Resource efficiency
Raw materials, waste recycling and sustainability of ceramics
Contact persons: Michele Dondi, Chiara Zanelli
People involved: Sonia Conte, Chiara Molinari, Roberto Soldati, Guia Guarini
The ceramic industry is facing the challenges of sustainability, adopting processes and technologies with a low environmental impact. In addition, it is trying to improve its own resource efficiency, since ceramic products for construction, domestic and industrial uses are obtained making a wide use of natural raw materials. Looking at the transition towards a circular economy, it is fundamental to strengthen the capacity to recycle urban and industrial wastes by a larger use of secondary raw materials.
In this field, CNR-ISSMC is involved in prospecting, characterizing and developing new deposits and uses of raw materials for ceramics, and also in modelling their properties and technological behavior. Special attention is paid to recycling of industrial wastes and byproducts in ceramic manufacturing, where CNR-ISSMC has a plurennial experience including: laboratory testing; assistance in industrial trials; consultancy and product and process problem-solving; data-base on the use of civil and industrial residues in ceramics.
Equipment and processes
Raw material classification. Compositional and technological characterization of clay materials (kaolins, ball clays, common clays and shales, pyrophyllite, bentonite, etc.), fluxes (feldspars, feldspathoids, feldspathic rocks), fillers (quartz and quartzous rocks), pore-forming agents and sintering promoters (calcite, dolomite and carbonatic rocks; talc, wollastonite, lithium minerals, etc.), opacifiers (zircon, corundum, etc.). Quantitative chemical (ICP-OES) and mineralogical (XRD, Rietveld-RIR) analyses; particle size distribution (Sedigraph); specific surface area (BET); plasticity (Atterberg, Methylene Blue index, Pfefferkorn); drying behaviour (Bigot curve, retractometer); thermal behaviour (TGA, DTA, DSC); fusibility (hot stage microscope). Laboratory simulation of the manufacturing processes of ceramic tiles, refractories, clay bricks and roof tiles, lightweight aggregates, sanitaryware, with measurement of technological properties of semi-finished and finished products.
Main collaborations
Department of Earth Sciences, Federico II Università di Napoli;
Geology Department, Univesidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina;
Instituto de Technology Ceramics, Castellon de la Plana, Spain.
Pubblications
- Dondi M. Guarini G., Conte S., Molinari C., Soldati R., Zanelli C., Deposits composition and technological behavior of fluxes for ceramic tiles., Periodico di Mineralogia (2019) 88, 235-257.
- Zanelli C., Soldati R., Conte S., Guarini G., Ismail A.I.M., El‐Maghraby M.S., Cazzaniga A., Dondi M., Technological behavior of porcelain stoneware bodies with Egyptian syenites., Int J Appl Ceram Technol. (2019) 574–584.
- Zanelli C., Domínguez E., Iglesias c., Conte s., Molinari C., Soldati R., Guarini G., Dondi M., Recycling of residual boron muds into ceramic tiles., Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio 58-5 (2019) 199-210.