The utilization of coffee waste into fired clay brick

The rapid growth of coffee industry is accompanied by a staggering increase in the amount of agriculture waste produced. In coffee producing countries, coffee wastes constitute a source of severe contamination and a serious environmental problem. In this study, the investigation on the possibility to utilize the coffee waste (CW) incorporated into the fired clay brick was carried out. The main purpose of this study is to determine the physical, mechanical properties and leach ability test of bricks incorporated with different percentages of CW. In this methodology, control brick (CB) and three different percentages of coffee waste brick (CWB) (1%, 3% and 5%) were manufactured and fired at 1050 °C. Physical and mechanical properties including shrinkage, density and compressive strength were reported and discussed. Additionally, leaching of heavy metals from manufactured clay brick was tested by using Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP). The results reported that with the incorporation of CW, the shrinkage increased linearly but still comply with minimum standard below 8% and good quality of brick was manufactured. Meanwhile, the results showed that density value decreased up to 30% from the normal brick with increased percentages of CW. The decreased compressive strength value of all the manufactured brick is still complies with minimum standard. On the other hand, heavy metals concentration leach out from different percentages of coffee waste brick is not exceeding the limit of 5 mg/L allowed by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). As a conclusion, the incorporation of CW into fired clay brick gives some advantages to the brick properties and also provides alternative solution on disposing the CW. In addition, the CW could also be a potential of low cost waste additive for the production of a brick

Properties and environmental impact of recycling cigarette butts (CBs) in fired clay brick

Brick is one of the man-made building materials that have been used since the early human civilization. Due to the attractive appearance, strength and durability, it often used for construction, civil engineering works and landscape design. This study is focused on the effects of incorporating cigarette butts (CBs) into fired clay brick. The investigation includes characterization, optimum percentage of CBs incorporated, physical and mechanical properties, leachability and indoor air quality. Therefore, clay soil samples obtained from Hoe Guan Brick Sdn Bhd were used as control in this research while 2.5% and 5.0% by weight of CBs were incorporated into the clay bricks for subsequent experiments. Different heating rates were used during the firing processes which are 1 C/min respectively. All samples were fired at 1050 o o C/min, 3 o C/min and 5 C. The results suggested that the heating rates of 1 o o C/min with 2.5% CBs are adequate to achieve optimum properties. The results also indicated that the maximum compressive strength of fired clay brick was obtained with 2.5% CBs of fired clay brick at 1 C/min heating rate compared to others. The density becomes lightweight by 16% to 21% compared to conventional bricks as the percentage of CBs increased. The thermal conductivity of the bricks also improved from 24.6% to 46.1% with the increasing of CBs. In addition, leachability results indicated that the leaching of heavy metals were below the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Environmental Protection Agency Victoria (EPAV) regulations. Finally, laboratory testing for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) revealed that CB Brick complied with the Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality (ICOP-IAQ)

Physical, mechanical and environmental properties of fired clay bricks incorporated with palm oil mill waste

The growth of the oil palm industry in Malaysia has generated a significant amount of palm oil mill waste (POMW) causing waste disposal problems. Due to operational challenges and expensive operational cost, POMW is potentially incorporated into fired clay brick owing to high lignocellulosic characteristics. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the physical, mechanical and environmental properties of POMW such as palm kernel shell (PKS), palm oil fuel ash (POFA), palm fibre (PF) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as a replacement material for brick making. In this study, bricks were manufactured with 0, 1, 5 and 10% of POMW and fired at 1050°C (heating rates at 1, 3 and 5°C/min). The results showed that bricks with 5% of POMW and fired at 1°C/min are significant to reach equilibrium between positive (decrease of weight and increase of porosity) and negative (increase of water absorption and decrease of mechanical resistance) effects. The leaching of Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure (SPLP) tests revealed that all bricks complied with the United States of Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) regulation due to the effectiveness of thermal treatment encapsulated heavy metals within the brick matrix by forming lead ferrite, chromia, gahnite and jacobsite. Meanwhile, the incorporation 5% of POMW (1°C/min) into fired clay brick positively contribute to the energy saving from 5.5% to 13.4% due to the embodied energy stored in POMW released during the firing process and thus generates secondary heat input to the furnace. In the meantime, the estimated total emission (ETE) revealed that higher heating rates significantly emit lower gases during firing period. However, lower heating rate (1°C/min) should be considered to attain excellent properties of brick. As a conclusion, incorporation 5% of POMW (1°C/min) is capable of improving better physical and mechanical properties, complies with the environmental standard as well as providing an alternative new disposal method for the wastes as one of the green technology in construction industry as stated in the Government’s Eleven Malaysia Plan (RMK-11)

