Effect of co-use of mineral wool production waste and catalytic cracking catalyst waste on ceramic structure and properties

Abstract

The combined use of waste from the production of mineral wool (MW) and spent catalyst (SC) from catalytic cracking of petroleum products in the production of ceramics was investigated. It was found that, compared with the control composition, in the firing process at temperature 1080°C the MW acts as a fluxing additive, increasing the density of the samples by 3.3%, strength in compression by 19.2%, and shrinkage deformation by 16.1% and reducing water absorption by a factor of 3. The combined use ofMWand SC in the composition (SC increasing from 10 to 20%) contributes to the intensification of the crystallization of the minerals anorthite and mullite, which contributes to shrinkage deformation reduction by up to a factor of 1.85 without degradation of the mechanical properties as compared with the control composition with no additives.