Type of the Paper Article

Recovery in Building Materials

Another field that was deemed promising for accommodating PS was that of building materials. Investigations have been carried out in order to explore the possibility of em- ploying PS as a supplementary component of Portland cement concrete, lightweight con- struction mortar, and bituminous mixtures for paving applications.

1. 
   Recovery in Portland Cement Concrete
   

Cement concretes contain inert aggregates, a binder, water, and, eventually, addi- tives. Studies were carried out to test the capacity of PS to replace either the binder or the water used for the mixture. In both cases, in order not to damage the properties of the concrete or cement paste incorporating PS, it is necessary that PS does not react with the other components of the mixture.
In the mid-1990s, St. Louis patented a process aimed at recycling PS into building materials, the main step of which was the stabilization of any aluminum contained in PS [33]. According to the inventor, aluminum could adversely impact the performance of the cement produced through the admixture with PS. As shown in Section 2, PS generated from water-based basecoat paints contains 2–2.5% b.w. of aluminum. Free aluminum, typ- ically aluminum flakes, is commonly used in automotive paint to obtain greater reflectiv- ity or shininess.
The process for aluminum inertization included four steps, as shown in Figure 5:

1. 
   Mixing PS with NaOH so as to chemically stabilize the free aluminum contained in the sludge.
   
2. 
   Heating the PS-NaOH admixture to a temperature of approx. 60 °C for 10 min, so as to facilitate hydrogen generation from the reaction between free aluminum and NaOH.
   
3. 
   Mixing the PS-NaOH admixture with quicklime (CaO), so as to absorb the residual water within the PS.
   
4. 
   Agitating the obtained admixture so as to minimize any localized heterogeneity.
   

The patented process was optimized for PS containing 50% TS, but the process could be applied to PS with TS contents ranging from 30% to almost 100%. Whether the TS con- tent was less than 30%, PS could be further concentrated with a dewatering process.
Powdered NaOH was deemed the preferred agent for pre-treating PS because:

• 
  It does not alter the mechanical properties of the solid lime/paint product.
  
• 
  It is of proven efficacy, inexpensive, and readily available.
  
• 
  It generates sufficient heat upon dissolution into the PS to facilitate the reaction with free aluminum.
  

The first mixing step preferably required NaOH at approximately 1.0 M concentration, although concentrations from 0.2 M to 0.5 M were also acceptable. The range of concentra- tions was proportional to the amount of aluminum within the PS. Ideally, the process re- quired an amount of NaOH just enough to reduce all the free aluminum into the PS.
The heating step of the PS-NaOH mixture was inherent in the case of mixing pow- dered NaOH. However, if an aqueous NaOH solution is used, heat should be provided by another source. The heating step facilitated the reaction between NaOH and the free aluminum in the PS, thus causing the formation of hydrogen bubbles. This pretreatment prevented any subsequent “bulging” problems with the resulting cement product and was believed to avoid weakening the structure where cement was employed.