Marine debris composition in Batu Pahat, Johor: a comparison between Sungai Lurus and Minyak Beku beaches

The increment of population growth and rapid economic development near the beaches area enhance the generation of marine debris annually thus has become an environmental concern. In BatuPahat, Johor, determination ofmarine debris compositions on the beach provide a preliminary caution on the level of contamination and also enable to identify the most abundant waste. For this study, a comparison between two beaches namely Sungai Lurus and Minyak Beku in Batu Pahat district and located in the same coastline, were carried out. The composition, density and moisture content of the marine debris collected were determined The results demonstrated that plastic waste was the most abundant item at 80% of the total amount of debris and represents 54% by weight of marine debris composition in Sungai Lurus beach. Meanwhile, glass waste predominates at 60% with 39% by weight of marine debris composition at MinyakBeku beach. The moisture content of debris composition at Minyak Beku beach represents up to 12.61% compared to 8.68% at Sungai Lurus beach. High density of debris composition was obtained at Minyak Beku beach with 94.56kg/m followed by 66.15kg/m3 at Sungai Lurus beach. As a conclusion, the economic activities and solid waste management along the beaches highly influence the amount of marine debris composition at Sungai Lurus and Minyak Beku beaches. Due to the number of marine debris that is still littered along the beaches has indicated that environmental concerns among Malaysian are still low

MARINE DEBRIS COMPOSITION IN BATUPAHAT, JOHOR: A COMPARISON BETWEEN SUNGAI LURUS AND MINYAKBEKU BEACHES

ABSTRACT The increment of population growth and rapid economic development near the beaches area enhance the generation of marine debris annually thus has become an environmental concern. In BatuPahat, Johor, determination of marine debris compositions on the beach provide a preliminary caution on the level of contamination and also enable to identify the most abundant waste. For this study, a comparison between two beaches namely Sungai Lurus and Minyak Beku in Batu Pahat district and located in the same coastline, were carried out. The composition, density and moisture content of the marine debris collected were determined The results demonstrated that plastic waste was the most abundant item at 80% of the total amount of debris and represents 54% by weight of marine debris composition in Sungai Lurus beach. Meanwhile, glass waste predominates at 60% with 39% by weight of marine debris composition at MinyakBeku beach. The moisture content of debris composition at Minyak Beku beach represents up to 12.61% compared to 8.68% at Sungai Lurus beach. High density of debris composition was obtained at Minyak Beku beach with 94.56kg/m 3 followed by 66.15kg/m 3 at Sungai Lurus beach. As a conclusion, the economic activities and solid waste management along the beaches highly influence the amount of marine debris composition at Sungai Lurus and Minyak Beku beaches. Due to the number of marine debris that is still littered along the beaches has indicated that environmental concerns among Malaysian are still low

Restaurant wastewater treatment technologies and potential of biofringe fibre

Restaurant industries are one of the pollution sources in the environment, due to the huge quantities of wastewater that was discharged into the public sewers and drains. However, the discharge of this untreated restaurant wastewater into the environment is considered one of the main issues. Nevertheless, other methods can be employed to safely discharge this contaminated wastewater into the environment

Study on the Carbon Footprint Reduction Through Recycling Activities in UTHM: Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic

