Recycling of Glass Fibers from Fiberglass Polyester Waste Composite for the Manufacture of Glass-Ceramic Materials

Abstract

This work presents the feasibility of reusing a glass fiber resulting from the thermolysis and gasification of waste composites to obtain glass-ceramic tiles. Polyester fiberglass (PFG) waste was treated at 550˚C for 3 h in a 9.6 dm³ thermolytic reactor. This process yielded an oil (≈24 wt%), a gas (≈8 wt%) and a solid residue (≈68 wt%). After the polymer has been removed, the solid residue is heated in air to oxidize residual char and remove surface contamination. The cleaning fibers were converted into glass-ceramic tile. A mixture consisting of 95 wt% of this solid residue and 5% Na₂O was melted at 1450˚C to obtain a glass frit. Powder glass samples (<63 μm) was then sintered and crystallized at 1013˚C, leading to the formation of wollastonite-plagioclase glass-ceramic materials for architectural applications. Thermal stability and crystallization mechanism have been studied by differential thermal analysis. Mineralogy analyses of the glass-ceramic materials were carried out using X-ray Diffraction.