AVALIAÇÃO DAS PROPRIEDADES DE REJEITOS CONTIDO NO EFLUENTE INDUSTRIAL DE UMA EMPRESA CERÂMICA COMO ALTERNATIVA PARA REAPROVEITAMENTO NA FABRICAÇÃO DE LOUÇAS SANITÁRIAS.

Abstract

Effluents are all wastes originating from production processes or human consumption. They present specific physical, chemical and biological characteristics and their properties vary according to the raw material, the management and the branch of activity. When effluents are contaminated by solid materials from the industrial sector, treatments are usually carried out to separate the liquid part from the solid, thus obtaining a cleaner industrial waste. In a sanitary ware factory, ceramic clay slip is the propellant material for making the pieces. Sometimes this slip arrives at the effluent treatment plant and is then properly disposed of into the environment. Based on the above, this work aims to determine the physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics of the mass retained in the filtration operations of the production process of sanitary ware. For this, a sample of retained mass, called sludge, from the industrial process of a factory of sanitary ware, was characterized from the tests of particle size distribution, Foster swelling, Cation Exchange Capacity and Specific Area, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, deflocculation curve, loss on fire and the test bodies, characterized by colour, shrinkage burning and flexural modulus of rupture. The results showed that the sludge had a wide particle size distribution, in the range of 0.3μm to 53μm, Haloisite4H2O as argillomineral of the clay fraction, high purity and good mechanical strength, being possible to infer that the reuse of sludge in ceramic mass is an alternative to reduce costs, resulting in a more sustainable production.