Arabian Journal of Geosciences
Arabian Journal of Geosciences
4 years ago

Egyptian Cretaceous clay deposits: Insights on Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Industrial uses

Sherif Farouk, Hatem El-Desoky, Mohamed Heikal, Medhat El-Mahallawy, Ahmed Wahid
Development of products which can be produced from a country's natural resources is very important as far as the industrialization of a nation and saving foreign exchange is concerned. The recent vast expansion of the ceramic industry in Egypt results in an excessively high consumption rate of Aswan clays, so the current study aims to explore other potential materials for application in the vitrified clay pipes industry. Based on the abundance of ceramic raw materials in Egypt and the demand for vitrified clay pipes, it is pertinent to develop and manufacture vitrified clay pipes by exploiting the locally available raw materials in other localities. This research thus concerns the characterization of some clay materials of the Cretaceous. Three economic clay formations were selected for the study: (1) the Malha Formation at Abu Darag and Zafarana, North Eastern Desert; (2) Naqb El Sillim Formation at the Bahariya Oasis, North Western Desert; and (3) Abu Aggag Formation at Aswan, South Eastern Desert. The clayey formations were investigated to assess their potential in the manufacture of vitrified clay pipes. Based on the obtained results of mechanical, chemical, and technical characteristics, the Naqb El Sillim Formation has the best results in a wide range of firing temperatures (1140–1180 °C) compared with the required limits of the international standards for clay pipes application. On the other hand, the Malha and Abu Aggag formations needed some additives to satisfy the standard limits of clay pipes application so, the granite wastes were selected and added by 20% to these samples, then fired at 1180 °C. The experimental results obtained from the studied samples indeed revealed the viability of manufacturing vitrified clay pipes from the raw materials.

Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12517-020-05557-7

DOI: 10.1007/s12517-020-05557-7

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