Low temperature upcycling of vitreous byproduct of the MSW plasma processing into multifunctional porous glass-ceramics

Mixtures of glass residues, deriving from the plasma processing of municipal solid waste (\u2018Plasmastone\u2019), and recycled glasses have been already converted into highly porous glass-ceramics by application of an inorganic gel casting technique (foaming, by intensive mechanical stirring, of alkali activated slurries) followed by sintering at 1000\ub0C. The full potential of recycled glass, however, has not been disclosed yet. The present investigation, in fact, demonstrates that boro-alumino-silicate glass, from discarded pharmaceutical vials, may allow for sintering of cellular glass-ceramics at particularly low temperature, i.e. at 800\ub0C. The full stabilisation of heavy metals from Plasmastone (already assessed for treatments at 1000\ub0C) is not compromised, whereas the low processing temperatures favour the separation of magnetite, in turn imparting new functionalities (e.g. electromagnetic shielding) to waste-derived glass-ceramic foams

Case studies of up-cycling of partially crystallized ceramic waste in highly porous glass-ceramics

Highly porous glass-based materials represent a solution for thermal insulation. However, the manufacturing costs still affect their extensive use. The present investigation proposes savings in the production of foams by use of discarded materials, such as polishing residue or vitrified asbestos-containing waste, minimizing additives and processing temperatures. Aqueous suspensions of powders, mixed with soda-lime glass, underwent progressive gelation due to alkali activation. An extensive foaming was determined by mechanical stirring, with the help of a surfactant. Finally, a firing step yielded foams exhibiting excellent strength-to-density ratios, due to densification and control of crystal phases, both supported by the glass addition

Porous glass-ceramics made from microwave vitrified municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash

Global warming and depletion of resources have fueled research towards innovative building materials of low environmental impact and high performance engineering properties. Porous glass-ceramics were synthesized using municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) bottom ash (BA) as a starting material. BA was initially milled and then vitrified, as a purification step, by direct microwave heating, characterized by a high glass yield. Highly porous glass-ceramics were produced by intensive mechanical stirring of vitrified bottom ash (VBA) aqueous suspensions under weak alkali activation (1 M NaOH and 2.5 M NaOH) and sinter-crystallization at 800 \ub0C or 900 \ub0C. The obtained glass ceramics, with up to 70 vol% porosity, exhibited compressive strength well above 1 MPa, being comparable to lightweight construction materials, such as aerated concrete. High relative permittivity was measured for the 10 wt% soda-lime glass doped porous VBA material sintered at 800 \ub0C, paving the way for its use as a potential semiconductor catalyst

New glass-based binders from engineered mixtures of inorganic waste

Aluminum is one of the most important strategic resources, but the Bayer process, typically applied for the purification of ores, leads to vast amounts of alkaline slurry waste, known as red mud. Though interesting for potential reprocessing, red mud is still predominantly stored in big slurry pools, due to high levels of toxic metals. Toxic ions can be easily immobilized by vitrification, but the high costs of this solution need to be balanced by the reuse of the obtained glass. The present paper is dedicated to the transformation of waste-derived glass into new binders for the construction industry, according to both \u201cconventional melting\u201d and \u201csmelting\u201d approaches. In the first case, red mud was included in a mixture of waste, designed to yield a reactive glass (CMG), that is, forming stable gels after activation in an alkaline aqueous solution. In the second approach, red mud was subjected to a thermal treatment in a reductive atmosphere, implying the separation of molten iron alloy. The remaining glassy slag, according to its chemical composition (CaO and Al2O3-rich) underwent gelation by simple interaction with pure water, without any alkaline activator, thus configuring a new \u201cglass cement.\u201d