New Approach of Synthesizing Mineral Product from Industrial Waste

A new approach of using industrial waste to produce synthetic mineral product was studied in this paper. A synthetic mineral product which is precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) was synthesized by using ionic sucrose solution method, whereby sucrose solution acts as promoter to increase the production of the PCC. Carbide lime, a waste from acetylene gas industry was used as starting material and first dissolved in the sucrose solution. The concentrations of the sucrose solution were varied from 5 to 15 °Brix. The effect of the sucrose solution concentration was studied by using multiple characterization methods such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Florescence (XRF) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The XRD and XRF results had proven that the synthesized PCC was calcium carbonate with > 98% purity. The morphologies of the PCC were observed by FESEM in which cubical shape was formed at 5 to 12 °Brix and grain shape at 13 to 15 °Brix. The distribution of the PCC particles was observed to be homogenous. The yield of the PCC increased as the Brix values increased.