Recycling is an excellent method to manage institutional solid waste and reduce the environmental carbon footprint. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented chaos and affected recycling activities in UTHM. Therefore, the trend of carbon reduction through recycling activities in UTHM was determined to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trend of carbon reduction. The data was collected from the recycling center in UTHM and the carbon reduction was further calculated to compare the difference before and after the pandemic outbreak. The weight of paper products collected was the highest, accounting for more than 75%, while the weight of aluminium collected was the lowest, accounting for less than 1%. Furthermore, it was found that the trend of carbon reduction increased steadily in 2019. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the trend to plunge and approach zero in March 2020. Nevertheless, once the COVID-19 pandemic was under control, the carbon reduction trend improved and peaked again in 2021. In addition, paper products achieved the highest of the total carbon reduction at 5143.072 tCO2e while aluminium was the lowest at 0.357 tCO2e. The highest total carbon reduction was achieved in 2019 with 1980.168 tCO2e while the lowest was recorded in 2020 with 1220.932 tCO2e. As a result, the Covid-19 Pandemic had a significant impact on the recycling rate in UTHM, which resulted in a reduction in the total amount of carbon reduction.&nbsp

Configuration of Physical and Mechanical Characteristics of Fly Ash and Bottom Ash Replacement in Self-compacting Concrete (SCC)

Generally, fly ash (FA) and bottom ash (BA) are produced by the process of combustion in coal-fired power plants that considered as waste which includes heavy metals in its composition. Moreover, these metals are harmful to both the atmosphere and human health. Apparently, for these ashes, treatment methods are available, and one of them is the replacement of FA and BA as concrete materials. Therefore, the primary purposed of this paper was to investigate the properties and characteristics of self-compacted concrete (SCC) incorporated with fly ash and bottom ash. SCC was developed with different percentages of FA and BA as a replacement for cement and sand with ratios of 10, 20 and 30% respectively. The properties tested were slump flow and t500 test, sieve segregation, and J-ring test for physical characteristic. Next, density, compressive power, and water absorption were examined to determine its mechanical characteristic. The results revealed that both physical and mechanical characteristics with 20% of FA and BA in SCC were suitable to be defined as SCC. A comparable set of data in compressive strength were observed, and densities have been established as standard weight concrete. In conclusion, this research demonstrates that FA and BA material are possibly be used as a new material for concrete production

The Effect on Leachability and Indoor Air Quality by Incorporating Waste Material into Fired Clay Brick

Abstract. Recently waste material pollution is a critical issue in every developing country. The factors such as increasing of growing population, daily and industrial activities will lead to these phenomena. These issues give an idea to use waste as a construction material that will give minimum impact towards the environment. Many researchers have been studied on waste material such as organic waste, sludge, fly ash, rice husk and processed waste tea into fired clay brick. In this study, the investigate on the incorporating of cigarette butts (CBs) was conducted. During this study, different percentages of CBs (0%, 2.5% and 5.0%) were added into fired clay brick. Meanwhile, different heating rates were applied during the firing stage, which are 1°C/min, 3°C/min and 5°C/min respectively. All samples were fired up to 1050°C. Leaching tests were carried out to investigate the possibility of heavy metals leached from the manufactured brick. The results demonstrated that, in terms of physical and mechanical properties, CB Brick (2.5%) at 1°C/min improved the most and leached low heavy metals. For IAQ test, CB Brick (2.5%) fired at 1°C/min is acceptable to be used as building materials since it complied with ICOP-IAQ

Properties and environmental impact of the mosaic sludge incorporated into fired clay bricks

This paper presents fundamental information on the utlization of mosaic sludge waste from industrial mosaic activities into building materials. The study greatly benefits solid waste management and industries that produce waste with high heavy metal concentration by providing insights on ways to dispose waste by minimizing heavy metal leaching potential whilst providing a new formulation of low-cost and environmentally friendly building materials. Therefore, an alternative disposal method is to incorporate mosaic waste such as bodymill sludge (BS) and polishing sludge (PS) into fired clay brick. The bricks were incorporated with different percentages (0%, 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% by weight) of sludge waste and fired at 1050 �C (0.7 �C/min heating rates). The optimization results showed that the incorporation of up to 30% of mosaic sludge into fired clay bricks is capable of improving its physical and mechanical properties. Moreover, the incorporation of mosaic sludge waste into clay bricks has a positive effect on firing shrinkage, density and compressive strength. However, a decreased performance was reported for certain aspects. Hence, this study demonstrated that BS and PS can be alternative low-cost and environmentally friendly which can be used to improve the physical and mechanical properties of fired clay bricks