Utilization of Soda Ash Plant Solid Wastes in Production of Geopolymers
Soda ash plant in Lukavac (Bosnia and Herzegovina) generates significant quantities of different types of waste that are heavily burdening the environment. Fly ash and slag from the energy plant along with the waste filter brine from the soda plant represent the most important waste streams both in terms of quantity and level of environmental impact. Consequently, ongoing research is being carried out to find new ways of using these materials. The basic characteristics of flying ash, which may have an impact on its potential application, are: chemical composition, granulometric composition, specific gravity, specific surface, pozzolanic properties and radioactivity. In this research, the possibility of using solid waste, primarily fly ash from the energy plant, as well as the precipitate from the sediment pond I of „White Sea“ sediment basin in the production of geopolymer, has been investigated. The obtained results show that, by adjusting the ratio of these materials, geopolymers of satisfactory characteristics can be obtained, and that the initial composition of the mixture, determined by combining the proportion of individual raw materials, is extremely important for the preparation of geopolymers of appropriate physicochemical characteristics, using fly ash, precipitate from the “White Sea”, and water glass with NaOH and water, which are of particular importance.