AN OVERVIEW OF WASTES RECYCLING IN FIRED CLAY BRICKS

Brick is one of the most common masonry units as a building material due to its properties.  Many attempts have been made to incorporate wastes into the production of bricks, for examples, rubber, limestone dust, wood sawdust, processed waste tea, fly ash, polystyrene and sludge.  Recycling such wastes by incorporating them into building materials is a practical solution for pollution problem.  This paper reviews the recycling of different wastes into fired clay bricks. A wide range of successfully recycled materials and their effects on the physical and mechanical properties of bricks have been discussed.  Most manufactured bricks with different types of waste have shown positive effects on the properties of fired clay bricks

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

Landfill leachate treatment performance in subsurface flow constructed wetlands using safety flow system

The increasing application of constructed wetlands for leachate treatment is an ever-growing incentive for the development of better process design tools. This study was conducted to investigate leachate treatment performance of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (HSSFCW) installed with water dispersal system, called Safety Flow® to produce a defined subsurface wetting pattern along the line and length of the system. A pilot scale HSSFCW with three parallel reactors was set up with dimensions of 2.45 m length x 0.20 m width x 0.40 m depth. All reactors were dosed using pre-treatment leachate effluent from sanitary landfill, lohor Bahru. Out of the three reactors, Reactors A and C were planted with I11yp/za angustifolia, whilst Reactor B was not planted and used as a control. In addition, Reactor C was installed with water dispersal system. The performance of constructed wetlands system was evaluated from the effluent quality. The main parameters were organics matter (biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), nutrients (ammonical nitrogen (NH4-N), nitrate (N03-N), phosphorus (P), and heavy metals (chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd). Based on the observation, Reactor C was found better than both Reactors A and B. Reactor C had removed more than 70% of BOD and COD, up to 80% of NH4-N and P and at least 90% of heavy metals

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

An Overview of Sludge Utilization into Fired Clay Brick

Brick is one of the most common masonry units used as building material. Due to the demand, different types of waste have been investigated to be incorporated into the bricks. Many types of sludge have been incorporated in fired clay brick for example marble sludge, stone sludge, water sludge, sewage sludge, and ceramic sludge. The utilization of these waste materials in fired clay bricks usually has positive effects on the properties such as lightweight bricks with improved shrinkage, porosity, and strength. This paper reviews on utilization of different types of sludge wastes into fired clay bricks. Previous investigations have demonstrated positive effects on the physical and mechanical properties as well as less impact towards the environment. Thus, the utilizations of sludge waste could produce a good quality of brick and could be one of alternative disposal methods for the sludge wastes

An Overview of Sludge Utilization into Fired Clay Brick

Brick is one of the most common masonry units used as building material. Due to the demand, different types of waste have been investigated to be incorporated into the bricks. Many types of sludge have been incorporated in fired clay brick for example marble sludge, stone sludge, water sludge, sewage sludge, and ceramic sludge. The utilization of these waste materials in fired clay bricks usually has positive effects on the properties such as lightweight bricks with improved shrinkage, porosity, and strength. This paper reviews on utilization of different types of sludge wastes into fired clay bricks. Previous investigations have demonstrated positive effects on the physical and mechanical properties as well as less impact towards the environment. Thus, the utilizations of sludge waste could produce a good quality of brick and could be one of alternative disposal methods for the sludge wastes

Study on Ferum (Fe) and Zinc (Zn) removal by using rice bran at Sungai Pelepah, Kota Tinggi, Johor

