Incorporation of Industrial Secondary Raw Materials in Porcelain Stoneware Production: Preliminary Testing and Evaluation
摘要
The ceramics industry can rely on the principles of circular economy towards a more sustainable production. Incorporating both endogenous and exogenous wastes is not straightforward and requires extensive studies to acquire the necessary knowledge about the materials and to address all technical aspects related to the final product. Accordingly, this study evaluates the incorporation of nine industrial wastes into porcelain stoneware bodies: powder (GP) and sludge (GS) from the dry and wet grinding process of porcelain stoneware; biomass fly ash, generated in a co-generation (CGA) and in a thermal power plant (TPA); by-products from the production of cast iron, including casting sand (CS), foundry sand (FS), foundry fines (FF), and primary regenerated sand (PRS); and sludge from wet cutting of granite (GCS). The wastes were characterized in terms of chemical and mineralogical composition, thermal behavior, particle size distribution, and morphology. Based on the characterization results, four materials were selected for further testing: GP, TPA, CS and FF. Tiles (5 × 10 cm2) containing 0, 2, and 5 wt.% of wastes were produced, fired at 1150 °C, and characterized in terms of flexural strength, firing shrinkage, water absorption, apparent density and color. Based on the preliminary results, the valorization of 2 and 5 wt.% of CS and 2 wt.% of GP, TPA, and FF yielded satisfactory results. Future work can further refine these results by optimizing the incorporation percentages or the firing temperature, with a particular focus on reducing the linear shrinkage.