Buletinul Institutului Politehnic din Iași Secția Chimie și Inginerie Chimică ISSN: 2537-2947
ISSN-L: 0254-7104
2025, Volume 71(75), Issue 2 (JUNE), pp. 19 - 32
Combined Use of Solid and Liquid Foaming Agents for Making Cellular
Glass Aggregate-Microwave Assisted
LUCIAN PĂUNESCU, Daily Sourcing & Research SRL Bucharest, Romania,
lucianpaunescu16@gmail.com SORIN MIRCEA AXINTE, Daily Sourcing & Research SRL Bucharest, Romania;
Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science, National University of
Science and Technology “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Romania
Abstract A cellular glass aggregate with excellent heat insulation
properties and mechanical strength was designed and tested under conditions
of using unconventional microwave heating method. Sodium carbonate and
glycerol were utilized as simultaneous expanding agents. Green post-consumer
drinking glass was the predominant raw material in the mixture that
contained also kaolin and water glass. The optimal cellular glass product
had bulk density of 0.22 g·cm-3, heat conductivity of 0.062 W·m-1·K-1, and
compression strength of 6.9 MPa. The process energy efficiency was
excellent, the specific energy consumption being of 0.86 kWh·kg-1. The
originality of the work consists in choosing sodium carbonate as a foaming
agent together with glycerol and applying the own technique of mixed heating
(direct and indirect) with microwaves. Keywords: cellular glass,
microwave, glycerol, sodium carbonate, water glass