass

Authors: Hussein ElKersh; Salah El-Haggar

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Department, The American University in Cairo AUC, AUC Avenue, New Cairo 11835, Egypt ' Mechanical Engineering Department, The American University in Cairo AUC, AUC Avenue, New Cairo 11835, Egypt

Abstract: The grinding and polishing sludge of lead crystal glass was used in this study to produce foam glass with properties comparable to those of commercial foam glass. The sludge was determined to be hazardous waste, while the produced foam glass was completely safe in terms of lead leaching. The properties of the foam glass were investigated for the effect of sintering temperature, holding time, as well as the amount of silicon carbide and granite additives. The properties studied included: foam glass bulk density, compressive strength and thermal conductivity. The conclusion was that 750°C and 30 minutes are the most suitable sintering temperature and holding time, resulting in foam glass with bulk density of 0.485 g/cm3, porosity of 84.6%, compressive strength of 2.21 MPa and thermal conductivity of 0.051 W/m.K. The addition of silicon carbide significantly decreased the foam glass bulk density and thermal conductivity, while the addition of granite significantly increased its compressive strength.

Keywords: foam glass; lead crystal glass sludge; hazardous waste; compressive strength; bulk density; recycling; grinding sludge; polishing sludge; lead leaching; sintering temperature; holding time; silicon carbide; SiC additives; granite additives; thermal conductivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2015.073089

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2015 Vol.18 No.5/6, pp.448 - 464

Received: 08 Aug 2014
Accepted: 16 Jul 2015

Published online: 16 Nov 2015 *

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