Use of Brine Sludge as a Construction Material

Abstract

Brine sludge is an industrial waste which comes mainly from chlor-alkali industry. There is rapid increase in the growth of chlor-alkali industries in India, currently, approximately 40 industrial units produce caustic soda with an installed production capacity of 2.27 million tonnes per year. This increased output, results in the release of increasing amount, which causes severe environmental damage. Waste released into the environment initially enters surface and groundwater before entering the food chain, posing health risks to humans and other organisms and disrupting the overall balance of the ecology. Efforts has been made in using the brine sludge as a construction material in the first part brine sludge is tested for use as an alternative material in subgrade by testing the CBR values of raw samples of sludge and later blending the sludge with fly ash. In the second part brine sludge was tested for partial replacement of cement in cement concrete, for the testing compressive and flexural strength was tested for different ratio of replacement from 0 to 10 percent, results show the maximum increase in strength at 5 percent replacement. In the third part brine sludge has been used as an alternative precursor in fly ash geopolymerized brick. The work was done in optimisation of the internal ratio of precursor, precursor to liquid, chemical to liquid. Later the bricks which had good strength were optimized of cost, which can further be reduced.