Technological Proposals for Recycling Industrial Wastes for Environmental Applications

Extraction of Value-Added Minerals from Various Agricultural, Industrial and Domestic Wastes

Environmental pollution is one of the major concerns throughout the world. The rise of industrialization has increased the generation of waste materials, causing environmental degradation and threat to the health of living beings. To overcome this problem and effectively handle waste materials, proper management skills are required. Waste as a whole is not only waste, but it also holds various valuable materials that can be used again. Such useful materials or elements need to be segregated and recovered using sustainable recovery methods. Agricultural waste, industrial waste, and household waste have the potential to generate different value-added products. More specifically, the industrial waste like fly ash, gypsum waste, and red mud can be used for the recovery of alumina, silica, and zeolites. While agricultural waste like rice husks, sugarcane bagasse, and coconut shells can be used for recovery of silica, calcium, and carbon materials. In addition, domestic waste like incense stick ash and eggshell waste that is rich in calcium can be used for the recovery of calcium-related products. In agricultural, industrial, and domestic sectors, several raw materials are used; therefore, it is of high economic interest to recover valuable minerals and to process them and convert them into merchandisable products. This will not only decrease environmental pollution, it will also provide an environmentally friendly and cost-effective approach for materials synthesis. These value-added materials can be used for medicine, cosmetics, electronics, catalysis, and environmental cleanup.

Characterization and Analysis of the Carbonation Process of a Lime Mortar Obtained from Phosphogypsum Waste

This work addresses the reuse of waste products as a raw material for lime putties, which are one of the components of mortar. 1:3 Lime/sand mortars very similar to conventional construction mortars were prepared using a lime putty obtained from the treatment of phosphogypsum with sodium hydroxide. The physical, rheological and mechanical properties of this phosphogypsum-derived mortar have been studied, as well as the mineralogical composition, microstructure by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and curing process by monitoring carbonation and ultrasonic propagation velocity. Considering the negative influence of sulphates on the hardened material, the behaviour of the material after sulphates precipitation by adding barium sulphate was additionally tested. Carbonation progressed from the outside to the inside of the specimen through the porous system by Liesegang rings patterns for mortars with soluble sulphates, while the carbonation with precipitated sulphates was controlled by diffusion-precipitation. Overall, the negative influence of low-sulphate contents on the mechanical properties of mortars was verified. It must be highlighted the importance of their precipitation to obtain adequate performance.

Environmental Impact of Phosphogypsum-Derived Building Materials

The aim of the present work was to characterize the products obtained from the treatment of phosphogypsum residue by means of two recovery routes, and also to evaluate the concentrations of heavy metals and radionuclides in the materials obtained and their leachates. In this way, it is possible to determine how the most hazardous components of phosphogypsum behave during procedures until their stabilization through CO2 fixation. This study provides an initial estimate of the possibilities of reusing the resulting products from a health and safety risk standpoint and their potential polluting capacity. The phases resulting from the transformations were controlled, and the behaviour of standard mortars manufactured from the resulting paste lime was studied. In all cases, an additional control of the leachate products was performed.

Effect of Molecular Structure of Organic Acids on the Crystal Habit of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O from Phosphogypsum

The organic acid crystal modifiers play an important role in the control of the crystal habit of α-hemihydrate gypsum (α-CaSO4·0.5H2O) from phosphogypsum, but the molecular structure characteristics of crystal modifiers have not been clarified, which makes it difficult to judge whether an organic acid has the ability to regulate the crystal habit of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O directly. In this work, the effect of organic acids with different molecular structures on the crystal habit of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O and its adsorption differences onto the α-CaSO4·0.5H2O surface were explored. The results show that the molecular structure characteristics of crystal modifiers contain two or more carboxylic groups (COOH) that are separated by two methylene or methine groups. Furthermore, organic acids with the regulation ability can adsorb on the surface of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O and change its growth habit. With the increase in the crystal modifier concentration, the α-CaSO4·0.5H2O crystals are shortened in length and enlarged in width, resulting in the decrease in aspect ratio and the increase in compressive strength. Conversely, when the adsorption of ineffective organic acids on the surface of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O was not detected, the α-CaSO4·0.5H2O crystals remained long hexagonal prisms. These results have guiding significance for the screening of novel organic acid crystal modifiers.

Hydration Mechanism and Hardening Property of α-Hemihydrate Phosphogypsum

The hydration and hardening of α-hemihydrate phosphogypsum (HH) prepared in the absence and presence of L-Aspartic acid (L-Asp) were investigated by thermodynamic analysis, measurements of ion concentrations and crystal water content, and morphology observation. In addition, computed tomography (CT) scanning was proposed to analyze the hole characteristic of hardened gypsum in situ. The results show that HH will pass through the unstable region and the stable region of dihydrate gypsum (DH) in turn during the hydration. The hydration of HH follows the dissolution–crystallization principle; the hydration process can be divided into the dissolution stage, dissolution–crystallization stage and equilibrium stage. Compared with the HH prepared without crystal modifier, the hydration process of HH prepared with L-Asp is obviously prolonged, and the morphology of DH changes from needle-like to diamond-shape crystals with an aspect ratio of 1:1. Meanwhile, the defect-specific surface and porosity of hardened gypsum significantly decreases, achieving a more compact, hardened paste with higher compressive strength.