REUSE OF ALUM SLUDGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND CONCRETE WORKS: A GENERAL OVERVIEW
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Abstract
One of the global problems that is associated with production of potable water is alum sludge when aluminum sulfate (Al2SO4 .18H2O) is used as a coagulant. The quantities of over 2.0 million tons of water treatment sludge or residue (WTS) is produced annually by the water operators across Malaysia [1]. It is important to realize that the generation of alum sludge may remain unavoidable in the current processing of drinking water treatment technologies. To comply of disposal of waste standards set by the local/federal authority makes researchers looking for alternative construction materials as a substitute to traditional materials likes cement, ceramic, bricks, tiles and aggregates in manner of reducing the impact of these waste on environment. Series of researches aimed to beneficial reuse in an effort to close the gap between enormous amounts of alum sludge and relieve pollution. However, the most common methods of disposal still depend on land application, reuse for agricultural purposes and attempts to reuse it as a coagulant in the primary treatment of sewage. One of the possibilities for the alum sludge is reuse it in the construction sector. The construction sector consumes huge volume of materials every year which gives construction sector potential to reuse alum sludge in making constructional material and concrete works. Thus, there is a need to do more laboratory experiments to determine maximum percentage that could be used as substitution on construction material. Thereby, the growing problem of alum sludge disposal can be alleviated if new disposal options other than of landfill can be found. This paper presents a review of available literature on attempts at beneficial reuses of drinking water treatment sludge as building and construction materials and concrete works and also studied the behavior at fresh and hardened state.
