Utilization of Savannah Harbor river sediment as the primary raw material in production of fired brick

A laboratory-scale study was conducted to assess the feasibility of the production of fired bricks from sediments dredged from the Savannah Harbor (Savannah, GA, USA). The dredged sediment was used as the sole raw material, or as a 50% replacement for natural brick-making clay. Sediment bricks were prepared using the stiff mud extrusion process from raw mixes consisted of 100% dredged sediment, or 50% dredged sediment and 50% brick clay. The bricks were fired at temperatures between 900 and 1000 °C. Physical and mechanical properties of the dredged sediment brick were found to generally comply with ASTM criteria for building brick. Water absorption of the dredged sediment bricks was in compliance with the criteria for brick graded for severe (SW) or moderate (MW) weathering. Compressive strength of 100% dredged sediment bricks ranged from 8.3 to 11.7 MPa; the bricks sintered at 1000 °C met the requirements for negligible weathering (NW) building brick. Mixing the dredged sediment with natural clay resulted in an increase of the compressive strength. The compressive strength of the sediment-clay bricks fired at 1000 °C was 29.4 MPa, thus meeting the ASTM requirements for the SW grade building brick. Results of this study demonstrate that production of fired bricks is a promising and achievable productive reuse alternative for Savannah Harbor dredged sediments.