Buletinul Institutului Politehnic din Iași Secția Chimie și Inginerie Chimică ISSN: 2537-2947
ISSN-L: 0254-7104
2026, Volume 72(76), Issue 1 (March), pp. 83 - 94
Microwave Heating Application for Making Cellular Gravel Using Recycled
Residual Flat Glass from Construction as Well as Alumina-Silicate Industrial
By-Products (Fly Ash and Slag)
LUCIAN PĂUNESCU, National University of Science and Technology
“Politehnica”, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, Research
Center for Environmental Protection and Eco-Friendly, Bucharest, Romania, lucianpaunescu16@gmail.com SORIN MIRCEA AXINTE, National University of Science and Technology
“Politehnica”, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, Research
Center for Environmental Protection and Eco-Friendly, Bucharest, Romania;
National University of Science and Technology “Politehnica”, Faculty of
Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, Bucharest, Romania MARIUS
FLORIN DRĂGOESCU, National University of Science and Technology
“Politehnica”, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, Research
Center for Environmental Protection and Eco-Friendly, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract The production of cellular glass gravel based on glass waste
and a suitable foaming agent has rapidly reached an industrial level in the
last decades, satisfying the need for insulation-under slab and rooftops,
light filling material for landscaping, roof gardens, green roofs, etc.,
having drainage and load bearing abilities. Not only glass waste was tested
for the manufacture of cellular gravels, but also other material precursors,
the most interesting being metallurgical slag and coal fly ash. They
exhibited the capability to increase the mechanical strength of cellular
products, but had a certain negative effect on their thermal insulation and
physical properties. The current work aimed at finding an optimal
correlation between the proportions of glass waste and those of slag and fly
ash used in the material mixture. The own technical solution of applying
predominantly direct microwave heating was maintained in this experiment. Keywords: cellular gravel, microwave heating, drainage, load bearing,
insulating