Wet regeneration of waste artificial sand used in sand casting using chemical solutions

Natural sand and organic binders have been the main materials used in sand casting. However, inorganic binders are used in novel casting technologies, and research on artificial sand as a substitute of natural sand has been conducted. Herein, the wet regeneration of waste artificial sand was performed using a sodium silicate binder. Acidic, neutral, and basic solutions were used for wet regeneration. The effects of binder removal and reusability of the regenerated sand were investigated by comparing the characteristics and strengths of the artificial and regenerated sand. It was demonstrated that the basic solution effectively removed the binder from the surface of the waste artificial sand. The Si-O-Si bond cleavage in the binder occurred due to the high concentration of hydroxide ions in the basic solution. The strength of the regenerated sand treated with the basic solution and that of the artificial sand were similar. Moreover, the strengths of regenerated sands treated with the acidic or neutral solutions were lower than that of artificial sand due to the presence of residual binder. These results indicated that the basic solution was suitable for removing the sodium silicate binder. The quality of the regenerated sand was similar to that of artificial sand.