Construction Materials Obtained From Agricultural and Industrial Waste

Gabriel Popescu¹, Nicoleta Raluca Jianu², Aneta Chivoiu², Silvia Moraru², Ioana Corina Moga¹

 ¹Centrul de Studii și Cercetări de Biodiversitate Agrosilvică "Acad. David Davidescu", București
² Parcul Tehnologic și Industrial Giurgiu Nord

Keywords: bricks; wastewater treatment sludge; agricultural waste; wastewater treatment plant.

 Abstract: In the context of climate changes generated by pollution, an increasingly important aspect of our society is represented by the efficient management of waste, both by minimizing the amounts and types of waste generated and by recovering some components that can later be used. There are several industrial sectors that generate significant amounts of waste, in addition to waste from agriculture and that generated, in general, by the human communities.
In this article, results obtained by the authors are presented, regarding the reuse of some waste from agriculture and industry (sludge generated by industrial wastewater treatment plants and glass fiber from construction) with obtaining new materials for manufacturing of bricks. The resulting bricks are intended for non-structural masonry and meet all environmental standards.
The materials used by the authors in the elaboration of the brick recipes are: mineral materials (cement, sand), sludge from industrial wastewater treatment plants and agricultural waste from the local market.
Regarding the management of sludge from sewage treatment plants, many processes for their use, storage and disposal are known, but research is still up to date. The sludge used in the current research comes from an industrial treatment plant that uses, in the technological treatment process, aluminum sulfate and lime.
Agricultural waste has become increasingly used in construction due to the improved characteristics of the obtained material, mainly in terms of thermal and sound insulation, reduced costs and environmental protection by reducing the use of conventional raw materials. The authors proposed and tested several recipes with different agricultural wastes, especially from corn and sunflower crops, and the main results are presented in the article.