Characterization and evaluation of dried automotive paint sludge as cement-based composite

Automotive industries generate large amount of paint sludge where 40% of paint sprayed on the car’s body end up as waste. Inappropriate paint sludge disposal is hazardous to public health and environment. An approach to use paint sludge into composite materials was conducted with purpose to recycle this waste into valuable concrete product. Automotive paint sludge (APS) was obtained from one of the car manufacturers in Malaysia. Chemical composition and physical properties of dried APS was characterized using Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) prior to preparation of composite formulation. Mechanical properties i.e. compressive strength of composite-based cement after being substituted with the drie APS was conducted with increment percentage of 1 wt%, 3 wt%, 5 wt%, 7 wt%, 10 wt%. Cement to water to admixture with density ratio of 1000:200:16 kg/m3 respectively were used for all the blended cement paste mixtures. Characterization of the dried APS shows that chemical compounds are suitable for cement formulation. Results indicated that both control specimen and dried APS composite-cement increase the compressive strength with increasing curing days. However, the results show that blended cement with dried APS has lower overall compressive strength compared to conventional cement paste that may due to the porosity of the formed capillary structure.