Abstract
Water treatment plants (WTP) produce copious quantities of solid waste in the form of sludge that is deteriorating water resources, agriculture lands and human health. It should be discarded properly but a grave issue is finding ecological solution for its ultimate disposal. This study will provide an idea of incorporating sludge into soil-cement bricks that are used for construction providing dual benefits: reducing amounts of sludge and introducing cheaper bricks. A sample of sludge was analyzed for chemical constituents, plasticity value, particle size and content of organic matter. Sludge bricks incorporating 10 % of waste material by weight were prepared. The quality of sludge bricks was evaluated in terms of mechanical and physical properties (compressive strength test, water absorption test and apparent density test). The obtained results have revealed that waste material is mostly composed of plastic and could be utilized for manufacturing of sludge bricks. The compressive strength and density of bricks reduced with increasing amounts of sludge. However, the compressive strength of the bricks could even meet the standard requirement.
Highlights
Discharge of industrial and domestic waste water is a big problem as it effects fresh water resources, agriculture production and human health [1]
As presented in literature there are few studies found on utilization of effluent sludge from Water treatment plants (WTP) in production of soil cement bricks
The value of loss on ignition of observed sample was high (25.23% by weight). This is mainly due to dehydration of the hydroxides, water loss from clay minerals, and due to decomposition of organic matter
Summary
Discharge of industrial and domestic waste water is a big problem as it effects fresh water resources, agriculture production and human health [1]. A particular phenomenon that contributes huge amounts of pollutants (solid waste) is water treatment plants (WTP) [2,3]. Municipal effluent from treatment plants is disposed in nearest water systems without handling methodology. This problem contributes to environmental disturbances as enlarging quantity of solid waste, risk to aquatic life, sedimentation, changes in the turbidity and color, increase metals concentrations in waste, causing public health problems [4]
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