THESIS
2015
xiv, 342 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
The production of waste is an important problem facing the modern world. Although in previous
centuries the disposal of waste was not of the utmost importance, it is now an alarming issue that
cannot be overlooked. Currently, the majority of the waste produced on Earth is dumped or landfilled.
However, landfilling is simply not compatible with a truly sustainable approach to resource
management. Alternate engineering options to landfilling are being sought which aim higher on the
hierarchy of solid waste management. When possible, the recovery of potentially valuable materials
and products from solid wastes is a preferred alternative to mere disposal. Initiatives which aim to
produce valuable products from wastes not only help confront the problem of environmental
pollution, but...[
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The production of waste is an important problem facing the modern world. Although in previous
centuries the disposal of waste was not of the utmost importance, it is now an alarming issue that
cannot be overlooked. Currently, the majority of the waste produced on Earth is dumped or landfilled.
However, landfilling is simply not compatible with a truly sustainable approach to resource
management. Alternate engineering options to landfilling are being sought which aim higher on the
hierarchy of solid waste management. When possible, the recovery of potentially valuable materials
and products from solid wastes is a preferred alternative to mere disposal. Initiatives which aim to
produce valuable products from wastes not only help confront the problem of environmental
pollution, but also potentially entail significant economic gains. This thesis is aimed at providing
evidence that valuable materials and products can be obtained from a wide variety of solid wastes.
The central theme of all examined case studies herein is that the considered wastes are rich in carbon
and/or silica. Both organic and synthetic wastes are chosen in order to add variety to the thesis
project. The considered wastes are rice husks, electronic wastes (printed circuit boards), palm kernel
shell gasification residues, and plastics. The valuable products obtained from these wastes include:
solid fuels, oil sorbent materials, high purity porous silica, heavy metal adsorbent briquettes, porous
(activated) carbons, biodiesel catalysts, and carbon nanoproducts. In addition to the production of oil
sorbents, the topic of oil spill remediation with sorbents is more closely examined. A series of
modifications are proposed for the current ASTM standards and a novel model for the evaluation of
the oil retention curve in unsteady state gravimetric experiments is developed.
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