Sustainable ceramics derived from solid wastes: a review

Abstract

Wastes from different manufacturing processes and energy generation unite are attributed to the ecological and health issues. Instead of land-filling, the waste can be recycled or reused to convert marketable value-added products with high ecologic and economic interest. Ceramics are attracting particularly in waste recycling perceptions. From this eco-friendly propensity, in the last two decades, an increasing number of studies have demonstrated the possibility to use alternative ingredients in the place of conventional raw materials (e.g., most common ternary clay-quartz-feldspar system) for the fabrication of ceramics. Researchers are trying to incorporate the wastes and industrial by-products like fly ash (FA), rice husk ash (RHA), blast furnace slag (BFS), sludge, glass waste, polished tile waste, eggshell and others for making different ceramics. The present review is aimed to provide an up-to-date overview of the recent waste-derived ceramics including refractories, glasses, whitewares, oxide and non-oxide ceramics with the correlation of waste incorporation limits, manufacturing routes, and properties of the ceramics. The investigation reveals that ceramic industries have huge potential to utilize the wastes as substitution of the natural raw materials. The waste to value-added ceramics conversion not only solves the disposal problems but also conserves the natural resources.