Production and characterization of colourless soda lime silica glass containing high amounts of cement kiln dust

Cement kiln dust collected from exhaust gases of cement kiln, nodulizer and cooling tower is used as a non-conventional raw material for production of industrial soda lime silica glass. Increased amounts of dust up to about 50% of parent glass composition were added to substitute partially or totally some conventional raw materials of glass batches. The prepared batches were melted at the industrial conditions of melting the commercial soda lime silica glass. Some physical and chemical properties were studied to characterize the produced glass. The density of the prepared glass was slightly increased as dust amount increased whereas the chemical stability of glass decreased. The results of density as well as chemical stability of prepared glasses did not vary to that of industrial soda lime silica glass. The produced glasses containing cement kiln dust were either pale to pale-medium green in the absence of carbon in the batches. The colours of glasses were faint yellow to brownish red in presence of about 0.5% carbon. The deep of colour was increased with amounts of added cement dust. With increasing cement dust level, light transmission was decreased and intensity of glass colour increased. The results obtained in this work showed the possibility of using cement kiln dust in glass batches of industrial production of colourless and amber soda lime silica glass in amounts up approximate to 30% of glass compositions.