A study on heat evolution of geopolymer made from hospital glass waste

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Balamand, Koura 110, Lebanon
² La Rochelle Université, LaSIE UMR CNRS 7356, Avenue Michel Crépeau, CEDEX 1, 17042, La Rochelle, France

^* Corresponding author: marianne.saba@balamand.edu.lb, ahamami@univ-lr.fr

Abstract

The construction industry is responsible for significant environmental damage, which can be countered by adopting sustainable practices. This can be achieved using eco-friendly building materials and implementing waste management strategies. Geopolymer concrete is an example of a green building material that uses waste materials like silica fume, fly ash, and glass to reduce environmental impact. Geopolymer is an inorganic material made by mixing aluminosilicate precursor with an alkaline activator such as sodium silicate and potassium hydroxide solution. This work uses hospital waste glass to produce geopolymer mortars and assesses the calorimetric heat exchange released when the material is manufactured to determine its sustainability. This study used hospital glass waste to partially replace Metakaolin and a sodium silicate-based alkali activator in a geopolymer matrix. The mass substitution of Metakaolin with hospital glass waste varied between 0, 5, and 10 %. The mechanical properties were assessed by conducting a compressive test on day 90, followed by a calorimetric study that evaluated the heat change inside the geopolymerization reaction. The samples demonstrated great compressive strength results, reaching a value of 45 MPa for 10% mass substitution at day 90. The calorimetric analysis proved that the increase in strength was due to increased heat evolution inside the matrix, thus increasing the geopolymerization reaction. In conclusion, this work highlighted the importance of using hospital glass waste as a sustainable solution in the material construction sector as it provides new sites on the feasibility of using this recyclable hospital waste in producing eco-green material.