Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
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Journal of Environmental Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman
Artificial aggregate made from waste stone sludge and waste silt
Fang-Chih Chang a, *, Ming-Yu Lee b, Shang-Lien Lo c, Jyh-Dong Lin d
a
The Instrument Center, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan, ROC
Yien-Gu Co., LTD., Taipei 235, Taiwan, ROC
c
Research Center for Environmental Pollution Prevention and Control Technology, Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, 71 Chou-Shan Road,
Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC
d
Department of Civil Engineering, National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County 32001, Taiwan, ROC
b
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 2 November 2009
Received in revised form
18 May 2010
Accepted 11 June 2010
In this research, waste stone sludge obtained from slab stone processing and waste silt from aggregate
washing plants were recycled to manufacture artificial aggregate. Fine-powdered stone sludge was
mixed with waste silt of larger particle size; vibratory compaction was applied for good water permeability, resulting in a smaller amount of solidifying agent being used. For the densified packing used in
this study, the mix proportion of waste stone sludge to waste silt was 35:50, which produced artificial
aggregate of more compact structure with water absorption rate below 0.1%. In addition, applying
vibratory compaction of 33.3 Hz to the artificial aggregate and curing for 28 days doubled the
compressive strength to above 29.4 MPa. Hence, recycling of waste stone sludge and waste silt for the
production of artificial aggregate not only offers a feasible substitute for sand and stone, but also an
ecological alternative to waste management of sludge and silt.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Slab stone processing sludge
Waste silt
Artificial aggregate
Vibratory compaction
Resource recycling
1. Introduction
Stone slabs with natural lines and lustrous polished finish as
well as properties of hardness and fire resistance, make them ideal
construction materials. They have been widely used for floor and
wall paving in modern architecture. However, in the processing of
construction slabs, which involves cutting, grinding, and polishing,
about 25% of the raw stone will be turned into waste stone sludge.
Containing fine particles of small diameter, the waste stone sludge
has extremely good water permeability of less than 10 7 cm/s and
low dehydration rate. Without treatment or recycling, the waste
stone sludge will cause environmental pollution (Huang, 1998).
Recycling attempts sintering sewage sludge ash into bricks and tiles
have been made (Wiebusch and Seyfried, 1997). However, the many
pores inside the bricks and tiles result in low compressive strength.
Lightweight artificial aggregate has also been produced from sintered sludge (Cheeseman and Virdi, 2005; Tay and Show, 1997;
Wainwright and Cresswell, 2001). The variations in chemical
composition of the waste sludge cause quality control problems,
not to mention the large amount of energy consumed in drying and
sintering. These drawbacks undermine the possibility of commercial recycling of sludge for the production of lightweight aggregate.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ886 2 2362 5373; fax: þ886 2 2392 8830.
E-mail address: d90541003@ntu.edu.tw (F.-C. Chang).
0301-4797/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.06.011
Previous studies have reused sewage sludge ash (SSA) as pozzolanic
material in cement mixing (Paya et al., 1999; Monzo et al., 1999,
2003) and as absorbent for copper removal from wastewater (Pan
et al., 2003). Moreover, a solid absorbent for dry flue desulfurization systems has been developed from waste stone sludge (Lin,
1998), and activated carbon has also been made from sewage
sludge (Chen et al., 2002). Sludge cakes made from dried sludge for
production of cement and concrete (Kikuchi, 2001; Onaka, 2000;
Valls et al., 2004) have poor workability and involve high processing cost, making recycling uneconomical. Despite the abovementioned resource recovery efforts, the amount of sludge
produced from various sources is too large to be reused completely,
thus leading to waste management problems.
Rapid city development with new construction being planned
continuously has increased the demand for aggregate for cement
and concrete production. Natural aggregates are obtained by
mining sand and stone, which are then crushed, washed and sorted.
