Experimental Study of Disposable Baby Diaper Conversion into Compressed Brick Material by Employing Wet Torrefaction Process

• Main Author: Wicaksana, Graveo
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/34540
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Disposable baby diaper waste has become serious problem in Indonesia. The diaper are usually dumped into landfill, contaminating the ground water. On the otherhand, residential needs are increasing as the consequence of population growth. Therefore, a solution is needed to utilize the disposable baby diaper waste as the building material. Wet torrefaction can convert the big size waste into smaller and uniform product by processing in compressed hot water medium. In this final project, the wet torrefaction product from disposable diaper mixed with cement, sand and water, will be used as raw material of brick. Wet torrefaction experiments were conducted at the temperature range of 150 to 200 °C and holding time of 30 to 90 min. Wet torrefaction experiment results in both temperature were used as the raw material of compressed brick which would be tested for its compressive strength after 7 days. According to the results, the mixed brick with wet torrefaction product has compressive strength which were 38.78 and 36.36 MPa, lower than that of unmixed brick which was 53.41 MPa, but showed more ductile characteristic. Variation of operation temperature did not give big influences to the brick, so the torrefaction temperature of 150 °C and holding time of 30 min were chosen as the optimum parameters, because they need less energy. It also can be concluded that the addition of wet torrefaction product can reduce the sand requirement down to 50%.