Comprehensive Study on Textile Dyeing Sludge as a Substitute for Cement in Cement-Mortar

This study examines the reuse of textile effluent treatment plant (ETP) sludge in substituting cement in construction industry. The chemical sludge from CETP of Karur, Tamil Nadu has been taken for study purpose. This is a comprehensive study mainly testing the physical properties such as consistency, initial and final setting time of cement with various percentages of sludge, and compressive strength of the mortar cubes with sludge replacing the cement; testing the chemical properties such as pH, Electrical conductivity, Total Hardness and Heavy metal concentration present in the cured water for various days for various percentages of sludge replacing cement in cement-mortar cubes. The chemical sludge from textile wastewater treatment plants has a potential to be reused up to 20% replacement of cement to ensure the required compressive strength of mortar.