Characterization of ground slag and borax waste and their effects on the compressive strength of briquettes

Abstract

The usage of briquettes is preferred in the construction industry for many years. The quality of briquettes is directly related with characteristic features of raw materials and their compositions, production procedure, firing method, temperature and duration. There are waste materials such as borax waste having been used for briquette production, however it is not available to combined of both borax and ground slag used in briquette production. In the study, both borax and ground slag were used together as an additive in order to observe effects on the material characteristics of briquette samples. In this scope, compressive strength and bulk density of the samples produced using borax and ground slag were defined. Moreover, SEM-EDS, XRD and DTA/TG analyses of the materials were carried out and discussed. The overall results have concluded that not only higher compressive strength results were obtained using these wastes, but also the usage of waste up to 22% ratio was provided for this study. Consequently, it is determined to be possible using borax waste and ground slag in briquette production. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.