A feasibility study on production of concrete blocks using treated municipal solid waste leachate

Abstract

Population growth and development have increased the need for drinking water all over the world. Hence, it is required to nd an alternative to water in different industries. Concrete represents a remarkable waterconsuming industry. The present study investigates whether the treated leachate of municipal land lls can be employed as a substitute for water in the concrete mixing scheme. For this purpose, concrete samples fabricated at different concentrations of treated leachates were compared to the control sample containing distilled water in terms of uncon ned compressive strength (UCS) at the ages of 7 and 28 days. The experimental results revealed treated leachate accelerated the cement setting time by nearly 15 min and increased concrete slumping by 16%. The complete replacement of distilled water with treated leachate decreased UCS by 25% (from 50 to 38 MPa). The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and ultrasonic results showed that a rise in the treated leachate content of concrete increased porosity.Increased porosity would reduce UCS. The presence of heavy metals and leaching from the cement matrix are important characteristics of leachates. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) revealed that the leaching of heavy metals in all the samples was in the acceptable range.