Harnessing sugar beet mud waste as a green flame-retardant filler for unsaturated polyester composites

Author's Department

Chemistry Department

Fifth Author's Department

Chemistry Department

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2025.107779

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Aly Reda Abdel Ghafar El-Demerdash Wagih Sadik Essam El-Rafey Tamer Shoeib

Document Type

Research Article

Publication Title

Process Safety and Environmental Protection

Publication Date

10-1-2025

doi

10.1016/j.psep.2025.107779

Abstract

This study investigates the utilization of filter mud solid waste (FMSW), an agro-industrial byproduct of sugar beet refining, as a sustainable alternative filler in unsaturated polyester resins (UPRs) green composites. Despite the significant production of FMSW and its environmental disposal challenges, its potential as a flame-retardant filler in polymers has been underexplored. In this work, FMSW was systematically benchmarked against conventional CaCO3 as a filler in UPR composites, with loads ranging from 5 % to 50 %, to evaluate its effectiveness as an alternative. Comprehensive characterization through FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX, and TGA showed that FMSW exhibits comparable crystallinity, morphology, thermal stability, and chemical compatibility to mineral CaCO3. Mechanical testing revealed that FMSW filled composites exhibited tensile and flexural strengths of 14.7 and 13.6 MPa respectively at 50 % loading, compared to 18.6 and 19.8 MPa respectively for 50 % mineral CaCO3 filled composites. Hardness tests indicated improvement with the addition of both fillers, achieving maximum values of 67.2 and 67.4 at 10 and 20 % mineral CaCO3 and FMSW inclusion respectively, indicating that FMSW can enhance surface hardness. Water absorption tests demonstrated similar hydrophobic behavior in both composites. The flame retardancy of the composites, as indicated by their limiting oxygen index values was measured to be 24 and 22 % at 50 % FMSW and CaCO3 loading respectively. Cone calorimetry showed the peak heat release rate to be 337.1 and 385.5 kW/m2 for the 50 % FMSW and CaCO3 loading respectively. These findings establish, for the first time, FMSW as a viable, economical, and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional mineral fillers in UPR composites, while simultaneously demonstrating its flame-retardant functionality in polymers.

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