Characterization, leachate Characteristics and compressive strength of Jarosite/clay/fly ash bricks

Jarosite wastes are produced daily from the refineries and contain toxic elements. In this study, the characterization of jarosite/clay/fly ash admixture is carried out to explore the possibility of using the produced bricks in the construction industry. The XRD results showed that the major phases in jarosite are Coesite and Mackinawite while Kaolinite and Mullite were found in clay and fly ash respectively.The major chemical elements in jarosite are Fe (41.46%), S (7.29%) and Si (5.61%) whereas Si (24.4%), Al (20.01%) and Fe (2.26%) were found in clay. On the hand, the major elements in fly ash are Si (22.44%), Al (18.42) and Ca (3.47).The microstructure of jaroriste and clay showed non-uniform particles in structure and irregular in shape while fly ash particles were uniform in structure and spherical/cenospherical in shape. The compressive strength results of the produced bricks revealed that all the 1:1 and 2:1 ratios with 15% and 20% met the minimum required compressive strengthof common building bricks. The chemical analysis of the leachates heated samples at 900°C showed that toxic elements such as Pb, Fe and Ni were detoxified except for the Arsenic.