Author(s)

Felix Antonio López, Maria Isabel Martín, Irene García-Díaz, Olga Rodríguez, Francisco Jose Alguacil, Maximina Romero

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas (CENIM), CSIC, Avda. Gregorio del Amo 8, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas (CENIM-CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja (IETCC), CSIC, Serrano Galvache 4, 28033 Madrid, Spain.

This work presents the feasibility of reusing a glass fiber resulting from the thermolysis and gasification of waste composites to obtain glass-ceramic tiles. Polyester fiberglass (PFG) waste was treated at 550℃ for 3 h in a 9.6 dm³ thermolytic reactor. This process yielded an oil (≈24 wt%), a gas (≈8 wt%) and a solid residue (≈68 wt%). After the polymer has been removed, the solid residue is heated in air to oxidize residual char and remove surface contamination. The cleaning fibers were converted into glass-ceramic tile. A mixture consisting of 95 wt% of this solid residue and 5% Na₂O was melted at 1450℃ to obtain a glass frit. Powder glass samples (<63 μm) was then sintered and crystallized at 1013℃, leading to the formation of wollastonite-plagioclase glass-ceramic materials for architectural applications. Thermal stability and crystallization mechanism have been studied by Differential Thermal Analysis. Mineralogy analyses of the glass-ceramic materials were carried out using X-ray Diffraction.

Valorisation; Waste Composite; Thermolysis; Gasification; Glass Fiber; Glass-Ceramic

F. López, M. Martín, I. García-Díaz, O. Rodríguez, F. Alguacil and M. Romero, "Recycling of Glass Fibers from Fiberglass Polyester Waste Composite for the Manufacture of Glass-Ceramic Materials," Journal of Environmental Protection, Vol. 3 No. 8, 2012, pp. 740-747. doi: 10.4236/jep.2012.38088.