Vitrification of industrial and natural wastes with production of glass fibres

Solid wastes coming from the municipal incinerator of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and sludge excavated from the lagoon of Venice were successfully vitrified at 1350–1500°C. Glass cullet, coming from a community glass recycling program, was introduced in some of the batches as a melting aid. Several analyses performed on the glasses showed that the glass transition and devitrification temperatures shift to higher values with increasing amount of waste in the raw materials. The glasses obtained display a good durability. Two kinds of wastes tested in the experiments could be vitrified by themselves, with no addition of external raw materials. Glass fibres were drawn from the obtained glasses at various temperatures. Mechanical tests showed that the elastic modulus increases with the waste content, while it does not depend on the drawing temperature. The fibres possess a good tensile strength (a maximum value of 1.6 GPa was obtained).