Egyptian kaolin calcination modeling

Summary

There is a demand driven need for value-addition regarding modelling the calcination of Egyptian raw kaolin into metakaolin. The first value-addition of this research proposal by the optimization of using the widespread naturally occurring Egyptian raw Kaolin in the production of metakaolin. This value-addition will be achieved by considering the processing/treatment of raw kaolin into metakaolin on three levels: (i) as thermally treated on lab-scale; (ii) as calcined on semi-industrial-scale and (iii) when amorphized by grinding. Modelling the production of metakaolin using these three procedures is the second value-addition of this proposal.

To achieve the goals of this research proposal, field, mineralogical, chemical, physico-mechanical, microstructural and tomographical studies will be conducted on both the raw kaolin and the produced metakaolin. Specifically, the proposal will address the following questions: Q 1: What are the characteristics of the raw kaolin? Q 2: How would metakaolin be produced by thermal treatment?; Q 3: Would metakaolin be produced by methods other than the thermal treatment?; Q 4: What is the effect of the metakaolin pore system on its pozzolanic reactivity?; Q 5: How would the metakaolin quality affect its application as geo-polymer pre-cursor? and Q 6: How could the cost-effective prediction models be created? Answering these questions will result in variable data sets which will be integrated in a statistical environment to produce cost-effective integrated models. These models would elaborate the production of metakaolin at optimum firing temperatures which would serve the urgent need of the Egyptian society for reducing energy consumption. The model will also be considered as a predictive tool that can accurately assess the different conditions that control the calcination of raw kaolin.

When implemented as planned, this research proposal would have significant intellectual merits, broad societal implications and positive industrial impacts. The industrial community end users of the proposal outputs are mainly those involved in the production of cement, building and construction materials, geopolymers and many other enterprises.

All the planned proposed tasks will be accomplished jointly by Egyptian scientists from Ain Shams University (ASU), The National Research Centre (NRC), The Housing and Building Research Center (HBRC) and The Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI) in cooperation with the industrial partner Sinai Manganese Company (SMC).

Achievements

1- Modelling lab-scale mekaolin.

List of Publications from the Project

In preparation.

Partners

Project Members

Project Leaders