Utilization of municipal sewage sludge as additives for the production of eco-cement

Abstract

The effects of using dried sewage sludge as additive on cement property in the process of clinker burning were investigated in this paper. The eco-cement samples were prepared by adding 0.50–15.0% of dried sewage sludge to unit raw meal, and then the mixtures were burned at 1450°C for 2h. The results indicated that the major components in the eco-cement clinkers were similar to those in ordinary Portland cement. Although the C2S phase formation increased with the increase of sewage sludge content, it was also found that the microstructure of the mixture containing 15.0% sewage sludge in raw meal was significantly different and that a larger amount of pores were distributed in the clinker. Moreover, all the eco-cement pastes had a longer initial setting time and final setting time than those of plain cement paste, which increased as the sewage sludge content in the raw meal increased. All the eco-cement pastes had lower early flexural strengths, which increased as the sewage sludge content increased, while the compressive strengths decreased slightly. However, this had no significant effect on all the strengths at later stages. Furthermore, the leaching concentrations of all the types of eco-cement clinkers met the standard of Chinese current regulatory thresholds.