The Use of Bagasse Ash as a Source of Silica for Production of Container Glass

The study focused on the feasibility of recycling sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) to produce container glass. The bagasse was calcined through a Gallenkamp muffle furnace at 6000C and then held at 7000C for 1 ½ hrs and large amount of bagasse ash was obtained. 30 and 18 mesh sieves were used simultaneously to produce a fine powdered of the materials. 5g of SCBA sieved, calcium carbonate and sodium carbonate were passed through atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The result reveals SiO2 76.34wt%, Al2O3 8.55wt%, Fe2O3 2.93wt%, Na2O 0.12wt%, TiO2 0.80wt%, K2O 1.50wt%, CaO 0.07wt%, SO3 2.25wt%, Cr2O3 0.05wt%, Mn2O3 0.06wt% and LOI 6.42wt%. Interestingly, the ash contained high amount of silica of 76.34wt% which could supply all SiO2 needed to produce soda lime silica glass. A container glass batch composition was formulated from 95.899g of SCBA, 19.220g of CaCO3 and 25.556g of Na2CO3 and fired in muffle furnace at temperature between 11000C-12000C for 3 hours. The resulting glass was amber in colour which signifies the presence of iron oxide (Fe2O3) and sulphur trioxide (SO3) in bagasse ash. This implies that the ash can be used to produce amber glass for beverages and storing pharmaceutical drugs especially those which are sensitive to light.