Tannery wastewater sediments produced by clinoptiolite/polyacrylamide-aided flocculation as a clay additive in brick making

Abstract

Toxic tannery wastewater(s) (TWW) pose(s) a great risk to the environment. This study explores the potential of mitigating the harmful effects of TWW through sedimentation using clinoptiolite in the presence of various anionic, cationic and non-ionic flocculants with different molecular weights and charge densities followed by encapsulation in a brick structure for stability. Compressive strength (CS), size reduction after firing (SRAF), water absorption (WA) and colouring parameters of bricks were determined. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses were conducted on brick bodies. Kinetic leaching experiments were conducted for possible heavy metal release from the bricks. Bricks containing 10 wt% leather waste and 5 wt% clinoptiolite sintered at 800 °C instead of 920 °C possessed similar properties to the standard brick (SB).