Thermal Conductivity of Fired Clay Bricks Incorporated with Cigarette Butts

Abstract

Billions of cigarette butts (CBs) were discarded by smokers directly into the environment. It is known that CBs are one of the environmental pollution that could caused contamination on the street, sidewalks, waterways, beaches and public areas. Due to its small size but large in volume, CBs cannot be collected easily and most of it will be disposed directly to the landfill. Moreover, there is no easy mechanism to ensure the separation of the chemicals trap inside the CBs which is toxic to the environment. Therefore, by incorporating CBs into brick bodies will be an alternative solution to CBs littering and pollution problems. In this study, different percentages of CBs (0%, 2.5% and 5.0%) were incorporated into fired clay brick. Different heating rates were applied during firing stage which are 1oC/min, 3oC/min and 5oC/min respectively. All samples were fired at 1050oC. Thermal conductivity for cigarette butt brick (CB Brick) were tested using Hot Guarded Plate Method. From the results obtained, it could be concluded that; with higher percentages of CBs, the thermal conductivity properties were also improved which is desired but most of the brick manufacturers. CBs incorporated could be an alternative pore formers to improve the thermal properties of fired clay brick. At the same time, the porosity is also increased thus the density was significantly reduced to become lightweight brick.