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Title: CHEMICAL AND MINERALOGICAL PROPERTIES OF IRON AND ALUMINUM WASTE GREEN FOUNDRY SANDS

Author
item DEKOFF, JASON - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item LEE, BRAD - PURDUE UNIVERSITY
item Dungan, Robert - Rob

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/7/2005
Publication Date: 11/7/2005
Citation: Dekoff, J., Lee, B., Dungan, R.S. 2005. Chemical and mineralogical properties of iron and aluminum waste green foundry sands. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Indiana ranks second in the nation in waste foundry sand production with one million tons annually disposed in landfills. As available landfill space and profit margins steadily decrease it becomes more important to find ways of diverting waste foundry sand away from landfills and identify beneficial uses of this material. This study is part of a larger project that focuses on using waste foundry sand as a soil amendment in urban and rural agricultural applications. Indiana foundries using green sand were reviewed for types of metals cast; of those, waste sand from three gray iron and three aluminum foundries were selected for detailed physical, chemical, and mineralogical analyses. The particle size analysis of the samples was dominated by medium and fine sand (total sand: 94-100%; medium sand 29-65%; fine sand 29-56%), with low silt (0-2%) and clay (0-4%) content. The cation exchange capacities of these materials were low and ranged from ~0.600-5.00 cmolc kg-1. Neither of these results showed major variation between gray iron and aluminum foundries. In addition to these results, X-ray diffraction patterns of differing size fractions and swelling indices will be presented and discussed.