Reuse of incinerator bottom and fly ashes to obtain glassy materials

Bottom and fly ashes coming from the urban wastes incineration represent a by-product nowadays landfilled. By mixing different amount of these residues with others inert materials, such as glass culler and feldspar waste, two vitrifiable mixtures are tailored. Glasses, obtained by means of vitrification process, are chemically stable with low leachability of contaminants and show comparable properties to those of commercial soda-lime glasses. Moreover, from the thermal and mechanical characterisation the tendency of these glasses to crystallise, for their transformation into glass-ceramic materials, has been evidenced. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.