The research was carried out by professors from the Environmental Soil Science Group (GEA-UMH) of the UMH Department of Agrochemistry and Environment Manuel Jordán, María Belén Almendro and José Navarro, together with collaborators from the CSIC and the University of Castilla-La Mancha. The work demonstrates the feasibility of vitrifying biomass waste of the palm grove of Elche and which has recently been published in the international journal Material Letters of Elsevier.
Researchers have demonstrated that the vitrification of palm biomass waste resulting from conservation work in an area of the Elche palm grove would be technically feasible.
With in order to reduce these types of waste and exploit their capacity to obtain building materials, the researchers propose formulations with sewage sludge and other industrial wastes, this first approach evaluates these biomass wastes for vitrification based on chemical analysis and their behaviour at high temperatures by heating using heating microscopy.
High contents of potassium oxides are characteristic of the biomass waste analysedThe relatively high content of phosphorus (P2O5) in the sewage sludge and palm leaf compost, as well as the relatively high content of phosphorus (P2O5) in the compost, showed that all the samples investigated melt at relatively low temperatures (between 1,200-1,300 ºC), and it is concluded that, with a suitable compositional design, the production of glass and glass-ceramic materials would be feasible.
