Sustainable Ceramic Glaze Development from Coal Power Plant Water Treatment Sludge: A Customer-Oriented Approach Using Delphi Method, QFD, and Mixture Design

Abstract

This research delves into the sustainable utilization of waste materials, particularly chemical sludges from coal power plant water treatment processes, in ceramic glaze development. The study background underscores the growing interest in repurposing industrial waste for sustainability in the ceramics industry. To address this, this study employs innovative methods like the Delphi method and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to understand customer needs and guide product development. The next step will be to design an experiment to find the optimization point of the mixture of chemical sludge, silica, and soda feldspar to obtain a prototype as desired from QFD. The experimental investigations in this study highlight that resistance to cracking is a crucial factor in glaze formulations. An analysis revealed that a formulation containing 15% sludge, 52% soda feldspar, and 22% silica emerged as the optimal combination for further development. The results indicate that the prototype holds promise for future development, as demonstrated by cracking tests accelerated in an autoclave and analyzed using image processing. These findings contribute to advancing sustainable practices in ceramics, aligning with broader goals of waste minimization, circular economy principles, and resource efficiency.