Surface Carburizing by Valorization of Organic Waste

The organic waste recycling problem remains an important economic issue for the industry, where much research is done in this area. In this study, we are interested in the enhancement of some organic waste from slaughterhouses (blood and horns) with two objectives: recycling wastes and producing cheap cement for surface carburizing. The waste is converted into coal and added to an activator to produce a solid medium, witch can be used for surface carburizing of carbon steels. Preparation of waste and physical and chemical carbonating of blood and horns resulted in production of coal, that was used as an effective carbon source for cementation treatment. Comparison of the obtained results with other works on carburizing treatment, using industrial solid mixtures, has shown that carburizing layers in both cases are very similar. Indeed, metallographic analysis, X-ray diffraction and Vickers hardness testing of obtained layers have led to results very similar to those in literature.