Porous material from recycled glass waste as an advantageous alternative to existing building materials

Abstract

Experimental results of manufacturing the cellular glass from container glass waste using an unconventional heat treatment technique (microwave energy) are presented in the paper. The cellular glass has physical, mechanical and morphological characteristics suitable for using as an insulating material in construction constituting an alternative for existing building materials. By comparison with these materials, the cellular glass has a higher resistance to mechanical stress, fire, humidity, attack of rodents, insects, bacteria, etc. The apparent density and thermal conductivity of the product are low (below 0.34 g/ cm3 and 0.062 W/ m·K, respectively), the compressive strength is acceptable (over 1.2 MPa) and the material structure is homogeneous with closed pores evenly distributed. The originality of the manufacturing technique of cellular glass presented in the paper is the use of microwave energy, unlike the conventional methods currently applied in the world. The advantages of the use of this unconventional technique are the low specific energy consumption (around 1 kWh / kg) and its non-polluting character.

Keywords

• cellular glass
• glass waste
• microwave
• lightweight
• mechanical strength