A Preliminary Assessment of the Potential of Boiler Ash and Spent Bleaching Earth as Raw Materials for Bricks Production

Oil companies generate two byproductsspent bleaching earth and boiler ashwhich pose environmental and operational risks due to their disposal and waste management challenges.This study assesses the potential of Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) and Boiler Ash for bricks production due to their silica and alumina content.The developed bricks were characterized by their water absorption, compressive tolerance, and flexural strength.A Central Composite Design was used as the experimental design to evaluate the varying levels of SBE and Boiler Ash mixture.The result shows a linear effect on the bricks' compressive strength and flexural strength concerning the amount of SBE, wherein the increasing amount of SBE increased the said properties.Moreover, it was found that the optimum composition for the bricks was 1.8 kg of SBE and 0.6 kg of Boiler ash, which gave the bricks a higher compressive strength and flexural strength.The study provides valuable insights into using Boiler Ash and SBE to develop bricks.