Computation of optimum proportions of cotton textile effluent in the development of geopolymer concrete

Abstract

The growing concern in the Reuse and Recycling of wastes has provoked research interests in exploring ways for the transformation of industrial wastes into useful building materials. This work aims to characterize and study the feasibility of using the Cotton textile effluent from the Mercerizing process for developing Geopolymer concrete blocks. The cotton mercerizing process uses large quantities of caustic soda (NaOH) solution which is then disposed off into agricultural lands, landfills or nearby rivers. This effluent from the mercerizing process is used as a partial replacement of the alkaline activator solution of Geopolymer concrete in the manufacture of blocks. Effluent from various process were collected and were checked for the molar ratio which ranged from 0.015 to 0.751.The effluent from the mercerizing process with molar ratio (SiO2/Na2O) of 0.54 was chosen and replaced with the alkaline activator solution in varying percentages of 0,25,50,75 and 100.The preliminary investigations were conducted on geopolymer mortar and the optimum replacement of textile effluent was found to be 50% with molarity of 6M with alkaline Liquid to Binder ratio as 0.4 and 0.5. With the optimum parameters geopolymer concrete blocks were manufactured and tested for their mechanical properties. The results show that the cotton mercerizing effluent can be used a partial replacement for the alkaline activator solution of Geopolymer Concrete.