Porcelain is a material produced from kaoline, quartz and potassium-feldspar. Recently, research of new materials, for example non-hazardous wastes, that are able to replace traditional fluxing agents without changing the process or quality of the final products has been realized. The aim of this investigation is to study the possibility of the use of borosilicate glass waste powder for manufacturing porcelain. The borosilicate glass waste was added partially and fully in replacement of potassiumfeldspar. Samples were fired in an electric furnace with a heating rate of 10 οC minute-1 at 1000, 1100, 1200 and 1300 οC for periods of 1, 2, 3 and 5 hours. The sintered samples were characterised by XRD (X-ray diffraction) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). Sintering activation energies were determined based on the bulk density results. With 0, 5, 10, 15 and 25 wt.% glass waste additions, the apparent activation energies were calculated to be 166, 110.73, 109.85, 65, 43 kJ/mol, respectively. It was found that the sintering activation energy decreased with an increase in the waste glass addition.
Keywords: Porcelain, Borosilicate glass waste, Microstructural evolution, Sintering kinetics.