Vitrified Glass-Ceramic Product Development from Industrial Wastes

Recent developments in environmental legislation as well as economic incentives, such as the increasing cost of land filling, have led to a paradigm shift away from encapsulation of hazardous waste. With the increased cost of disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous industrial wastes, the current focus is on recycling and product development utilising these waste feeds as raw materials. One solution is the formation of commercially viable, non-hazardous products. Glass or glass-ceramics in which the hazardous metals are incorporated into the structure and rendered non-leachable are a possible solution. A commercially viable vitrifier could be either electric or gas fired. A system consisting of a high-temperature product burner, a reservoir for homogenisation of the glassy material, and various forming options was tested. The gas/oxy burner with temperatures up to 2000 C transforms mixed organic and inorganic wastes into vitrified materials which can be cast, spherialised or fiberised. The organic content of the waste feed supplements the fuel requirements. An air pollution control system exhausts clean air. Such a system was developed and tested by Seiler Pollution Control. 1 ref.