Answer:
A method for recycling.

Created a proprietary concrete matrix material that applies the usage of fired ceramic product, such a toilet bowls, urinals and dishes and turns it into finished goods.

The domestic ceramic sanitaryware industry currently manufactures approximately 20.94 million individual units (toilet tanks and bowls, urinals, sinks, bidets) with the amount of secondary waste produced exceeding 35,869 tons per year. Project prposed to take these toilets and create an aggregate raw material out of them. The crushed material can then be designed into manufactured industrial and consumer products. The goal is to fabricate objects that use as their structured content the recycled clay, just as glass bottles, plastic containers and newspapers are recycled today back into products.

A typical concrete composite has as its weight content over 50% aggregate in its mixture. The concrete industry currently uses over 2 billion tons of gravel per year. Therefore, with just a 1% penetration into the aggregate industry, there would be a market demand for over 20 million tons of ceramic aggregate annually. If the penetration reached 1.79% the complete waste of the sanitaryware industry could be consumed.

This park bench is an example of this application. Imbedded into the cement mixture was once a complete toilet bowl and tank weighing 52 pounds.

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Wood fired kilns come in many assorted shapes, sizes and firing attributes, but all require a continuous tending and stoking of wood throughout the process, which lasts from several hours to several days. During this process the “fly ash” from the burning wood is drawn from the firebox into the chamber where the pots sit. This ash settles and eventually fluxes and melts to form a natural ash glaze on the surface of the pottery.

To create as much ash as possible a typical stoking occurs every 7-10 minutes. The kiln is typically fired in a reduction atmosphere, which starves the kiln fire of oxygen. The downside is that this causes a release of heavy black smoke (carbon monoxide), particulates, hydrocarbons and release of air contaminates into the atmosphere over the continuous firing process from the chimney flue.

Solution covers the method of placing a catalytic combustor (convertor) in the chimney flue to burn the fuel more efficiently and burn-off unwanted contaminate. Exhaust gases can be routed through a catalytic combustor: a ceramic or metallic matrix material that is coated with a metal such as platinum or palladium. Smoke, gases and particles pass through the combustors surfaces and ignite at a much lower temperature (250°C) than they would without the combustor (500°C). The result is that harmful substances are more completely burned. The process is passive, relatively maintenance free and of reasonable costs over an estimated 5-year lifecycle. Preliminary test results reduced particulates by 85-90% during the process and did not effect firing schedule or ash effect on ceramic work.

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Press molded Δ10 electric 12″dia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stoneware Δ10 reduction/oxidation over hump mold. 14″diameter

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Scrap clay Δ013 electric, hand-formed

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