Effect of Organic Content in Biosolids on the Properties of Fired-Clay Bricks Incorporated with Biosolids
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 7
Abstract
Biosolids are produced following the treatment of wastewater sludge. Millions of metric tons of biosolids are produced around the world each year. This study has investigated the effect of biosolid organic content on the physical and mechanical properties of fired clay bricks. Biosolids produced at Melbourne water eastern treatment plant (ETP) and western treatment plant (WTP) have been used as a partial replacement material for brick soil producing raw mixtures with different amounts of organic content. The raw materials—brick soil and biosolids samples—were first characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, specific gravity, organic content, and thermal analysis. The test results revealed that the organic content of ETP and WTP biosolids ranged from 6.3 to 23.3%. The green brick samples incorporating biosolids were fired at 1,050°C for three hours, and the fired samples were then tested for the compressive strength, density, cold and hot water absorption, the initial rate of absorption, and mass loss on ignition. The test results showed that all the physical and mechanical properties were highly dependent on the organic content of the raw materials. The compressive strength and density of fired bricks decreased as the organic content in the raw mixture increased. The initial rate of absorption, water absorption, and mass loss on ignition increased linearly with the increasing organic content in the raw brick mixtures. Furthermore, the test results demonstrated that the organic matter present in the raw brick mixtures significantly reduced the energy demand during the firing process of bricks proportionate to the percentage of organic content. The scanning electron microscopy results revealed that the intensity of pores increases with the increase in organic content. The leaching analysis was carried out for the manufactured bricks with different organic content and the results were compared with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory limits.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The results presented in this paper are part of an ongoing postgraduate study on recycling biosolids in fired-clay bricks. The authors would like to thank Melbourne Water and the School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, for their financial and in-kind support. Also, the soil provided by Boral Bricks Pty Ltd. is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Abdul Kadir, A., and Mohajerani, A. (2015). “Effect of heating rate on gas emissions and properties of fired clay bricks and fired clay bricks incorporated with cigarette butts.” Appl. Clay Sci., 104, 269–276.
Arulrajah, A., Disfani, M. M., Suthagaran, V., and Bo, M. W. (2013). “Laboratory evaluation of the geotechnical characteristics of wastewater biosolids in road embankments.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 1682–1691.
Arulrajah, A., Disfani, M. M., Suthagaran, V., and Imteaz, M. (2011). “Select chemical and engineering properties of wastewater biosolids.” Waste Manage., 31(12), 2522–2526.
Asakura, H., Endo, K., Yamada, M., Inoue, Y., and Ono, Y. (2009). “Improvement of permeability of waste sludge by mixing with slag or construction and demolition waste.” Waste Manage., 29(6), 1877–1884.
AS/NZS (Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand). (2003). “Masonry units, segmental pavers and flags: Methods of test.”, General introduction and list of methods, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
AS (Standards Australia). (2003). “Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes.” Method 5.1.1: Soil compaction and density tests: Determination of the dry density/moisture content relation of a soil using standard compactive effort, AS 1289.5.1.1, Standards Australia International Ltd., Sydney, Australia.
AS (Standards Australia). (2006). “Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes.” Determination of the soil particle density of a soil-standard method, AS 1289.3.5.1, Standards Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
AS (Standards Australia). (2009a). “Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes.” Method 3.2.1: Soil classification tests—Determination of the plastic limit of a soil-standard method, AS 1289.3.2.1, Standards Australia Limited, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
AS (Standards Australia). (2009b). “Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes.” Method 3.3.1: Soil classification tests—Calculation of the plasticity index of a soil, AS 1289.3.3.1, Standards Australia Limited, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
AS (Standards Australia). (2009c). “Methods of testing soils for engineering purposes.” Method 3.6.1: Soil classification tests—Determination of the particle size distribution of a soil-standard method of analysis, AS 1289.3.6.1, Standards Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2014). “Production of selected construction materials.” . Belconnen, ACT 2616: Australian Bureau of Statistics, ⟨http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Latestproducts/8301.0Main%20Features2Mar%202014⟩ (Jan. 27, 2015).
AWA. (2012). The management of biosolids in Australia. NSW, Australian Water Association, St. Leonards, Australia.
Beall, C. (2004). Masonry design and detailing: For architects and contractors, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Bories, C., Aouba, L., Vedrenne, E., and Vilarem, G. (2015). “Fired clay bricks using agricultural biomass wastes: Study and characterization.” Constr. Build. Mater., 91, 158–163.
BS (British Standards). (1990). “Methods of test for soils for civil engineering purposes.” BS 1377-3, British Standards Institution, London.
Code of Federal Regulations. (2012). “Section 261.24—Toxicity characteristics.” United States Government Printing Office, Ithaca, NY.
De La Casa, J. A., Romero, I., Jiménez, J., and Castro, E. (2012). “Fired clay masonry unit production incorporating two-phase olive mill waste (alperujo).” Ceram. Int., 38(6), 5027–5037.
Disfani, M., Arulrajah, A., Suthagaran, V., and Bo, M. (2009). “Shear strength behavior of recycled glass-biosolids mixtures.” 62nd Canadian Geotechnical Conf. and 10th Joint CGS/IAH-CNC Groundwater Conf., Halifax, Canada.
Disfani, M. M., Arulrajah, A., Suthagaran, V., and Bo, M. W. (2013). “Long-term settlement prediction for wastewater biosolids in road embankments.” Resour. Conserv. Recycl., 77, 69–77.
