A man-made aggregate or a masonry unit may be made by adding impound residues and mixing the impound residues with other residues, ceramic materials and/or additives to form an admixture. The impound residues may also be mixed with synthetic or organic polymers. The impound residues may not conform to the requirements of ASTM C618-15. The admixture may be subjected to a thermal process that allows for a ceramic conversion of the ceramic components of the mix used.

An engine control system configured to operate an engine is configured to predict an expected duty cycle including an expected demand from the engine, and calculate two or more future operating conditions, each future operating condition including engine control parameters that, when used to control the engine, are expected to result in the engine meeting the expected demand. One of the future operating conditions is selected, and a present operation of the engine is adjusted in response to the selected future operating condition. A vehicle and/or offroad diesel apparatus may comprise the engine control system.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and materials for fabricating building materials and other components from coal. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to materials and other components, such as char clay plaster, char brick, and foam glass fabricated from coal, and to methods of forming such materials. In an embodiment is provided a building material fabrication method. The method includes mixing an organic solvent with coal, under solvent extraction conditions, to form a coal extraction residue, and heating the coal extraction residue under pyrolysis conditions to form a pyrolysis char, the pyrolysis conditions comprising a temperature greater than about 500? C. The method further includes mixing the pyrolysis char with water and with one or more of clay, cement, or sand to create a mixture, and molding and curing the mixture to form a building material. Pyrolysis char-containing materials are also disclosed.

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to methods and materials for fabricating building materials and other components from coal. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to materials and other components, such as char clay plaster, char brick, and foam glass fabricated from coal, and to methods of forming such materials. In an embodiment is provided a building material fabrication method. The method includes mixing an organic solvent with coal, under solvent extraction conditions, to form a coal extraction residue, and heating the coal extraction residue under pyrolysis conditions to form a pyrolysis char, the pyrolysis conditions comprising a temperature greater than about 500? C. The method further includes mixing the pyrolysis char with water and with one or more of clay, cement, or sand to create a mixture, and molding and curing the mixture to form a building material. Pyrolysis char-containing materials are also disclosed.

A ceramsite produced by using a river/lake/sea sludge and seashell powder as raw materials and a preparation method thereof are provided. The ceramsite is made of the following raw materials in parts by weight: 15-50 parts of shell powder, 5-15 parts of kaolin, 1-5 parts of peat ash, 15-30 parts of siliceous shale, 15-40 parts of furnace slag, 10-20 parts of fly ash, 15-40 parts of zeolite, 10-30 parts of river/lake/sea sludge, and 10-25 parts of peat. The shell powder is pulverized to a particle size of 60-200 mesh in fineness. A content of silica in the siliceous shale is 87.0%-89.5%. The preparation method of the ceramsite includes the following steps: taking raw materials, pulverizing, stirring, granulating, calcining, and naturally cooling, so as to obtain the ceramsite.

Methods are described to make strong, tough, and/or lightweight glass-ceramic composites having a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase generated by viscous reaction sintering of a complex mixture of oxides and other materials. The present invention further relates to strong, tough, and lightweight glass-ceramic composites that can be used as proppants and for other uses.

Materials that seamlessly transition from opaque to transparent or translucent, such as advanced geopolymer-based ceramics to glass structures, which can be directly and seamlessly bonded without the use of an intermediate adhesive or use of a frame are disclosed. That is, a GP-based ceramic to glass structure can be bonded directly and seamlessly and without any mechanical joints, connective tissue or adhesives such as caulking or epoxy. Such ceramic to glass materials can be prepared by sintering an engineered geopolymer with glass to form the geopolymer-based advanced ceramic-glass structure in which the interface is visually abruptly or in which the material is a graded composition with a controlled transition from one material to the other.

The present disclosure provides a method for producing a heat-dissipating ceramic foam containing carbonized cellulose particles, the method including: mixing particles of carbonized cellulose or carbonized cellulose-containing substance, ceramic powders, silicate, and water to form slurry; adding a foaming agent to the slurry to form foamed slurry; and drying the foamed slurry.

Methods of making sintered ceramic particles include preparing an aqueous slurry containing an alumina-containing raw material and a binder containing a raw plant material, forming the slurry into green pellets, and sintering the green pellets to provide the sintered ceramic particles.

The present invention provides a method of preparing a proppant material by heating a reaction mixture comprising a plurality of oxides in a reactive atmosphere to a temperature above the melting point of the reaction mixture to form a melt, and then allowing the melt to solidify in a mold in the form of spherical particles. The present invention also provides a method of preparing a proppant material by heating a reaction mixture comprising a plurality of oxides and one or more additives in a reactive atmosphere to a temperature below the melting point of the reaction mixture to form a powder including one or more reaction products, and then processing the powder to form spherical particles. The present invention also provides a proppant material including spherical particles characterized by a specific gravity of about 1.0 to 3.0 and a crush strength of at least about 10,000 psi.