Abstract |
Dredging sediments from rivers around the world is a standard practice to open waterways for naval transportation. In Ohio, 1.5 million cubic yards of sediment is being dredged annually from rivers streaming into lake Erie. Dredged material (DM) is highly nutritious and may be partly contaminated and has contributed to the endemic algae bloom. Following the passage of bill 1 by the US Senate and accordingly as of July 2020 and in an attempt to improve the water quality of the region the dredging process will not be allowed to be dumped in the open waters as historically exercised. The DM is hence stored in facilities to later be taken advantage of in various other ways. Studies have been carried out on utilizing dredged material in built environments namely in the manufacturing of bricks, blocks, and concrete. This study focuses on the manufacturing of economical high-quality lightweight aggregate (LWA) using dredged material collected from the harbor of Toledo. The result from this study showed that DM collected for this study from Toledo within the range of 4 years was consistent chemically; furthermore, high quality expanded LWA could be manufactured purely from DM under specific firing conditions.
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