Industrial Waste-Derived Alumina-Zirconia-Silica Low Cement Castable.

High-strength low-cement castables have been produced for the first time from waste of demolished glass furnaces. Adispersant of long-chain ionizable sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP, 0.2 wt.%) had a positive effect on electrostatic stabilization and improvement of the rheological characteristics of alumina-zirconia-silica (AZS) castable. Four castable mixes of various packing moduli (n = 0.22, 0.23, 0.24, and 0.25) have been formulated using the Andreasen equation. The castable of Andreasen packing modulus n = 0.25 demonstrated an outstanding compressive strength (1118.15 kg/cm2) and a moderate bulk density (2.65 g/cm3) when fired at 1375°C. It showed the highest dimensional stability and a permanent linear change of less than 0.6% at 1300°C. It displayed high thermal shock resistance (30 cycles) and high abrasion resistance (abrasion loss ~2.05% after 280 abrasion test cycles) when fired at 1300°C. Therefore, this castable can be used in high wear-rate sections of cement kilns and is an excellent choice in case of kiln instability. The results indicated that the castable with n = 0.25 is highly recommended for lining the inlet of rotary cement kilns at 1000 – 1300°C. The results open the door for the use of waste from demolished glass kilns to produce high-strength low-cement refractory castable for lining cement kiln inlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]