Investigation on the potential application of MSWI bottom ash as substitute material in Portland cement concrete

Abstract

It has been reported that due to the rapid urbanization and economic growth the municipal solid waste (MSW) would double in volume from 1.3 billion tons per year (in 2012) annually by the end of 2025, challenging environmental and public health management worldwide. Given that, most of the MSW incineration (MSWI) bottom ash (BA) are disposed in landfill currently, and technically and economically viable techniques for the reuse and recycling of MSWI BA is still at a premium. This issue would seriously challenge the environmental and public health management worldwide.
In some European countries and the US, MSWI BA has been utilized as aggregate in pavement construction or as aggregate in concrete. Previous studies also proved the feasibility of using MSWI BA in concrete, either as aggregates or binder substitute materials. However, it is worth noticing that there are several significant drawbacks of using MSWI BA in concrete, including the potential risk of leaching due to the existence of heavy metals and harmful salts, the low reactivity due to high content of quartz and unburned organic matters, and the metallic aluminum-induced expansion.
Therefore, in this study, a characterization of as-received MSWI BA was conducted at the beginning to find out the potential problems when used in concrete, namely the metallic aluminum content, low reactivity and unburned organics. A comprehensive pretreatment was performed subsequently to solve the problems. Specifically, both physical and chemical treatments were carried out to get rid of the metallic aluminum in BA. Afterwards, thermal treatment was conducted to enhance the reactivity of BA and remove the unburned organics. Pre-treated BA samples were characterized again to reveal the effectiveness of pretreatment. The results showed that both chemical and physical treatment were highly effective in removing metallic aluminum. Meanwhile, thermal treatment was proved to be a proper activation method which also removed the remaining organic matters through the high-temperature process.
Subsequently, the investigations of the effects of pre-treated BA addition on compressive strength, reaction products and hydration heat development were conducted on cement paste level by varying the replacement material (BA with different treatment methods) and ratio. A proper method of pretreatment was proposed as well as an optimization of a maximum replacement level of BA in cement paste without detrimentally influence the performance of concrete paste was studied. Compared with nonreactive micronized sand (only works as filler) and pure cement, the addition of physically treated BA has a certain amount of contribution to the hydration process from the viewpoint of heat release. Results show that BA do have pozzolanic activity but is much lower than cement, and physically treated BA is suitable to be used as filler in concrete. Additionally, physically treated BA was further activated through thermal treatment according to the result of compressive strength test, which delivered the highest strength among all the treated BA under the same replacement ratio.
Finally, to extend the application of MSWI BA in concrete, the mix design was made by blending treated BA with the highest compressive strength into concrete and make it suitable for structural application. The effects of treated BA addition on the workability and compressive strength of concrete were investigated. The addition of treated BA brought slight negative impact both in workability and strength due to the existence of nonreactive phases in BA (quartz and organics).
Accordingly, this study proved the potential of BA with proper treatment to be used as a cement substitute material in concrete as well as promoted the understanding of the influence of BA on the hydration process, which also brings the possibility that BA could be widely reused in concrete system in future industry.