Study of environmental effects of aluminum anodizing sludge and presentation of appropriate solutions

Subject Areas : environmental management

Mostafa Khezri ¹ , Parisa Ghafoori ²

1 - Faculty of Environment, Science and Research Campus ,Azad University of Tehran
2 - Faculty of Environment, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University

Received: 2006-02-01 Accepted : 2006-05-30 Published : 2009-09-23

Keywords: Aluminum Anodizing, sludge cake, brick, fire brick,

Abstract :

Aluminum anodizing factories produce considerable amounts of sludge. If this sludge is discharged in ordinary ways, it will have negative environmental effects on water resources, soil, plants, and animals. It will even cause diseases such as Alzheimer for the human beings. The aim of this research is to find uses for the sludge cakes of aluminum anodizing units both to prevent environmental pollution and to obtain economic profit for the factories. To this end, bricks with different combinations of sludge, clay and sand were built and tested against the available standards. The result showed that bricks with 40% sludge were the best and closest in quality to the ordinary bricks built for domestic uses. Such bricks are lighter and have a higher price than the ordinary ones with the same volume. They also prevent sludge from being spread in the environment.