Vitreous and Ceramic Processing for the Recycling of Industrial Wastes

Abstract

Since last decades both processes for the production of glass and ceramic materials (known by the generic name of "vitrification") and the processing of the usual ceramic materials ("sintering") are being investigated as a possible way to isolate, inmobilize and even recycling of industrial wastes as a source of "secondary raw materials". Starting from this point of view, the basis for the processing of some of wastes investigated by the author in the last decades are exposed, namely: metallurgy (muds or sludges...), residues from the production of energy (generation power plants, incinerators, nuclear power plants ...) wastes coming from the treatment of minerals and rocks (dumps, mine tailings, muds and machining of natural stone ...), as well as electrical wastes, demolition wastes and finally biomass residues which have been investigated in the recent years. This type of waste and mixtures give rise to synthetic materials with wide uses in construction and public works. Indeed, these are the only industries able to management of high volumes which may be suitable for absorbing a new range of glass, ceramic and glass-ceramic materials from all type of wastes. Experimental results obtained in last decades allow to conclude that both sintering processes as well as vitrification can be considered as an actual and useful, at least partially, for solving the environmental problems generated by all type of wastes.