Specialists have developed a new material that will ensure the maximum safety of toxic waste
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Ensuring the safety of toxic industrial wastes has always had some difficulties, and with each passing year this process became more and more complicated. Virtually every industrial product is made from raw materials, which is extracted from the depths or the surface of the earth. But in the process of manufacturing in industrial plants, part of the raw material is converted into waste that is not suitable for further use, which often has a high level of toxicity. For example, new methods developed by specialists for processing secondary raw materials (aluminum, vanadium) lead to the appearance of new by-products, which are even more toxic. In practice, devices for cleaning exhaust from coal-fired power plants help to avoid the entry of sulfur dioxide and other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, but at the same time such "cleaning" contributes to the emergence of new concentrated waste with a high level of acidity, which can cause significant harm to the environment. At present, the problem of processing industrial wastes, as well as their conservation, has become almost global.
Experts do not stop working on how to ensure maximum safety of harmful not only to the environment, but also to the man of toxic industrial waste.
Recently, specialists from a university located in Madison, Wisconsin in the United States of America have proposed a new project to address this problem.
A group of researchers based on sodium bentonite (one of the varieties of clay) have developed a new material that will help ensure a high level of safety of storage of toxic waste of the industry. Sodium bentonite has already proven to be effective in various environmental and environmental projects, but this type of clay is completely unsuitable for burial of industrial wastes with high acidity (for example, red mud that is formed after aluminum processing).
For five years, a group of researchers conducted experiments in which various polymers were incorporated into the sodium concretes in order to increase the resistance of the clay to an acidic environment. After many unsuccessful attempts, the specialists still managed to develop a new material that is capable of withstanding the acidity level to 14 pH, depending on the number of components in the medium.
The new material was called Resistex GCL and the researchers started to produce it jointly with CETCO. Currently, experts are testing an improved type of material called Continuum GCL.
In addition, there is already a buyer for the new material - this is the world's largest company - aluminum producer Alcoa. The manufacturer uses a new material in the construction of one of its storage facilities for aluminum waste.
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