Characterization and Stabilization of Red Mud and Ash—Solid Industrial Waste from Aluminum Industry

Ore processing and metal manufacturing industries generate huge quantity of residual wastes. Emphasis has been laid on the residual products of aluminum industries, e.g., red mud. The industry utilizes bauxite as raw material to extract aluminum out of it. Extraction of aluminum being power intensive, all the aluminum industries have captive power plants which generate huge quantity of ash as waste product in addition to red mud which comes out through the process of alumina (Al₂O₃) extraction. In the absence of any effective technology that can utilize red mud, industries have to incur heavy expenses in terms of land and space for storing red mud resulting in increased cost of aluminum production. Such a situation calls for an effective, economic and environment-friendly method to combat the challenges of disposal of the waste produced by such industries. One of the most common and feasible ways to utilize red mud in bulk is to utilize the wastes for civil construction, e.g., construction of embankments, roads, etc., utilizing the waste material. This paper aims at characterization of the waste material, i.e., red mud and ash through laboratory experiments. Analyzing the various aspects of their geotechnical parameter attempt has been made to characterize the mix of ash and red mud as well as cement and red mud. Result obtained through laboratory experiments has been discussed.