Preparation and microstructure of green ceramsite made from sewage sludge

Abstract

A pilot study was conducted to produce high performance green ceramsite by using sewage sludge, fly ash and silt. According to the theory of Riley, the proportions of raw materials were chosen to perform the sintering experiments. Thereby, the optimum proportion of sludge, fly ash and silt and sintering parameters were determined. The microstructure of the optimized mixture and the leaching of heavy metal elements were also analyzed. The lab testing results show that sintering parameters have significant impact on the performance of ceramsite. For solid waste ceramsite with high loss of ignition, inadequate pre-burning process lowers the strength and increases the water absorption. Low water absorption can be achieved by the enameled surface and closed pore structure. The high performance green ceramsite has the density grade of 700, water absorption of 6% and compressive strength of 6.6 MPa. The ceramsite is mainly composed of cristobalite and mullite. The leaching of heavy metal elements from the solid waste ceramsite are lower than the limits required by the national standard. This study shows that the utilization of solid waste ceramsite as the light weight aggregate is feasible and safe.