Building materials based on manmade waste of the mining industry and solid fuel energy – An environmental trend of the modern time

Abstract

The building materials industry is one of the key sectors of the national economy due to its largecapacity and enduring demand. One of the main scientific directions of the outstanding Russian scientist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leonid Abramovich Vaisberg was the search for the ways and means of solving the problem connected with waste recycling. To obtain products for construction purposes, Academician L.A. Vaisberg considered it promising to manufacture a granular porous aggregate based on a dust-like fraction of igneous rocks – basalts, granites and syenites – as well as ash and slag waste (ASW) from solid fuel power plants. Coal generation occupies a significant share on the territory of the Russian Arctic zone, as a result of which the problem of integrated recycling of the resulting ash and slag waste is a very urgent environmental problem for the entire Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Ash and slag waste is 98–99% composed of free and chemically bound compounds of silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, etc. In terms of phase and mineralogical composition, ash and slag waste belong to multicomponent systems, including crystalline (grains of quartz, hematite, magnetite, etc.) and amorphous (glassy phase) components. Materials of this composition are suitable as raw materials for the production of constructing materials, including binders, aggregates, calcined and non-calcined materials for road construction, etc. A promising way of using ash and slag waste is their use in road construction in the Arctic zone in conditions of waterlogging and long periods with negative temperatures and the process of “swelling” of the roadbed. To prevent deformations of frost swelling, it is necessary to use various loosening materials, for example, crushed rock, sand, expanded clay gravel, as well as ash and slag waste from thermal power plants. In the conditions of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, the complex utilization of ash and slag waste from own thermal power plants for the needs of road construction will improve the environmental situation and ensure a new quality of roads.