Waste silt is produced at typical aggregate washing plants at
between 5 and 80 ton per hour depending on plant size and
materials being processed. In general, 10e15% of the raw sand and
stone will become waste silt. It is estimated that 16.5 million tons of
waste silt is generated annually in Taiwan. It is an inert waste that is
typically deposed of in landfills. When dried, the waste silt turns
into dust that pollutes the air, another environmental hazard. Given
the large quantities of waste silt produced coupled with its transport and diminishing landfill space, waste silt disposal is becoming
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F.-C. Chang et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Stone sludge
Sludge from slab stone processing was obtained from a marble
processing factory in Hualien. The sludge was composed mainly of
SiO2 and CaO, which account for 70% of the total weight, and had
a water content of around 32%. Table 1 shows the chemical
composition of the stone sludge oven dried at 105 C, and Fig. 1
displays the particle size distribution (weight percentage) in the
sludge cake. As can be seen, over 75% of the particles had diameter
below 0.044 mm and could pass through an ASTM sieve #325. The
XRD analyses of waste stone sludge are shown in electronic annex
Fig. A1.
2.1.2. Waste silt
Washing and sorting of natural aggregates produce slurry. Slurry
from waste silt was obtained from a sand and gravel processing
plant in Hualien. The precipitated slurry was dried on the sludge
bed (temperature: 40 C, flow speed: 0.1 m/s, and relative
humidity: 50%) for 7 days. The waste silt thus obtained comprised
mainly of SiO2 and CaO, which accounted for 73% of the total weight
as shown in Fig. 1, and contained less than 5% moisture. Particle size
distribution of the waste silt at 150 mm and 300 mm diameter
accounted for 50% and 25%, respectively, hence not much of the
waste silt could go through an ASTM sieve #200. The XRD analyses
of waste silt are shown in electronic annex Fig. A1.
100
90
P er cent p ass in g b y we igh t ( %)
a significant issue. Waste silt from sediments comprises abundant
SiO2 and shows good water permeability. Previous studies showed
that silt can be beneficially reused using geopolymerisation for the
production of aggregates (Lampris et al., 2009). Silt geopolymers
cured at room temperature had average 7-day compressive
strengths of 18.7 MPa. Efforts have been made to reuse waste silt for
soil improvement as well as for producing lightweight artificial
aggregate or concrete. However, the varying chemical composition
of waste silt not only causes problems during production, but also
undermines the quality of the final products (Lee, 2001).
In this study, waste stone sludge obtained from slab stone
processing and waste silt from aggregate washing plants were
recycled to manufacture artificial aggregate. They share similar
chemical properties and have complementary physical characteristics. Fine-powdered stone sludge was mixed with waste silt of
larger particle size. As low water absorption still depends on
densified packing, vibratory compaction was applied, filling the
voids between silt aggregates with waste stone sludge. The structure thus obtained was more densified, thus reducing the amount
of solidifying agent used, lowering the required water-to-cement
ratio, and above all, enhancing the compressive strength achieved.
Waste stone sludge
Waste silt
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.01
0.1
Grain size (mm)
1
Fig. 1. Size distribution of dried sludge cake and waste silt.
2.2. Sample preparation
Waste stone sludge from slab stone processing plants was mixed
with waste silt and solidifying agent (Lee et al., 2008). Solidifying
agents were added in the vibratory mold and the waste was compacted into recycled materials. The study analyzed its compressive
strength and absorption, as well as its resistance to abrasion by use
of the Los Angeles index (an index to distinguish the resistance of
materials to abrasion and grading levels of hardness) under vibration. Taking the operative and economic feasibility of waste recycling into consideration, the proportion of solidifying agents was
controlled at 15% (weight ratio). The ratio of derived stone sludge
ranged within 5e55%, increasing by 10% intervals, while ratios of
waste silt ranged within 80e30%, decreasing by 10% intervals, with
a total of 6 ratios. The materials were thoroughly mixed in a planetary gear driven mixer for 15 min, keeping the water content at
12%. Specific gravity of artificial aggregate was within the range of
2.65e2.73 for the different waste stone sludge and waste silt ratios.
The test samples were prepared as follows: Firstly,
a 5 5 16 cm compaction mold was filled with the thoroughlymixed materials and sealed. The materials were then compacted
with the vibratory compactor at three vibration frequencies, 16.7,
33.3, and 50.0 Hz. The compaction speed was set at 0.15 MPa per
second. After compacting each sample at 9.8, 19.6, 29.4, 39.2, and
49.0 MPa, they were retrieved and immediately enclosed in plastic
wraps to prevent dehydration. The samples were dried in an oven
at constant temperature of 55 C for 24 h and subsequently put
under saturated vapor for 28 days. Then we examined their
compressive strength with a uniaxial compression tester, absorption and resistance to abrasion with the Los Angeles index, and
compaction characteristics with a Metallurgical Microscope.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of stone sludge to waste silt ratio
2.1.3. Solidifying agent
The solidifying agent purchased from Stein Corporation, Japan
contains 92% pozzolanic cement. As shown in Table 1, its chemical
composition is very similar to that of Type I Portland cement.
Table 1
Chemical composition of dried sludge cake, waste silt, and solidifying agent.
Content (%)
SiO2
CaO
Fe2O3
Al2O3
MgO
Others
Dried sludge cake
Waste silt
Solidifying agent
54.7a
60.5
15.2
15.4
13.5
64.8
6.5
3.1
2.3
4.3
8.2
14.4
3.7
1.5
2.5
15.4
13.3
0.8
a
The triplicated and averaged results were presented.
To examine experimental results at different levels of proportions, the content ratio of stone sludge was increased from 5% to
55% while that of waste silt was reduced from 80% to 30%, both at
10% intervals. The uniaxial compaction result shows that the ratio
of sludge to waste silt of 35%:50% under the same compaction
pressure as that of other ratios obtained higher compressive
strength (Electronic annex Fig. A2). That is because stone sludge
filled the gaps in the waste silt. When the stone sludge is insufficient, the gaps in the waste silt packing cannot be filled entirely,
which lowers the compressive strength. On the other hand, when
the amount of sludge is excessive (over 45%), the compacted
packing of waste silt bursts. The stone sludge, and not the waste silt
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F.-C. Chang et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
40
25
Sludge: Waste Silt
45 : 40
Compaction pressure 9.8 MPa
20
30
15
10
Frequency (Hz)
none
16.7
33.3
50.0
5
0
Compressive strength
(Mpa)
Compressive strength
(MPa)
35
25
20
Compaction pressure
15
9.8
19.6
29.4
39.2
49.0
10
5
5:80
15:70
25:60
35:50
45:40
55:30
0
none
Sludge: Waste Silt
Fig. 2. Tendency of ratios and compressive strength under different vibration
frequency.
artificial aggregates, receives the direct force with compacted
packing, which lowers the level of compressive strength.
The coarse powder particles of waste silt have a smaller surface
area than the fine stone sludge particles and demand less solidifying agent than the latter. Under an identical added ratio of
solidifying agents, more waste silt helps to increase the compressive strength. In addition to the added contents of solidifying
agents, the proper ratio is the most significant factor influencing
compressive strength in recycling.
The compressive strengths at different ratios are shown in Fig. 2.
It seems the compressive strengths, regardless of groups, tended to
increase with a rising sludge content; the compressive strength was
the highest at ratio 35:50, while it descended by a small amount
with other ratios. After vibratory compaction, the artificial aggregate packing at each ratio distinctly improved and reached a more
compacted structure with higher compressive strength.
16.7
33.3
Vibration frequency (Hz)
50.0
Fig. 4. Comparison of vibration frequency and compressive strength under different
compaction pressures.
with a total of 20% after 28 days’ curing. It can be inferred that
vibratory compaction has a strong influence on compressive
strength; however, under compaction pressure over 29.4 MPa, each
9.8 MPa increase resulted in compressive strength being increased
less than 10% after curing for 28 days. The experimental results
under condition of no frequency show that compaction pressure
plays a significant role in influencing the compressive strength as
the ultimate compressive strength grew by a large degree with an
increase of compaction pressure (Fig. 4). In contrast, the compressive strength tended to slightly decrease at a compaction pressure
over 29.4 MPa under conditions of frequency. Consequently, the
proper vibration frequency contributes to a lower the compaction
pressure needed for the proper strength.
3.3. Effect of frequency
3.2. Effect of compaction pressure
The samples at each ratio in the experiment were compacted at
different pressures of 9.8, 19.6, 29.4, 39.2, and 49.0 MPa. The larger
the compaction pressure, the more the compacted packing
obtained. After the 28 days interval, with pressure at 49.0 MPa, the
compressive strength of each group (except for the condition of no
vibration) exceeded 28.0 MPa; in each group at 19.6e39.2 MPa,
except for the condition of no frequency, more than 19.6 MPa of
compressive strength was obtained. However, at insufficient
compaction pressure of 9.8 MPa, the compressive strength hardly
surpassed 19.6 MPa in each group. From Fig. 3 we can see that at the
same ratio under different compaction pressures, the increase of
compaction pressure distinctly enhanced the compressive strength.
Moreover, up to 29.4 MPa, with each increase in compaction
pressure by 9.8 MPa, the compressive strength increased about 10%,
3.3.1. Results of vibration frequency and compressive strength
under different compaction pressures
The compressive strength of each sample at any pressure
without vibration did not exceed 19.6 MPa, while the largest
compressive strength obtained under vibration frequency of
16.7 Hz reached up to 33.8 MPa, and that under 33.3 Hz, up to
37.7 MPa. Under compaction pressure of 19.6 MPa and frequency of
16.7 Hz, the minimum compressive strength of samples also surpassed 19.6 MPa. However, the compressive strength under vibration frequency of 33.3 Hz doubled compared to the condition of no
vibration, which reveals that proper vibration frequency helps to
improve packing structure. Analyzing the conditions of frequencies
33.3 and 50.0 Hz, the compressive strength of samples slightly
30
Compaction pressure 19.6 MPa
35
25
Vibration frequency 16.7 (Hz)
25
20
Sludge : Waste Silt
5:80
15:70
25:60
35:50
45:40
55:30
15
10
5
0
9.8
19.6
29.4
39.2
49.0
Compaction pressure (MPa)
Compressive strength
(MPa)
Compressive strength
(MPa)
30
20
15
Sludge : Waste Silt
5:80
15:70
25:60
35:50
45:40
55:30
10
5
0
none
16.7
33.3
50
Vibration frequency (Hz)
Fig. 3. Comparison of compaction pressure and compressive strength at different
ratios.
Fig. 5. Comparison of vibration frequency and compressive strength at different ratios.
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F.-C. Chang et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
increased, but the average did not differ much. This indicates that
increasing the frequency once the compacted structure has been
achieved has no significant benefits. The relations of vibration
frequency and compressive strength are shown in Fig. 4.
3.3.2. Results of frequency and compressive strength at different
ratios
Under the conditions of stone sludge content at 5% and no
vibration, the minimum compressive strength only reached
Fig. 6. Water absorption at different ratios under different compaction pressure.
F.-C. Chang et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
7.5 MPa. With an increase in frequency, the compressive strength
apparently increased. Under the frequency of 33.3 Hz, the
compressive strength of the sample, 16.9 MPa, is almost 2.3 times
higher than that at no vibration. At the most compacted theoretical
ratio and under the conditions of sludge content at 35% and
compaction pressure at 9.8 MPa, the compressive strength
increased from 10.1 MPa under no vibration to 19.7 MPa under
33.3 Hz. On the other hand, under the compaction pressure of
29.4 MPa and frequency of 33.3 Hz, the compressive strengths at
sludge contents 5%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, and 55% were respectively
28.0, 30.1, 31.3, 31.2, and 29.8 MPa. The influence of different ratios
differed slightly, only accounting for 6%, indicating that various
ratios corresponded closely with terminal compressive strengths.
The comparisons of vibration frequency and compressive strength
at different ratios are shown in Fig. 5.
2293
compaction 50.0 Hz at 49.0 MPa, while the ratio with the smallest
compressive strength, 5%:80%, had absorption of only 0.17% under
the lower compaction pressure (Fig. 6). After vibratory compaction
tests all the samples had lower absorption than cement concrete.
After hydration reaction and solidification, the concrete in this
study produced Calcium Silicate Hydrates with great porosity. After
the vibratory compaction, the compacted structure had an effect of
prohibiting water.
At the same ratio, the larger the compaction pressure, the lower
the absorption tends to be, as shown in Fig. 6. The optimal ratio,
35%:50%, with higher porosity has the highest absorption, 0.17%,
under the larger vibration frequency of 50.0 Hz and compaction
pressure of 49.0 MPa. The ratio lower than the compacted ratio of
35%:50% has absorption of 3.5% under vibration frequency of
16.7 Hz and compaction pressure of 9.8 MPa. In view of the above it
can be concluded that vibratory compaction is a desired mechanical
pulling force to gain minimum absorption.
3.4. Water absorption test
Experiment in this study showed that there was a large variation
of absorption under the condition of no vibration, the highest being
up to 27.33%, the lowest 4.71%, and the remainder ranging within
10e20%. The absorption distinctly dropped under the frequency of
16.7 Hz, mostly to within 3e6%, while it was less than 1% and
mostly under 0.5% under the frequencies of 33.3 Hz and 50.0 Hz.
Compressive strength grew and absorption decreased in direct
proportion to increase in compaction pressure and frequency. The
stone sludge/waste silt ratio with the largest compressive strength,
35%:50%, had the lowest absorption, only 0.04%, under vibratory
3.5. Tests of resistance to abrasion using the Los Angeles index
The Los Angeles index is used to distinguish resistance to abrasion
in order to grade materials as to levels of hardness. In this research,
resistance to abrasion of each group as measured using the Los
Angeles index increased with an increase in compressive strength,
and all met the requirement for coarse artificial aggregates of
concrete, namely abrasion less than 38% (Electronic annex Fig. A3).
Fig. 7. Microanalysis. (a) No vibration/compaction pressure 9.8 MPa, (b) frequency 16.7 Hz/compaction pressure 19.6 MPa, (c) frequency 33.3 Hz/compaction pressure 29.4 MPa.
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F.-C. Chang et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 91 (2010) 2289e2294
3.6. Microanalysis
Appendix
Under a metallurgical microscope, the artificial aggregate
packing without vibration and with low pressure appeared slack
with the artificial aggregates separated from each other and with
air in-between (Fig. 7(a)). The artificial aggregates became densely
packed as they were compacted under the frequency of 16.7 Hz and
the compaction pressure of 19.6 MPa (Fig. 7(b)). In general,
compaction pressure is the chief determinant of compressive
strength, while vibration frequency influences compact density,
which in turn affects compressive strength (Lee et al., 2008).
Increasing the vibration frequency and compaction pressure up to
33.3 Hz and 29.4 MPa, respectively, resulted in excellent compaction, as shown in Fig. 7(c). That is to say, the theory of vibratory
compaction producing better compaction is proved and this leads
to an increase of compressive strength and a decrease of absorption, thus attaining the goal of efficient complementary waste
recycling.
Supplementary material associated with this article can be
found in the online version at doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.06.011.
4. Conclusions
a. This research uses the method of vibratory compaction to
recycle waste into artificial aggregate. By exerting densified
packing in compacted structure, it proves that fine waste silt
powder over #30 with a particle size of 0.3e0.15 mm owns the
compressive strength of more than 29.4 MPa due to its compacted packing, which makes it a more valuable recycling
product.
b. The results show that by combining 35% of stone sludge with
50% of waste silt and 15% of dried solidifying agents, the
recycling of waste stone sludge and waste silt into construction
materials can create brand-new products and offer an ecological alternative to waste treatment.
c. This research shows that the ratio of compacted packing is one
of the influential factors that impact compressive strength and
that compaction pressure is the main factor that contributes to
the compacted structure, which differs from the theory pertaining to cement concrete.
d. The research shows that with a larger compressive strength,
the recycled material with fine compacted structure has lower
absorption (only 0.08%), which is quite different from the effect
of general cement concrete hydration.
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