Influence of Different Proportions of the Addition of Electrocoagulated Metal Sludge (EMS) Obtained from Oily Wastewater Treatment on the Properties of Laboratory Bricks

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

It was a pleasure to review the work,

It is a topic of current interest, however I think your work needs corrections.

1. what is the hypothesis of your work? colloquial or define it because ideas are lost.

2. your objective is not very clear

3. the first 2.1 of your materials and methods is not very clear, you mention that you use different devices to measure pH, temperature, etc, but you do not mention the procedure. 

4. your work does not have any statistical analysis to support your results and show which of your treatments can be the best, and if it really has any difference in your percentages of EMS inclusion. 

5. the discussion part is missing. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors present a work about “Influence of different proportions of the addition of electro-coagulation metal sludge (EMS) obtained from oily wastewater treatment on the properties of laboratory bricks”

This study is very interesting, rigourous and complete. However,  I suggest that authors complete the Table 2 with standard deviations and for Figures 4, 9 and 12 put the error bars.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The use of EMS as a building material is very useful as it converts waste materials 86 into useful materials and reduces the amount that needs to be disposed of in landfills. In this work, a study was carried out on the partial replacement of clay with EMS in the manufacture of bricks in order to obtain a quality product. The effects of the addition of different proportions of sludge on the quality of the bricks produced, the initial adsorption of water, 5-hour boiling water absorption, the compressive strength, the saturation coefficient, the ecotoxicity of the bricks, etc. were analyzed. The aim of this research was to investigate the possibility of integrating EMS generated by the electrochemical process of oily wastewater into the production of bricks. Overall, this work is novel and well written. This reviewer will recommend its acceptance in Sustainability after addressing the questions as follows:

1.      In the Figure 1, the authors should mark the (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) with the name of each process.

2.      Some figures should be combined into one figure, such as Figure 4, 5, 6 and 7, as well as Figure 8 and 9.

3.      Figure 10 can be moved into supporting information.

4.      Some tables also can be moved into supporting information.

5.      The Figure 4, 7 and 12 are missing error bar.

6.      In the references list, some reference has format error. Please check it carefully.

7.      When the authors prepare the laboratory bricks by using EMS, how about the annealing temperature affect the quality of bricks? 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Place the hypothesis in your work, remember that a hypothesis is a statement that poses a question and predicts what might happen. 

Author Response

please find attached the responses to the reviewer.  

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf