Evaluation of Mechanical and Environmental Properties of Engineered Alkali-Activated Green Mortar.

Iman Faridmehr,Ghasan Fahim Huseien,Mohammad Hajmohammadian Baghban

doi:10.3390/ma13184098

Abstract

Currently, alkali-activated binders using industrial wastes are considered an environmentally friendly alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC), which contributes to addressing the high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and enlarging embodied energy (EE). Concretes produced from industrial wastes have shown promising environmentally-friendly features with appropriate strength and durability. From this perspective, the compressive strength (CS), CO2 emissions, and EE of four industrial powder waste materials, including fly ash (FA), palm oil fly ash (POFA), waste ceramic powder (WCP), and granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS), were investigated as replacements for OPC. Forty-two engineered alkali-activated mix (AAM) designs with different percentages of the above-mentioned waste materials were experimentally investigated to evaluate the effect of each binder mass percentage on 28-day CS. Additionally, the effects of each industrial powder waste material on SiO2, CaO, and Al2O3 contents were investigated. The results confirm that adding FA to the samples caused a reduction of less than 26% in CS, whereas the replacement of GBFS by different levels of POFA significantly affected the compressive strength of specimens. The results also show that the AAM designs with a high volume FA provided the lowest EE and CO2 emission levels compared to other mix designs. Empirical equations were also proposed to estimate the CS, CO2 emissions, and EE of AAM designs according to their binder mass compositions.

Highlights

There is environmental concern worldwide regarding the production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), as it is widely employed as a concrete binder in construction industries
The results revealed that a reduction in the palm oil fly ash (POFA) content from 70% to 50% led to reducing the silicate content
The results indicated that the highest compressive strength wasinachieved thedesign

Summary

Introduction

There is environmental concern worldwide regarding the production of OPC, as it is widely employed as a concrete binder in construction industries. It is commonly accepted that the manufacturing of OPC causes serious pollution issues, including a considerable amount of CO2 emissions. It was estimated that around 10 billion metric tons of concrete are produced annually and that the majority of these products contain OPC [1]. Every tonne of OPC creates approximately one tonne of CO2 ; it was estimated that almost 7% of all the CO2 emissions produced globally are attributed to OPC production and its equivalent raw material extraction [2]. It was estimated that the manufacturing of OPC will quadruple over the three decades, which is expected to lead to extensive environmental, ecological, and economic degradation [3].

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Conclusion