Use of granite sawing wastes in the production of ceramic bricks and tiles

Granite process industry generates a large amount of wastes, which pollute and damage the environment. This work aims to characterize and evaluate the possibilities of using the granite sawing wastes, generated by the process industries from Paraiba State, Brazil, as alternative ceramic raw materials in the production of ceramic bricks and tiles. Samples of granite sawing wastes were collected from companies located in Paraiba State. Their characterization were carried out with the determination of density, particle size distribution, surface area (BET), chemical composition, and by DTA, TGA, XRD, and SEM. In a second part of the work, tests in ceramic compositions were conducted in order to evaluate the suitability of addition of wastes in ceramic compositions used in the production of ceramic bricks and tiles. The results showed that the granite wastes have physical and mineralogical characteristics that were similar to those of conventional ceramic raw materials. The ceramic bodies produced from reformulated ceramic compositions had technological characteristics in agreement with the Brazilian standardizations for ceramic bricks and tiles. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.