Eliche-Quesada, D., Azevedo-Da Cunha, R., and Corpas-Iglesias, F. A. (2015). “Effect of sludge from oil refining industry or sludge from pomace oil extraction industry addition to clay ceramics.” Appl. Clay Sci., 114, 202–211.
Horpibulsuk, S., Suksiripattanapong, C., Samingthong, W., Rachan, R., and Arulrajah, A. (2016). “Durability against wetting-drying cycles of water treatment sludge-fly ash geopolymer and water treatment sludge-cement and silty clay-cement systems.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., .
Kadir, A. A., and Mohajerani, A. (2011). “Recycling cigarette butts in lightweight fired clay bricks.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. Constr. Mater., 164(5), 219–229.
La Rubia-García, M. D., Yebra-Rodríguez, Á., Eliche-Quesada, D., Corpas-Iglesias, F. A., and López-Galindo, A. (2012). “Assessment of olive mill solid residue (pomace) as an additive in lightweight brick production.” Constr. Build. Mater., 36, 495–500.
Liew, A. G., Idris, A., Samad, A. A., Wong, C. H. K., Jaafar, M. S., and Baki, A. M. (2004). “Reusability of sewage sludge in clay bricks.” J. Mater. Cycles Waste Manage., 6(1), 41–47.
Lin, D., and Weng, C. (2001). “Use of sewage sludge ash as brick material.” J. Environ. Eng., 922–927.
Magdziarz, A., and Werle, S. (2014). “Analysis of the combustion and pyrolysis of dried sewage sludge by TGA and MS.” Waste Manage., 34(1), 174–179.
Martínez-Martínez, S., Pérez-Villarejo, L., Eliche-Quesada, D., Carrasco-Hurtado, B., Sánchez-Soto, P. J., and Angelopoulos, G. N. (2016). “Ceramics from clays and by-product from biodiesel production: Processing, properties, and microstructural characterization.” Appl. Clay Sci., 121, 119–126.
Minitab [Computer software]. Minitab, State College, PA.
Mohajerani, A., Kadir, A. A., and Larobina, L. (2016). “A practical proposal for solving the world’s cigarette butt problem: Recycling in fired clay bricks.” Waste Manage., 52, 228–244.
NSW DPI. (2009). “Use of biosolids in agriculture.” Cowra, NSW: NSW Department of Primary Industries, ⟨http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/farm/recycling-waste-mgt/recycled-organics/biosolids⟩ (Nov. 5, 2013).
O’kelly, B. C. (2006). “Geotechnical properties of municipal sewage sludge.” Geotech. Geol. Eng., 24(4), 833–850.
Saboya, F., Xavier, G., and Alexandre, J. (2007). “The use of the powder marble by-product to enhance the properties of brick ceramic.” Constr. Build. Mater., 21(10), 1950–1960.
Stone, R. J., Ekwue, E. I., and Clarke, R. O. (1998). “Engineering properties of sewage sludge in Trinidad.” J. Agric. Eng. Res., 70(2), 221–230.
Suksiripattanapong, C., Horpibulsuk, S., Boongrasan, S., Udomchai, A., Chinkulkijniwat, A., and Arulrajah, A. (2015a). “Unit weight, strength, and microstructure of a water treatment sludge-fly ash lightweight cellular geopolymer.” Constr. Build. Mater., 94, 807–816.
Suksiripattanapong, C., Horpibulsuk, S., Chanprasert, P., Sukmak, P., and Arulrajah, A. (2015b). “Compressive strength development in fly ash geopolymer masonry units manufactured from water treatment sludge.” Constr. Build. Mater., 82, 20–30.
Suksiripattanapong, C., Srijumpa, T., Horpibulsuk, S., Sukmak, P., Arulrajah, A., and Du, Y. J. (2015c). “Compressive strengths of water treatment sludge-fly ash geopolymer at various compression energies.” Lowland Technol. Int., 17(3), 147–156.
Sutcu, M., and Akkurt, S. (2009). “The use of recycled paper processing residues in making porous brick with reduced thermal conductivity.” Ceram. Int., 35(7), 2625–2631.
Suthagaran, V., Arulrajah, A., and Bo, M. (2013). “Geotechnical laboratory testing of biosolids.” Int. J. Geotech. Eng., 4(3), 407–415.
Suthagaran, V., Arulrajah, A., Wilson, J., and Bo, M. (2007). “Field testing to determine the suitability of biosolids for embankment fill.” 12th European Biosolids and Organic Resources Conf., Aqua Enviro Ltd., Manchester, U.K.
Ukwatta, A., Mohajerani, A., Eshtiaghi, N., and Setunge, S. (2016). “Variation in physical and mechanical properties of fired-clay bricks incorporating ETP biosolids.” J. Cleaner Prod., 119, 76–85.
Ukwatta, A., Mohajerani, A., Setunge, S., and Eshtiaghi, N. (2015). “Possible use of biosolids in fired-clay bricks.” Constr. Build. Mater., 91, 86–93.
USEPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1992). “Method 1311—Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure Cincinnati: United States.” Washington, DC.
Weng, C.-H., Lin, D.-F., and Chiang, P.-C. (2003). “Utilization of sludge as brick materials.” Adv. Environ. Res., 7(3), 679–685.
Weyant, C., et al. (2014). “Emissions from south Asian brick production.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 48(11), 6477–6483.
Zhang, L. (2013). “Production of bricks from waste materials: A review.” Constr. Build. Mater., 47, 643–655.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 7 • July 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2016
Accepted: Oct 25, 2016
Published online: Mar 29, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 29, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.