Scientists propose to recycle paper waste into bricks

FROMNUST MISIS students and young scientists have developed a unique technology for processing solid wastewater residues from pulp and paper mills into building bricks. According to experts, the bricks obtained in this way, firstly, correspond to the GOSTs developed for Ceramic Brick and Stone, and secondly, they are cheaper than those produced in the traditional way. And thirdly, they allow to reduce the costs of the enterprise for the storage of waste.

United Nations data show that global paper consumption has increased by 400 percent over the past forty years, despite widespread computerization. We are talking about the production of office paper, craft bags, cardboard boxes, receipts and banknotes. At the same time, the paper industry is considered one of the largest environmental polluters, since chlorine dioxide, sodium sulfide, hydroxide and other chemicals are used to produce paper and cardboard.

As noted by one of the authors of the study, an employee of the University of MISIS Valentin Romanovsky, the idea of ​​using a osprey of paper production for the production of building materials is not new in itself. But in this case, for the manufacture of bricks, clay was used with a content of foreign impurities not exceeding 3.5% and a bulk weight of 1380 kg / m3, to which quartz sand and osprey of paper production were added as a necessary additive for firing.

Next, the bricks were dried at a temperature of 100 °C, then they were fired in an electric furnace. Analysis of the resulting bricks showed that samples with a 10% osprey content, fired at a temperature of 950 ° C, fully comply with GOSTs for ceramic bricks.

Mona Platonov.

Photo by Moskovskaya Pravda