Water pollution due to heavy metals is currently occurring at Sungai Pelepah, Kota Tinggi. Adsorption method is one of the most low cost effective methods to overcome this pollution problem compared to the other available methods for example, duckweed, orange peels, tea leaves, coconut shell and many more in heavy metals removal. In this study, rice bran was used as a low cost adsorbent. Rice bran is the outer layer of a grain of rice. Rice bran is an agricultural waste material generated in rice producing during milling process. It is an economical product and could easily to be obtained. Therefore, three objectives were selected for this study which is to determine the possibility of using rice bran as an adsorbent in heavy metals removal, to determine the characteristics of rice bran as an adsorbent and to identi@ the water quality of Sungai Pelepah after the treatment. The water samples were collected at Sungai Pelepah and the rice bran was collected at rice-milling factory. Three batch reactors consist of Reactor A (water sample with common activated carbon as adsorbent), Reactor B (water sample with rice bran as adsorbent) and Reactor C (conk01 reactor). The batch reactors were conducted in the environmental laboratory, UTHM. As expected that rice bran could remove the heavy metals fiom the water sample as well as other adsorbents. The largest removal of Zinc (Zn) is 91.1% at 90 minutes and the largest Iron re) removal is 73.0% with duration 90 minutes. As a conclusion, rice bran could be one of the low cost and effective adsorbent to be used in large amount operation of water treatment

Physical and mechanical properties of fired clay bricks incorporated with cigarette butts: comparison between slow and fast heating rates

In general, firing process in brick manufacturing could affect the properties, colours and appearance of the brick. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different heating rates on physical and mechanical properties during the firing of standard bricks and bricks incorporated with cigarette butt (CB). In this investigation, two different heating rates were used: slow heating rate (2ºC min-1) and fast heating rate (5ºC min-1). Samples were fired in solid forms from room temperature to 1050ºC. All bricks were tested for their physical and mechanical properties including compressive strength, initial rate of absorption and density. Higher heating rates decrease compressive strength value but slightly increase the initial rate of absorption and density properties respectively. In conclusion, higher heating rates are able to produce adequate physical and mechanical properties especially for CB Brick

The utilisation of Activated Carbon (AC) from palm shell waste to treat textile wastewater

Heavy metals are widely used in textile industries and significant losses occur during the manufacturing and processing of textiles, and these lost heavy metals are eventually discharged in the effluent. Activated carbon (AC) is preferred adsorbent for removal of pollutants from aqueous and liquid phase. In this study, adsorbent fiom palm kernel shell (PSAC), an agricultural waste product were used to remove selected heavy metals which are copper, iron and zinc from textile wastewater. To investigate the effectiveness of palm shell activated carbon in removing heavy metals in textile wastewater, three reactors have been used for textile wastewater treatment. Reactor A treats textile wastewater using commercial activated carbon (F'AC), Reactor B treats textile wastewater using activated carbon from palm shell (PSAC), while Reactor C acts as a control. The three reactors were tested against time with textile wastewater samples taken hm a textile factory, RAMATEX Industries. The effectiveness of both activated carbon was obtained from the quality of effluent. The laboratory assay revealed that Reactor B was found to be better than Reactor A in removing all selected parameters. Reactor B had achieved 17.2% copper removal, 99% iron removal, and 50% zinc removal thus proving its ability to adsorb heavy metals more economically. Therefore it is concluded that PSAC have a potential to be an alternative low cost adsorbent to replace the conventional AC by optimizing the activation procedures, considering the contaminants to be removed

Utilization of palm oil waste into fired clay brick

Malaysia is one of the largest palm oil producers, contributing approximately 50% of the world palm oil production. In the process of palm oil extraction, biomass materials such as Palm Fibre (PF), Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) and Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) are produced annually and increasingly becoming a threat to the environment. This study investigated the utilization of three types of palm oil waste (POW) into fired clay bricks. The effects of POW incorporation on the properties of bricks were determined. Bricks were manufactured by incorporating 3% of different types of POW (PKS, POFA and PF) and fired at 1050°C with a heating rate of 1°C/min. All bricks were tested for their physical and mechanical properties including drying and firing shrinkage, dry density, initial rate of suction, compressive strength and thermal conductivity. In addition, energy efficiency of the brick firing process was also calculated from its calorific value. All three types of POW decreased the manufactured bricks’ compressive strength but increased their dry shrinkage and initial rate of suction (IRS) as a result of increased porosity value. Nonetheless, the incorporation of POW into a clay brick has improved its thermal conductivity properties and energy efficiency during manufacturing. In conclusion, POWs can be considered for producing lightweight fired clay bricks as they could act as pore formers to improve the thermal properties and energy efficiency in brick firing process