From Industrial Waste: Scientists Find 'Alternatives' to Natural Gypsum

Russia Today reported on August 2 that Russian scientists have made a synthetic gypsum using industrial waste in a collaborative study with an international team. Researchers say that the performance of this synthetic gypsum is superior to that of natural gypsum. Experts believe that synthetic gypsum may replace the natural gypsum used in the construction industry in the future.

Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Iron and Steel and Alloys, the Belarusian State Technical University, the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences and the University of Limerick in Ireland have made a synthetic gypsum from chemical waste and limestone, according to the monthly journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

In the process of research, researchers invented a method of obtaining synthetic gypsum with the help of waste sulfuric acid. The results show that synthetic gypsum is superior to natural gypsum in performance.

Valenkin Romanovsky, one of the participants in the study and a researcher at the Research Center for Structural Ceramic Nanomaterials at the Moscow Institute of Iron and Steel and Alloys, said: "The comprehensive study on the acquisition of gypsum from other wastes and the technical and economic justification have now been completed. We have also developed a step-by-step method for generating anthracite that skips the process of generating plaster and saves energy. ”

Scientists mixed waste sulfuric acid from chemical production with water and limestone to obtain three types of synthetic gypsum – gypsum for construction, high-strength gypsum compound and anthracite.

Researchers believe that the advantage of this synthetic gypsum manufacturing method is that the initial form of this synthetic material is powder.

Romanovsky noted: "This method allows synthetic gypsum-based synthetic crystals to be made into the desired shape and size. ”

Scientists say synthetic gypsum is a promising gypsum-containing raw material and could become a substitute for natural gypsum. Due to the simplification of the production technology of synthetic gypsum, this technology is also expected to reduce the cost of electricity consumption in the production process.

Researchers believe that this synthetic gypsum may completely replace natural gypsum in countries with insufficient gypsum reserves.

Source: Reference News Network