Utilisation of waste glass powder to improve the performance of hazardous incinerated biomedical waste ash geopolymer concrete

A mixture of hazardous waste from various places, including hospitals, testing facilities, clinics, etc., is a biomedical waste. It is possible that eventually, there could be a significant risk to human lives and the survival of plant and animal life on this planet from hazardous biomedical waste disposal. Biomedical waste is usually burnt at an incineration plant and produces ash called incinerated biomedical waste ash (IBWA). If IBWA is not disposed correctly, it may contaminate the groundwater because heavy metals not eliminated during the incineration process. The groundwater contamination problem due to IBWA may be minimised using geopolymer concrete (GPC). When discussing pollution and the environment, another big issue involves waste glass. There was a rise in the quantity of waste glass generated each day, and the recycling region is restricted. To minimise this issue, we can exploit the waste glass powder in the construction sectors. The substitute for cement concrete is geopolymer concrete which was predominantly manufactured from renewable resources. This research work aims to produce the geopolymer concrete at room temperature. The ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) with IBWA ratio is fixed as 70:30, and the fine aggregate (M-Sand) is replaced with varying the glass powder as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45% and 50% have been done and cured under ambient curing. The addition of IBWA and glass powder has been performed to increase the reactivity and performance of geopolymer concrete.

Automated summary

Biomedical waste, a hazardous mixture from various sources, poses significant risks to human health and the environment. Utilizing geopolymer concrete can effectively mitigate groundwater contamination caused by improper disposal of hazardous waste.