Production of ceramic tiles by using marine sludge additives

Abstract

The harbour sediment accumulated in time in the zmir Bay was investigated by a number of researchers from various aspects. These sediments called marine sludge in this thesis contain organics and heavy metals which pose an important environmental problem. Marine sludge removed from the harbor is required to be safely kept in some form. In this thesis, production of ceramic tiles by using marine sludge additives was investigated. The sludge is regarded as a suitable raw material for ceramic tile production because of its physical properties and chemical composition. After the sludge is removed from the harbor floor, it was subjected to a series of treatments such as washing, sieving, dewatering, drying and grinding. This treated marine sludge was pressed in the form of pellets and sintered in the 1000-1100 °C range. The treated, untreated and sintered marine sludge along with the separated shells present in marine sludge were characterized by a variety of techniques such as XRD, FTIR, and SEM-EDX. Marine sludge powders at different proportions (0-50 %) were blended via incorporation into a structural ceramic tile raw material. The mixtures were compressed, and then pellets were fired at temperatures in the 1000-1200 °C range with one-hour hold with a firing rate of 10 °C/min. The products were characterized for mechanical and microstructural properties. Marine sludge added tiles were observed to have higher compressive strength after firing at 1100 °C. The sludge addition caused a lower firing temperature for densification/vitrification of the pellets with higher pore content. Their densities and water absorption values were determined. The densities and water absorption of the tiles fired at 1100 °C was observed to decrease with increasing sludge addition. Leaching tests were performed by varying the leach solution pH and ground tile particle size for chemical durability of the products in the final part of the work. The leaching data have shown that heavy metals were immobilized in the vitrified ceramic structure. The results of this work indicated that blending marine sludge in to the ceramic powder mixtures in the 20-50% range was beneficial for tile production.